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This is a topic from the The Writing on the Walrus forum on inthe00s.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 01/31/10 at 3:35 am
I still have the past week to check up on.
Doing my bit right now!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 01/31/10 at 7:05 am
The word or phrase of the day...High Heels
High-heeled footwear (often abbreviated as high heels or simply heels) is footwear that raises the heel of the wearer's foot significantly higher ...
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/CHAKAL0SA_2008/qoates/Image3.png
http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad291/edina-margaret/IMG_0386.jpg
http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/ae269/angelsmom1207/KayLeigh%20Angel%20Warneka/2010_01170052.jpg
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l142/kittykat8925/thpumps.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj21/Sillyitsme02/highheelsandglasses.jpg
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p5/darlyndeville/heels.jpg
http://i610.photobucket.com/albums/tt190/lwy_alice/high_heels.jpg
http://i745.photobucket.com/albums/xx96/toddbaxtor/High_Heels.jpg
http://i768.photobucket.com/albums/xx327/dreamshadows11/Heels.gif
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 01/31/10 at 7:07 am
http://www.lbc.co.uk/mm/photos/2010/01/399/500x/5973.jpg
That's cute :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 01/31/10 at 7:10 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AbxQ2Q4HeU
Great song :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 01/31/10 at 7:12 am
The person born on this day...Minnie Driver
Minnie Driver (born 31 January 1970) is an English actress and singer-songwriter. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting.
efore receiving worldwide recognition, she appeared on British television with renowned comedians such as Steve Coogan and Armando Iannucci and had small parts in such shows as Casualty, The House of Eliott, Lovejoy and Peak Practice, among others. Driver first came to broad public attention when she played the lead role in Circle of Friends in 1995 and then with her Academy Award nominated performance in Good Will Hunting in 1997. In 2003 and 2004, she had a noted recurring role on Will & Grace as Lorraine Finster, the nemesis of Karen Walker (Megan Mullally) and daughter of Karen's lover, Lyle Finster (John Cleese). Driver has also worked on several animated features, including Disney's 1999 version of Tarzan and the 1999 dubbed-English version of the Japanese film Princess Mononoke in which she voices the fictional character Lady Eboshi.
On 12 March 2007, Driver made her return to television starring alongside Eddie Izzard on the FX Network show The Riches, a series about a family of Travellers living in an upscale gated community in the suburbs. She was nominated for the 2007 Emmy Award as Best Actress in a Dramatic Series.
On November 12, 2009, it was announced that Driver would guest-star in a January 2010 episode of Modern Family. She will play Claire's friend and former co-worker whom she hasn't seen in years. At the end of 2009, Driver began filming a part in the Tiger Aspect television serial The Deep, to be shown on BBC One in 2010.
Music career
Early in her career Driver was a member of a band called "Puff, Rocks and Brown"; the band was signed to a development deal with Island Records, which ended without a release.
She began a low-profile return to music in 2000; the following year, she signed with EMI and Rounder Records and performed at SXSW. Canadian music producer Colin Craig assisted in the eventual release of Everything I've Got in My Pocket, which reached No. 34 in the UK, and a second single, "Invisible Girl" peaking at No. 68. The album was backed by a group including members of the Wallflowers and Pete Yorn's band. Driver wrote 10 of the 11 songs on the album and also covered "Hungry Heart" from Bruce Springsteen's The River. In 2004, Driver was the support act for the Finn Brothers on the UK portion of their world tour.
In 2004, Driver played Carlotta Giudicelli in Joel Schumacher's film of The Phantom of the Opera. Because of the vocal requirements of the role, Driver was the sole cast member to have her voice dubbed. However, she did lend her own voice to Learn to be Lonely, a song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber specifically for the film version of his musical (it plays over the closing credits of the movie). Driver released her second album entitled Seastories on 17 July 2007. The 12-track set is produced by Marc "Doc" Dauer, who also produced Everything I've Got in My Pocket. Ryan Adams and Liz Phair are among the list of collaborators for the album.
Personal life
On 13 March 2008, during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, she announced that she was expecting her first child in August. On 5 September 2008, she gave birth to a boy named Henry Story Driver. The father's identity remains private.
Filmography
Features
Film
Year Film Role Notes
1995 Circle of Friends Bernadette 'Benny' Hogan
GoldenEye Irina
1996 Big Night Phyllis
Sleepers Carol Martinez
1997 Grosse Pointe Blank Debi Newberry
Mononoke-hime Lady Eboshi
Good Will Hunting Skylar
1998 Hard Rain Karen
The Governess Rosina da Silva
At Sachem Farm Kendal
1999 An Ideal Husband Miss Mabel Chiltern
Tarzan Jane Porter
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut Brooke Shields
2000 Return to Me Grace Briggs
Beautiful Mona Higgard
Slow Burn Trina McTeague
2001 High Heels and Low Lifes Shannon
2003 Owning Mahowny Belinda
Hope Springs Vera Edwards
2004 Ella Enchanted Mandy
The Phantom of the Opera Carlotta
2006 The Virgin of Juarez Karina Danes
Delirious
2007 Ripple Effect Kitty
Take Ana
2009 Motherhood Sheila
Betty Anne Waters Abra
2010 Barney's Version Mrs. P
Television
* Mr. Wroe's Virgins (1993)
* The Day Today (1994)
* Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge (episode 2, 1994)
* The Politician's Wife (1995)
* The X Files (2000)
* Will & Grace (2003)
* Freedom2speak v2.0 (2004) (documentary)
* The Kumars at No. 42
* The Riches (2007–2008) (television series)
Short Subjects
* The Zebra Man (1992)
* Baggage (1997)
* The Upgrade (2000)
* D.C. Smalls (2001)
* Film Trix 2004 (2004)
* Portrait (2004)
Other
* Minnie played herself in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous, a British sitcom.
* Minnie provides the voice of adventurer Lara Croft in Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider Animated Series.
* Minnie provided the voice of Anne in the videogame Jurassic Park: Trespasser.
* She played Lilith in the early series of the popular British children's game show, Knightmare.
* She was given a cut scene in Family Guy's "Saving Private Brian" as having a big head, and the director had difficulty fitting it on stage.
Discography
Albums
Year Album US Heat Label
2004 Everything I've Got in My Pocket 43 Zoë
2007 Seastories 25
Singles
Year Single Album
2004 "Invisible Girl" Everything I've Got in My Pocket
2005 "Everything I've Got in My Pocket"
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/krazychild/Minnie%20Driver/minni.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg32/sharkypuffs/minnie-driver.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n204/iheartcher/Minnie%20Driver/0000038285_20070307180611.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n204/iheartcher/Minnie%20Driver/l_13527f4179d6b26d8bcff1264617f46c.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 01/31/10 at 7:13 am
The word or phrase of the day...High Heels
High-heeled footwear (often abbreviated as high heels or simply heels) is footwear that raises the heel of the wearer's foot significantly higher ...
http://i745.photobucket.com/albums/xx96/toddbaxtor/High_Heels.jpg
That looks painful!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 01/31/10 at 7:15 am
The person born on this day...Minnie Driver
Minnie Driver (born 31 January 1970) is an English actress and singer-songwriter. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting.
efore receiving worldwide recognition, she appeared on British television with renowned comedians such as Steve Coogan and Armando Iannucci and had small parts in such shows as Casualty, The House of Eliott, Lovejoy and Peak Practice, among others. Driver first came to broad public attention when she played the lead role in Circle of Friends in 1995 and then with her Academy Award nominated performance in Good Will Hunting in 1997. In 2003 and 2004, she had a noted recurring role on Will & Grace as Lorraine Finster, the nemesis of Karen Walker (Megan Mullally) and daughter of Karen's lover, Lyle Finster (John Cleese). Driver has also worked on several animated features, including Disney's 1999 version of Tarzan and the 1999 dubbed-English version of the Japanese film Princess Mononoke in which she voices the fictional character Lady Eboshi.
On 12 March 2007, Driver made her return to television starring alongside Eddie Izzard on the FX Network show The Riches, a series about a family of Travellers living in an upscale gated community in the suburbs. She was nominated for the 2007 Emmy Award as Best Actress in a Dramatic Series.
On November 12, 2009, it was announced that Driver would guest-star in a January 2010 episode of Modern Family. She will play Claire's friend and former co-worker whom she hasn't seen in years. At the end of 2009, Driver began filming a part in the Tiger Aspect television serial The Deep, to be shown on BBC One in 2010.
Music career
Early in her career Driver was a member of a band called "Puff, Rocks and Brown"; the band was signed to a development deal with Island Records, which ended without a release.
She began a low-profile return to music in 2000; the following year, she signed with EMI and Rounder Records and performed at SXSW. Canadian music producer Colin Craig assisted in the eventual release of Everything I've Got in My Pocket, which reached No. 34 in the UK, and a second single, "Invisible Girl" peaking at No. 68. The album was backed by a group including members of the Wallflowers and Pete Yorn's band. Driver wrote 10 of the 11 songs on the album and also covered "Hungry Heart" from Bruce Springsteen's The River. In 2004, Driver was the support act for the Finn Brothers on the UK portion of their world tour.
In 2004, Driver played Carlotta Giudicelli in Joel Schumacher's film of The Phantom of the Opera. Because of the vocal requirements of the role, Driver was the sole cast member to have her voice dubbed. However, she did lend her own voice to Learn to be Lonely, a song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber specifically for the film version of his musical (it plays over the closing credits of the movie). Driver released her second album entitled Seastories on 17 July 2007. The 12-track set is produced by Marc "Doc" Dauer, who also produced Everything I've Got in My Pocket. Ryan Adams and Liz Phair are among the list of collaborators for the album.
Personal life
On 13 March 2008, during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, she announced that she was expecting her first child in August. On 5 September 2008, she gave birth to a boy named Henry Story Driver. The father's identity remains private.
Filmography
Features
Film
Year Film Role Notes
1995 Circle of Friends Bernadette 'Benny' Hogan
GoldenEye Irina
1996 Big Night Phyllis
Sleepers Carol Martinez
1997 Grosse Pointe Blank Debi Newberry
Mononoke-hime Lady Eboshi
Good Will Hunting Skylar
1998 Hard Rain Karen
The Governess Rosina da Silva
At Sachem Farm Kendal
1999 An Ideal Husband Miss Mabel Chiltern
Tarzan Jane Porter
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut Brooke Shields
2000 Return to Me Grace Briggs
Beautiful Mona Higgard
Slow Burn Trina McTeague
2001 High Heels and Low Lifes Shannon
2003 Owning Mahowny Belinda
Hope Springs Vera Edwards
2004 Ella Enchanted Mandy
The Phantom of the Opera Carlotta
2006 The Virgin of Juarez Karina Danes
Delirious
2007 Ripple Effect Kitty
Take Ana
2009 Motherhood Sheila
Betty Anne Waters Abra
2010 Barney's Version Mrs. P
Television
* Mr. Wroe's Virgins (1993)
* The Day Today (1994)
* Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge (episode 2, 1994)
* The Politician's Wife (1995)
* The X Files (2000)
* Will & Grace (2003)
* Freedom2speak v2.0 (2004) (documentary)
* The Kumars at No. 42
* The Riches (2007–2008) (television series)
Short Subjects
* The Zebra Man (1992)
* Baggage (1997)
* The Upgrade (2000)
* D.C. Smalls (2001)
* Film Trix 2004 (2004)
* Portrait (2004)
Other
* Minnie played herself in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous, a British sitcom.
* Minnie provides the voice of adventurer Lara Croft in Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider Animated Series.
* Minnie provided the voice of Anne in the videogame Jurassic Park: Trespasser.
* She played Lilith in the early series of the popular British children's game show, Knightmare.
* She was given a cut scene in Family Guy's "Saving Private Brian" as having a big head, and the director had difficulty fitting it on stage.
Discography
Albums
Year Album US Heat Label
2004 Everything I've Got in My Pocket 43 Zoë
2007 Seastories 25
Singles
Year Single Album
2004 "Invisible Girl" Everything I've Got in My Pocket
2005 "Everything I've Got in My Pocket"
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/krazychild/Minnie%20Driver/minni.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg32/sharkypuffs/minnie-driver.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n204/iheartcher/Minnie%20Driver/0000038285_20070307180611.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n204/iheartcher/Minnie%20Driver/l_13527f4179d6b26d8bcff1264617f46c.jpg
I was going to do Minnie Driver for she was born in England, and decided not to for I just felt she will be one of your choices for today.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 01/31/10 at 7:18 am
The person who died on this day...Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (17 August 1879 – 31 January 1974) was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.
elbfisz became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1902. At the time, the fledgling film industry was expanding rapidly and in his spare time, an enraptured Gelbfisz went to see as many movies as possible. Before long, he went into the business with Vaudeville performer Jesse L. Lasky, his brother-in-law at the time, and Adolph Zukor, a theater owner. Together, the three produced their first film, using an ambitious young director named Cecil B. DeMille. Disputes arose between the partners and Gelbfisz left after a few years but their company evolved to later become Paramount Pictures. Shortly before this, he also divorced his first wife, Blanche (née Lasky), with whom he had a daughter, Ruth Anne.
Goldwyn Pictures
In 1916 he partnered with Broadway producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, using a combination of both names to call their movie-making enterprise the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. Seeing an opportunity, Samuel Gelbfisz then had his name legally changed to Samuel Goldwyn, which he used for the rest of his life. The Goldwyn Company proved moderately successful but it is their "Leo the Lion" trademark for which the organization is most famous. Eventually the company was acquired by Marcus Loew and his Metro Pictures Corporation but by then Samuel Goldwyn had already been forced out by his partners and was never a part of the new studio that became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Goldwyn was married to Blanche Lasky, a sister of one of his partners Jesse, from 1910 to 1915. In 1925, he married actress Frances Howard to whom he remained married for the rest of his life. Their son, Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., would eventually join his father in the business.
Samuel Goldwyn Studio
From the trailer for The Hurricane (1937)
Main article: Samuel Goldwyn Studio
After his departure from Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, he established Samuel Goldwyn Inc., eventually opening Samuel Goldwyn Studio on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. For 35 years, Goldwyn built a reputation in filmmaking and an eye for finding the talent for making films, although, contrary to some erroneous claims, he did not discover actor Gary Cooper. He used director William Wyler for many of his productions and hired writers such as Ben Hecht, Sidney Howard, Dorothy Parker, and Lillian Hellman. (According to legend, at a heated story conference Goldwyn scolded someone--in most accounts Mrs. Parker--who recalled he had once been a glove maker and retorted: "Don't you point that finger at me. I knew it when it had a thimble on it!" Another time, when he demanded a script that ended on a happy note, she said: "I know this will come as a shock to you, Mr. Goldwyn, but in all history, which has held billions and billions of human beings, not a single one ever had a happy ending.")
For more than three decades, Goldwyn made numerous successful films and received Best Picture Oscar nominations for Arrowsmith (1931), Dodsworth (1936), Dead End (1937), Wuthering Heights (1939), and The Little Foxes (1941). The leading actors in several of Goldwyn films were also Oscar-nominated for their performances.
Throughout the 1930s, Goldwyn released all his films through United Artists, but beginning in 1941, and continuing almost through the end of his career, Goldwyn released his films through RKO Radio Pictures.
Oscar
See also: Academy Awards
In 1946, the year he was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, Goldwyn's drama The Best Years of Our Lives, starring Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Teresa Wright and Dana Andrews, won the Academy Award for Best Picture. In the 1950s Samuel Goldwyn turned to making a number of musicals including the 1955 hit Guys and Dolls starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, and Vivian Blaine. This was the only independent film that Goldwyn ever released through MGM. (Goldwyn had previously made several musicals starring Eddie Cantor and Danny Kaye, as well as 1938's The Goldwyn Follies.) Two years later, in 1957, he was awarded The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes.
In his final film, made in 1959, Samuel Goldwyn brought together African-American actors Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Pearl Bailey in a film rendition of the George Gershwin opera, Porgy and Bess. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film was nominated for three Oscars, but won only one. It was also a critical and financial failure, and the Gershwin family reportedly disliked the film and eventually pulled it from distribution. The reception of the film was a huge disappointment to Goldwyn.
On March 27, 1971, Goldwyn was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon.
Death
Samuel Goldwyn died at his home in Los Angeles in 1974 from natural causes, at the probable age of 94. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. In the 1980s, Samuel Goldwyn Studio was sold to Warner Bros.. There is a theater named for him in Beverly Hills and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1631 Vine Street.
Grandchildren
Samuel Goldwyn's grandsons include Francis Goldwyn, founder of the Manhattan Toy Company and Managing Member of Quorum Associates LLC, actor Tony Goldwyn and film producer John Goldwyn. His granddaughter, Catherine Goldwyn, created Sound Art, a non-profit organization that teaches popular music all over Los Angeles. His other granddaughter, Liz Goldwyn, has a film on HBO called Pretty Things, featuring interviews with queens from the heyday of burlesque. Her book, an extension of the documentary titled, Pretty Things: The Last Generation of American Burlesque Queens, was published in October 2006 by HarperCollins.
The Samuel Goldwyn Foundation
Samuel Goldwyn's will created a multi-million dollar charitable foundation in his name. Among other endeavors, the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation funds the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards, provided construction funds for the Frances Howard Goldwyn Hollywood Regional Library, and provides ongoing funding for the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Main article: The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Several years after the Sr. Goldwyn's death, his son, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., initiated an independent film and television distribution company dedicated to preserving the integrity of Goldwyn's ambitions and work. The rights to the classic Goldwyn library (among other pre-1996 Goldwyn company holdings) are now held by MGM.
Goldwynisms
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Samuel Goldwyn was also known for malapropisms, paradoxes, and other speech errors called 'Goldwynisms' ("A humorous statement or phrase resulting from the use of incongruous or contradictory words, situations, idioms, etc.") being frequently quoted, such as:
* “A bachelor’s life is no life for a single man.”
* “A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”
* “Anyone who would go to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined!”
* “Can she sing? She’s practically a Florence Nightingale.”
* “Color television! Bah, I won’t believe it until I see it in black and white.”
* “Don’t worry about the war. It’s all over but the shooting.”
* “Every director bites the hand that lays the golden egg.”
* “Flashbacks are a thing of the past.”
* “For your information, just answer me one question!”
* “Gentlemen, include me out.”
* “Gentlemen, listen to me slowly.”
* “Give me a couple of years, and I’ll make that actress an overnight success.”
* “God makes stars. I just produce them.”
* “He treats me like the dirt under my feet.”
* “I don’t care if it doesn’t make a nickel. I just want every man, woman, and child in America to see it.”
* “I don’t think anyone should write his autobiography until after he’s dead.”
* “I had a great idea this morning, but I didn’t like it.”
* “I paid too much for it, but it’s worth it.”
* “I read part of it all the way through.”
* “If I look confused it’s because I’m thinking.”
* “In two words: im-possible.”
* “I’m willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong.”
* “Keep a stiff upper chin.”
* “Let’s have some new clichés.”
* “Modern dancing is old fashioned.”
* “Our comedies are not to be laughed at.”
* “Pictures are for entertainment, messages should be delivered by Western Union.”
* “Tell them to stand closer apart.”
* “That’s our strongest weak point.”
* “That’s the kind of ad I like, facts, facts, facts.”
* “The next time I send a damn fool for something, I go myself.”
* “There is a statue of limitation.”
* “They stayed away in droves.”
* “We have that Indian scene. We can get the Indians from the reservoir.”
* “Why did you name him Sam? Every Tom, Dick and Harry is named Sam!”
* “Why should people go out and pay to see bad movies when they can stay home and see bad television for nothing.”
* “You fail to overlook the crucial point.”
* “You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.”
* “How come you did what I told you to do, when you know I don't know what I'm talking about."
* "I don't want to be surrounded by 'yes men'. I want people who'll disagree with me, even if it costs them their jobs."
* On the death of Louis B. Mayer: "The reason so many people turned up at his funeral is that they wanted to make sure he was dead."
* "I want to go where the hand of man has never set foot."
* "The A-bomb is dynamite."
* "Destroy the old files, but make copies first."
* Upon being told that a book he had purchased for filming, The Well of Loneliness, couldn't be filmed because it was about lesbians, he replied: "That's all right, we'll make them Hungarians."
* Upon being told that a dictionary had included the word "Goldwynism" as synonym for malapropism, he raged: "Goldwynisms! They should talk to Jesse Lasky!"
Having many writers in his employ, Goldwyn may not have come up with all of these on his own. In fact Charlie Chaplin took credit for penning the 'im-possible' line on him; and the "damn fool...I go myself" quote has also been attributed to Michael Curtiz.
These led to the reference in the Cole Porter song Anything Goes:
" When Sam Goldwyn can with great conviction
instruct Anna Sten in diction,
then Anna shows,
Anything goes!"
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p70/spssds/united-artists_jolson-fairbanks-pic.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p70/spssds/samuel-goldwyn_1920s.jpg
http://i836.photobucket.com/albums/zz284/kenya_9/fasl04_sammydavis_slideshow.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 01/31/10 at 7:19 am
That looks painful!
Yikes! I know..it's sneakers or flats for me.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 01/31/10 at 7:20 am
I was going to do Minnie Driver for she was born in England, and decided not to for I just felt she will be one of your choices for today.
Thanks,I made sure I looked first, because I thought you may pick her. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 01/31/10 at 8:02 am
The person born on this day...Minnie Driver
Minnie Driver (born 31 January 1970) is an English actress and singer-songwriter. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting.
efore receiving worldwide recognition, she appeared on British television with renowned comedians such as Steve Coogan and Armando Iannucci and had small parts in such shows as Casualty, The House of Eliott, Lovejoy and Peak Practice, among others. Driver first came to broad public attention when she played the lead role in Circle of Friends in 1995 and then with her Academy Award nominated performance in Good Will Hunting in 1997. In 2003 and 2004, she had a noted recurring role on Will & Grace as Lorraine Finster, the nemesis of Karen Walker (Megan Mullally) and daughter of Karen's lover, Lyle Finster (John Cleese). Driver has also worked on several animated features, including Disney's 1999 version of Tarzan and the 1999 dubbed-English version of the Japanese film Princess Mononoke in which she voices the fictional character Lady Eboshi.
On 12 March 2007, Driver made her return to television starring alongside Eddie Izzard on the FX Network show The Riches, a series about a family of Travellers living in an upscale gated community in the suburbs. She was nominated for the 2007 Emmy Award as Best Actress in a Dramatic Series.
On November 12, 2009, it was announced that Driver would guest-star in a January 2010 episode of Modern Family. She will play Claire's friend and former co-worker whom she hasn't seen in years. At the end of 2009, Driver began filming a part in the Tiger Aspect television serial The Deep, to be shown on BBC One in 2010.
Music career
Early in her career Driver was a member of a band called "Puff, Rocks and Brown"; the band was signed to a development deal with Island Records, which ended without a release.
She began a low-profile return to music in 2000; the following year, she signed with EMI and Rounder Records and performed at SXSW. Canadian music producer Colin Craig assisted in the eventual release of Everything I've Got in My Pocket, which reached No. 34 in the UK, and a second single, "Invisible Girl" peaking at No. 68. The album was backed by a group including members of the Wallflowers and Pete Yorn's band. Driver wrote 10 of the 11 songs on the album and also covered "Hungry Heart" from Bruce Springsteen's The River. In 2004, Driver was the support act for the Finn Brothers on the UK portion of their world tour.
In 2004, Driver played Carlotta Giudicelli in Joel Schumacher's film of The Phantom of the Opera. Because of the vocal requirements of the role, Driver was the sole cast member to have her voice dubbed. However, she did lend her own voice to Learn to be Lonely, a song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber specifically for the film version of his musical (it plays over the closing credits of the movie). Driver released her second album entitled Seastories on 17 July 2007. The 12-track set is produced by Marc "Doc" Dauer, who also produced Everything I've Got in My Pocket. Ryan Adams and Liz Phair are among the list of collaborators for the album.
Personal life
On 13 March 2008, during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, she announced that she was expecting her first child in August. On 5 September 2008, she gave birth to a boy named Henry Story Driver. The father's identity remains private.
Filmography
Features
Film
Year Film Role Notes
1995 Circle of Friends Bernadette 'Benny' Hogan
GoldenEye Irina
1996 Big Night Phyllis
Sleepers Carol Martinez
1997 Grosse Pointe Blank Debi Newberry
Mononoke-hime Lady Eboshi
Good Will Hunting Skylar
1998 Hard Rain Karen
The Governess Rosina da Silva
At Sachem Farm Kendal
1999 An Ideal Husband Miss Mabel Chiltern
Tarzan Jane Porter
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut Brooke Shields
2000 Return to Me Grace Briggs
Beautiful Mona Higgard
Slow Burn Trina McTeague
2001 High Heels and Low Lifes Shannon
2003 Owning Mahowny Belinda
Hope Springs Vera Edwards
2004 Ella Enchanted Mandy
The Phantom of the Opera Carlotta
2006 The Virgin of Juarez Karina Danes
Delirious
2007 Ripple Effect Kitty
Take Ana
2009 Motherhood Sheila
Betty Anne Waters Abra
2010 Barney's Version Mrs. P
Television
* Mr. Wroe's Virgins (1993)
* The Day Today (1994)
* Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge (episode 2, 1994)
* The Politician's Wife (1995)
* The X Files (2000)
* Will & Grace (2003)
* Freedom2speak v2.0 (2004) (documentary)
* The Kumars at No. 42
* The Riches (2007–2008) (television series)
Short Subjects
* The Zebra Man (1992)
* Baggage (1997)
* The Upgrade (2000)
* D.C. Smalls (2001)
* Film Trix 2004 (2004)
* Portrait (2004)
Other
* Minnie played herself in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous, a British sitcom.
* Minnie provides the voice of adventurer Lara Croft in Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider Animated Series.
* Minnie provided the voice of Anne in the videogame Jurassic Park: Trespasser.
* She played Lilith in the early series of the popular British children's game show, Knightmare.
* She was given a cut scene in Family Guy's "Saving Private Brian" as having a big head, and the director had difficulty fitting it on stage.
Discography
Albums
Year Album US Heat Label
2004 Everything I've Got in My Pocket 43 Zoë
2007 Seastories 25
Singles
Year Single Album
2004 "Invisible Girl" Everything I've Got in My Pocket
2005 "Everything I've Got in My Pocket"
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/krazychild/Minnie%20Driver/minni.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg32/sharkypuffs/minnie-driver.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n204/iheartcher/Minnie%20Driver/0000038285_20070307180611.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n204/iheartcher/Minnie%20Driver/l_13527f4179d6b26d8bcff1264617f46c.jpg
I remember she was on an episode of Will And Grace.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Womble on 01/31/10 at 8:12 am
Interesting bio on Minnie Driver, Ninny. Thanks for sharing. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 01/31/10 at 9:03 am
That looks painful!
Yeah, it does.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 01/31/10 at 10:03 am
Interesting bio on Minnie Driver, Ninny. Thanks for sharing. :)
I'm glad you liked it. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 01/31/10 at 1:48 pm
Yeah, it does.
Cat
An experience I will never know!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 01/31/10 at 2:59 pm
An experience I will never know!
I wouldn't want to know.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/01/10 at 6:35 am
The word of the day...Twin(s)
If two people are twins, they have the same mother and were born on the same day.
Twin is used to describe a pair of things that look the same and are close together.
Twin is used to describe two things or ideas that are similar or connected in some way.
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r3/djay_018/6.jpg
http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz273/Shanna1024/DSC05263.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e393/debtony74/sunset/SunsetJumpHonduras.jpg
http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad184/greenhotelnhatrang/SuperiorTwin.jpg
http://i985.photobucket.com/albums/ae332/kENGhLUBsHENGy/myothertwin.jpg
http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/ladiimizzy19/003-2.jpg
http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy63/Pockets41/Babies/Delivery063.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/twinsetmad/twinsetforsale010.jpg
http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab232/sportsmaps/MLB/twins-trans.gif
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/01/10 at 6:37 am
How about The film Twins?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/01/10 at 6:40 am
The person born on this day...Sherilyn Fenn
Sherilyn Fenn (born February 1, 1965) is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-nominated American actress. She came to international attention for her performance on the 1990 cult TV series Twin Peaks. She is also known for her roles in Of Mice and Men, Ruby, Boxing Helena and Rude Awakening, and for portraying actress Elizabeth Taylor in Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story. Fenn won her most famous role and made an impression on the public when she was cast by David Lynch and Mark Frost as the tantalizing, reckless Audrey Horne, a high school femme fatale, in the critically acclaimed TV series Twin Peaks. The series ran from 1990 to 1991, and the character of Audrey was one of the most popular with fans, in particular for her unrequited love for FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachlan) and her style from the '50s (with her saddle shoes, plaid skirts, and tight sweaters). Fenn reached cult status with a scene in which she danced to Angelo Badalamenti's music and a scene in which she knotted a cherry stem in her mouth. "With Sherilyn Fenn, Twin Peaks came on and effortlessly destroyed every other show’s sexuality", said co-star James Marshall. "Audrey is a woman-child who dresses like the girls in the '50s and shows her body", said Fenn. "But she's daddy's little girl at the same time." In the show's second season, when the idea of pairing Audrey with Cooper was abandoned, Audrey was paired with other characters like Bobby Briggs (played by Dana Ashbrook) and John Justice Wheeler (Billy Zane). About Audrey, Fenn said:
“ Audrey’s been great for me. She has brought out a side of me that’s more mischievous and fun that I had suppressed, trying to be an adult. She has made it OK to use the power one has as a woman to be manipulative at times, to be precocious. She goes after what she wants vehemently and she takes it. I think that’s really admirable. I love that about her. ”
Shortly after shooting the Twin Peaks' pilot episode, David Lynch gave her a small part in Wild at Heart, as a girl injured in a car wreck, obsessed by the contents of her purse, opposite Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern. The film won the Golden Palm Award at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. "David’s direction was, ‘Only think of this: bobby pins, lipstick, wallet, comb, that’s it.’ It’s very abstract." "I just pictured her being able to do this", said Lynch of her scene, "she’s like a broken China doll." David Lynch, who once described Sherilyn Fenn as "five feet of heaven in a ponytail" (quoting from a 1958 record by The Playmates), and said that she makes him think of a porcelain doll, said about her:
“ She's a mysterious girl and I think that actresses like her who have a mystery - where there's something hiding beneath the surface - are the really interesting ones. ”
"He's very creative and unafraid of taking chances," she said of the director. "I really respect him. He's wonderful."
She soon portrayed John Dillinger's girlfriend Billie Frechette in ABC's 1991 gangster TV movie Dillinger opposite Mark Harmon, and shot the neo-noir black comedy Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel in which she played a sultry, seductive femme fatale, opposite Whip Hubley and David Hewlett. After Twin Peaks, Fenn chose to focus on widening her range of roles and was determined to avoid typecasting. "They’ve offered me every variation on Audrey Horne, none of which were as good or as much fun." She turned down the Audrey Horne spin-off series that was offered to her, and unlike most of the cast, chose not to return for the 1992 prequel movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, as she was then shooting Of Mice and Men.
Post-Peaks roles (1992–1995)
Sherilyn Fenn as Sheryl Ann DuJean in Ruby
After two nominations (Emmy and Golden Globe) for Twin Peaks, and a pictorial in Playboy magazine (for which she chose her then boyfriend, Barry Hollywood, to photograph her), Fenn was propelled to stardom and became a major sex symbol, with her Old Hollywood looks. In October 1990, while promoting Twin Peaks, Fenn made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine along with Mädchen Amick and Lara Flynn Boyle. In 1990 Us Magazine chose her as one of the "10 Most Beautiful Women in the World" and in 1991 People magazine chose her as one of the "50 Most Beautiful Women in the World". She posed for photographer Steven Meisel for the autumn-winter 1991-1992 Dolce & Gabbana campaign, for which he photographed her as a classical Hollywood femme fatale. In 1992 photographer George Hurrell took a series of photographs of Sherilyn Fenn, Sharon Stone, Julian Sands, Raquel Welch, Eric Roberts and Sean Penn. In these portraits he recreated his style of the 1930s, with Fenn posing in costumes, hairstyle and makeup of the period.
In 1991, veteran Hollywood acting coach Roy London chose her to star in his directorial debut Diary of a Hitman (nominated for the Critics Award at the 1991 Deauville Film Festival), in which she plays a young mother determined to protect her child from hit-man Forest Whitaker. According to Fenn, the turning point in her career was when she met London in 1990. She credits him with instilling confidence and newfound enthusiasm.
“ I was disillusioned with acting after the pilot of Twin Peaks. I'd been doing low-budget films. I didn't want to walk through movies being a pretty ornament. At 25 I didn't know if I had it. I questioned if there was depth, if there was integrity to me. I was longing to go inside, to do deeper work. ”
She learned from her beloved teacher "to find the roles that you're passionate about, that speak to you on some level and which will help you grow on some level," which has then become her line of conduct. "A lot of the sentiment that acting should be about an art form rather than mass entertainment and celebrity is at the core of Fenn’s attitude to the business," wrote Jessica Sully in Australian magazine Movie. "I try to keep myself centered," Fenn said. "I don't go to parties and all that. I don't think being seen or being in the right place is going to make me a better actress. I care about my work and try to do what's right in my heart." As Mike Bygrave wrote in Sky Magazine: "One of the keys to understanding Fenn is that when she talks about the characters she plays she's really talking about herself."Fenn was eager to play varied parts that could eclipse her sex-symbol image. "People who think they know me would be surprised that my whole life doesn't revolve around sex," she said. After Twin Peaks, Fenn demanded a no-nudity clause in her contracts. She turned to the independent world, to manage to carve out a career on her own terms as a versatile actress. She worked intensely, choosing varied and unusual roles:
“ The world has certain rules - Hollywood has certain rules - but it doesn't mean you have to play by them, and I don't, or I'd be a miserable person. ”
Sherilyn Fenn as Curley's wife in Of Mice and Men
A highlight of Fenn's film career is Gary Sinise's film adaptation of Of Mice and Men (nominated for the Golden Palm at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival) in which she played a sad and lonely country wife, desperately in need to talk to somebody, opposite Sinise and John Malkovich. "Sherilyn’s one of the reasons we got such a great ovation at Cannes", said Sinise. "She’s like a terribly sad angel in this film. Sherilyn plays against just being a sexy and beautiful girl," he added. "Hopefully her performance in my film will show her deep talent because she certainly showed the right mix of innocence and seductiveness for the role. We needed a fresh face but also one who knew what she was doing." "Gary Sinise was one of the first people who didn’t see me like a lot of other people did," she said. "It was a wonderful experience. Horton Foote adapted the novel and he fleshed out my character, and he made her much, much more." The same year saw her starring alongside Danny Aiello, Arliss Howard and Marc Lawrence in John Mackenzie's Ruby, that attempts to unravel the mystery of who killed John F. Kennedy and why, and depicts the events that led Jack Ruby to shoot Lee Harvey Oswald. Fenn plays the part of ambitious stripper Sheryl Ann DuJean, a fictitious character who is a composite of several real-life women including stripper Candy Barr, Marilyn Monroe and Judith Campbell Exner. "She’s got a brain and all the right emotional instincts, and that’s a great combination," said Mackenzie of Fenn.
In 1993 she starred in the romantic comedy Three of Hearts as Kelly Lynch and William Baldwin's love interest. During the shooting the relations between Fenn and director Yurek Bogayevicz became more and more strained as she refused to appear nude in the film. Fenn was also considered for the title role in Roger Vadim's remake of his 1968 film Barbarella that ultimately didn't come off.
Her most notable film role to date was in the controversial Boxing Helena (nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival), directed by David Lynch's daughter Jennifer Chambers Lynch. Fenn portrayed a narcissistic seductress amputated and imprisoned by Julian Sands, who makes her become his personal Venus de Milo in an effort to possess her. Helena was a way for Fenn to avoid being type-cast, with a radically different role from what she’d done in the past:
“ I like taking risks and I decided to put every bit of me into the role. ”
"Women do feel like they're in a box," she says of the subtext that attracted her to the role. "Society, Hollywood, some men... they want to wrap women up in a neat little package." Both Lynch and Fenn were proud of their work in it but the film - which was overshadowed by the lawsuits against Kim Basinger after she dropped out - ultimately was a critical and commercial failure. However, both women enjoyed their collaboration. "Sherilyn is an amazing actress, a total bundle of energy and a real powerhouse and I think people will see a side of her that we have never seen of Sherilyn anywhere else before," said Lynch of the actress. "I have with Sherilyn something I didn't think I'd ever find and that is the entire whole." "Jennifer’s one of the brightest person I know," said Fenn. "Boxing Helena was something that I think was pretty cool, but people judged it without even having seen it. It’s not perfect, but I think for the story that we were trying to tell, it turned out pretty good. What it signified was really powerful to me: how society puts us in boxes one way or another."
Sherilyn Fenn as the limbless Helena in Boxing Helena
She then starred in Carl Reiner's neo-noir parody Fatal Instinct as Armand Assante's devoted secretary and Sean Young and Kate Nelligan’s rival. She was asked to read for the femme fatale Lola (eventually played by Young), but opted for Assante's lovesick secretary.
Fenn afterward portrayed Potiphar's wife Zulaikha in Showtime's Biblical TV movie Slave of Dreams (released in 1995) opposite Adrian Pasdar and Edward James Olmos. The film was directed by multi-award winning Robert M. Young and produced by Martha and Dino De Laurentiis.
In 1995, she starred in an episode of Tales from the Crypt directed by Robert Zemeckis, alongside Isabella Rossellini and John Lithgow, in which she played the lover of Humphrey Bogart, who appeared in the episode via CGI special effects. "It was wonderful working with Bob Zemeckis and Isabella, and everybody was really nice."
After a short break during which she married and gave birth to a son, Fenn was chosen among more than 100 actresses to portray legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor in NBC's 1995 telemovie Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story.
“ Playing Elizabeth Taylor was probably the hardest job I’ve ever done. ”
"Director Kevin Connor and I arranged a lunch, not an audition," said executive producer Lester Persky. "We knew 10 minutes into our meeting that Sherilyn was it. She has the same striking beauty, and because of that she's experienced some of the things in life and in this business that make Elizabeth such a fascinating person." When she accepted the part, Fenn was unaware that Taylor was suing to stop both broadcast of the film and the unauthorized biography that it is based on. But that didn't let her distract from her work. "I am somebody who doesn't make choices lightly at this point of my life. I'm not somebody who wants to exploit another's woman story or life in any way." Some parallels with her life made it important for Fenn to do the biography. Like Taylor, Fenn's mother married several times. "It's remarkable, to be married so many times. How do you say 'I do' yet again and again and mean it? Maybe she lives her life in the moment, and ferociously believe in love. My mother getting married over and over definitely had an effect on me." Also, Fenn and Taylor both encountered similar experiences in the film business. "There are stereotypes of what a beautiful woman is. She struggled with that. A certain part of her life she went on that calling card. I certainly know I've come into contact with that. ‘You are too pretty,’ I'm told." During the shooting, Fenn fought to keep integrity in the script. Her priority was to respectfully and accurately portray Taylor, and she supported the original screenwriter's effort to concentrate on Taylor the person, not the legend.
“ I fought to keep the integrity of the story because the producer was bringing in a writer that was making it very soapy. They wanted many scenes of her when she was very overweight. I said, ‘I'm not doing that. I'll do one. That's not this woman's life.’ For me it was just: I didn't want to make an impression. I just tried to play the truth of the woman. Not the legend, not the stories that we hear about her. Because even when she was a child, you were seeing a version of her that was manipulated by the studios, so you didn't really see her. I thought the closest she ever came to revealing herself was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and she lost herself in that role. It was cathartic for her to do that in a lot of ways, to let herself be that wild.
Following Rude Awakening, Fenn's work consisted of a lot of episodic TV work. In the middle of the 2000s, she failed to find a role that could re-ignite her career as she got involved into many projects, that went unrealized.
In 2001, she starred in the episode Replica of The Outer Limits, playing a scientist who volunteered to be cloned. She also starred in an episode of Night Visions, as a woman who buys a used car possessed by a vengeful spirit. She was cast as a kindergarten teacher for the pilot of the 2001 American version of the British TV show Blind Men, alongside French Stewart. However, the pilot was not ordered into a series.
In 2002, Fenn was one of several former Twin Peaks stars, such as Dana Ashbrook and Mädchen Amick, to have a recurring role on The WB's Dawson's Creek. She guest-starred in three episodes from the fifth season, as Alex Pearl, the seductive manager of the restaurant where Joshua Jackson works. Fenn was afterwards cast as madcap villain Harley Quinn in The WB's Birds of Prey but was replaced by Mia Sara before the series began. Fenn starred in the original pilot episode but dropped out, due to scheduling conflicts, as the show's creators realized that the character of Harley Quinn would need to be a bigger part of the show She also played a manipulative woman in a season 4 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit opposite Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay and appeared in Watching Ellie.
Fenn played a crime boss in the 2002 film Swindle opposite Tom Sizemore. She had a small role in the critically acclaimed The United States of Leland, opposite Ryan Gosling, in which she played a mother who captivates a troubled teenage boy.
Sherilyn Fenn as Billie Frank in Rude Awakening
In 2003, Fenn appeared on The WB's Gilmore Girls as Sasha, the girlfriend of Jess Mariano's estranged father (played by Rob Estes) in the season three episode Here Comes the Son, which was the backdoor pilot for a California-set spin-off titled Windward Circle, that was to have starred Milo Ventimiglia, Estes and Fenn. The network dropped the project citing cost issues due to filming on location in Venice, California.
She then played the recurring part of Violet Montgomery on Fox's Boston Public (2003-2004), and appeared in Showtime's Cavedweller (2004) opposite Kyra Sedgwick. In 2004, Fenn joined former co-star Mark Harmon in an episode of NCIS, as an amnesiac woman. She was afterwards cast for the 2004 remake of Mister Ed, planned for the Fox network. However, after the pilot was shot, the show's writer/producer Drake Sather committed suicide, and the pilot was not aired.
In 2004, Fenn co-starred opposite Traci Lords and Paul Johansson in Emily Skopov's Novel Romance, released in 2006, in which she played a pregnancy shop owner who can't have children and whose sister decides to become a single mother. She then appeared in the martial arts film Lesser of Three Evils alongside Ho Sung Pak, Peter Greene and Roger Guenveur Smith, as the unbalanced and alcoholic wife of a corrupt detective. The film was released in 2009 under the title Fist of the Warrior.
In 2005, Fenn made a notable appearance on The 4400, playing Jean DeLynn Baker, a 4400 who has the ability to grow toxin-emitting spores on her hands. She also guest-starred on the final episode of Judging Amy.
After finishing the Russia-set action film Treasure Raiders with David Carradine, Fenn starred in the Canadian psychological thriller Presumed Dead, opposite Duncan Regehr, as a detective working on a missing person case, who has to outwit a crime novelist.
In 2006, Fenn reteamed with Amy Sherman-Palladino and reappeared in the sixth and seventh seasons of Gilmore Girls as Anna Nardini, the ex-girlfriend of Luke Danes (played by Scott Patterson) and protective mother to his daughter April. After the 2003 Gilmore Girls spin-off project, Sherman-Palladino wanted to work with Fenn again ever since, and wrote the character of Anna with her in mind. When asked why she cast Fenn for two different roles on Gilmore Girls, Sherman-Palladino said:
“ I love Sherilyn so much and I don't care. One thing about the show is I just want the best people. I've just been looking constantly for a time to work with Sherilyn, and I'm getting very old and I could just get hit by a truck at any minute. I just simply can't put it off that long, so I'd just rather get her in and have her part of my world. ”
However, after Sherman-Palladino left the show, the direction for the character changed — the producers decided to make her character a villain in a custody battle.
Fenn was cast as the female lead in ABC's 2006 comedy series Three Moons Over Milford but she was ultimately replaced by Elizabeth McGovern. Fenn was slated for a recurring role on CBS' 2006 crime drama Smith, but the show was quickly-canceled.
She appeared in the 2007 Dukes of Hazzard prequel, The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning as Lulu Hogg. "It's just a fun silly role," she said, but Fenn who had already worked with director Robert Berlinger on Rude Awakening, wanted to do so again.
In July 2006, shortly after shooting The Dukes of Hazzard prequel, Fenn stepped behind the camera for the first time and directed in Pittsburgh a documentary film about child enrichment program CosmiKids and its founder Judy Julin. She subsequently joined its executive team in 2007 as executive director of the film and television division.
In July 2008, Fenn filmed The Scenesters, a black comedy made by Los Angeles-based comedy group The Vacationeers, which premiered in October 2009.
In July 2009, Fenn made a guest appearance on In Plain Sight as a lesbian counterfeiter.
Personal life
Fenn lives in Los Angeles. She practices kundalini yoga.
Fenn was reportedly romantically linked to musician Prince, whom she met soon after she arrived in Los Angeles. She was also romantically linked to actor Chris Penn (on the set of their 1984 movie The Wild Life), and photographer Barry Hollywood (whom she chose to photograph her for the December 1990 issue of Playboy magazine).
She became romantically involved with actor Johnny Depp on the set of the 1985 short film Dummies. Director Laurie Frank said: "It was just so gorgeous, and their eyes locked and that was it. They really fell madly in love." Fenn and Depp dated for three and a half years and the couple were reportedly engaged. He later signed a contract to become a series regular on 21 Jump Street, which went into production in Vancouver. In pursuit of their different careers in Los Angeles and Vancouver, the two parted ways.
In 1994, Fenn married guitarist/songwriter Toulouse Holliday, whom she met on the set of Three of Hearts, and gave birth to a son, Myles, in late 1993. The marriage came to an end in 1997.
Her second son, Christian, with IT consultant Dylan Stewart, was born in August 2007.
In 2009 Sherilyn Fenn created a blog named Postcards from the Ledge.
Awards and nominations
Emmy Awards
* 1990: nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series -- Twin Peaks
Golden Globe Awards
* 1991: nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV -- Twin Peaks
Other recognition
* Fenn made the cover of such magazines as New York, Rolling Stone (along with Mädchen Amick and Lara Flynn Boyle), In Fashion (along with Billy Idol), Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, The Face, Details, Sky, and Harper's Bazaar.
* In 1990 Us Magazine chose her as one of the "10 Most Beautiful Women in the World".
* In 1991 People chose her as one of the "50 Most Beautiful Women in the World".
* Fenn posed for photographer Steven Meisel for the autumn-winter 1991-1992 Dolce & Gabbana campaign.
* In 1992, Fenn posed for photographer George Hurrell.
* Singer and composer Screamin' Jay Hawkins wrote and recorded the 1993 song entitled "Sherilyn Fenn", featured on his album Stone Crazy. The song is an ode to Fenn, who worked with Hawkins in Two Moon Junction.
* Fenn is mentioned in the song "Razor Burn" by the punk band Lagwagon on their 1995 album entitled Hoss.
* In 1995 FHM chose her as one of the "100 sexiest women in the world".
* In 1996, The Daily Mirror chose her as one of the "World's 100 Most Beautiful Women", and Femme Fatales chose her as one of the "50 sexiest sci-fi actresses".
* Fenn inspired Norwegian hard rock band Audrey Horne, formed in 2002, named after her character in Twin Peaks.
* In 2006, Australian men magazine Zoo Weekly chose her as one of the "Top 50 Hottest Babes Ever".
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1984 The Wild Life Penny Harlin
1985 Just One of the Guys Sandy
Out of Control Katie
"Dummies" short film
1986 Thrashin' Velvet
The Wraith Keri Johnson
1987 Zombie High Suzi
1988 Two Moon Junction April Delongpre
Crime Zone Helen
1989 True Blood Jennifer Scott aka Edge of Darkness
1990 Backstreet Dreams Lucy
Wild at Heart Girl in accident
Meridian Catherine Bomarzini
1991 Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel Bridget 'Bridey' DeSoto
Diary of a Hitman Jain Zidzyck
1992 Ruby Sheryl Ann 'Candy Cane' DuJean also song performer
Of Mice and Men Curley's wife
1993 Three of Hearts Ellen Armstrong
Boxing Helena Helena
Fatal Instinct Laura Lincolnberry
1997 Lovelife Molly
Just Write Amanda Clark
1998 The Shadow Men Dez Wilson
Darkness Falls Sally Driscoll
Outside Ozona Marcy Duggan Rice
1999 Cement Lyndel
2002 Swindle Sophie Zenn
2003 The United States of Leland Angela Calderon
2006 Novel Romance Liza Normane Stewart filmed in 2004
Whitepaddy Karen Greenly
2007 Treasure Raiders Lena filmed in 2005
2009 Fist of the Warrior Katie Barnes filmed in 2004
The Scenesters A.D.A. Barbara Dietrichson
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1985 Cheers Gabrielle episode 4.4 "The Groom Wore Clearasil"
1987 21 Jump Street Diane Nelson episode 1.9 "Blindsided"
1988 Divided We Stand TV pilot — not ordered to series
ABC Afterschool Special Beth pisode 17.2 "A Family Again"
1989 TV 101 Robin Zimmer ep. 1.7, 1.8 "The Last Temptation of Checker"
1990 Twin Peaks Audrey Horne regular (2 seasons, 1990–1991)
Nominated for Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress
Nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress
1995 Tales from the Crypt Erika episode 6.15 "You, Murderer"
1997 Friends Ginger episode 3.14 "The One with Phoebe's Ex-Partner"
Prey Dr. Sloan Larkin TV pilot — original unaired pilot
1998 Love, American Style Nancy TV anthology series pilot — not ordered to series
Rude Awakening Billie Frank lead (3 seasons, 1998-2001)
Cupid Helen Davis episode 1.7 "Pick-Up Schticks"
2001 The Outer Limits Nora Griffiths / Nora's clone episode 7.7 "Replica"
Night Visions Charlotte episode 1.8 "Used Car"
Blind Men TV pilot — not ordered to series
2002 Watching Ellie Vanessa ep. 1.5 "Cheetos", 1.7 "Gift"
Dawson's Creek Alexandra 'Alex' Pearl episodes 5.20 "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)", 5.21 "After Hours", 5.22 "The Abby"
Birds of Prey Dr. Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn TV pilot — original unaired pilot
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Gloria Stanfield ep. 4.2 "Deception"
2003 Gilmore Girls Sasha episode 3.21 "Here Comes the Son"
Boston Public Violet Montgomery recurring (season 4, 2003-2004)
2004 NCIS Jane Doe / Suzzanne McNeil (episode 1.10 "Left for Dead"
Century Cities Bree Clemens episode 1.07 "The Face Was Familiar"
Mister Ed Carlotta Pope TV pilot — not ordered to series
2005 Judging Amy Heather Reid episode 6.22 "My Name Is Amy Gray..."
The 4400 Jean DeLynn Baker episode 2.7 "Carrier"
2006 Gilmore Girls Anna Nardini recurring (seasons 6–7, 2006–2007)
CSI: Miami Gwen Creighton episode 4.22 "Open Water"
Three Moons Over Milford Janet Davis TV pilot — original unaired pilot
Smith Debbie Turkenson episode 1.6 "Six"
2008 House M.D. Mrs. Soellner episode 5.11 "Joy to the World"
2009 In Plain Sight Helen Trask/Helen Traylen episode 2.13 "Let's Get It Ahn"
Television films
Year Title Role Notes
1984 Silence of the Heart Monica
1987 Tales from the Hollywood Hills: A Table at Ciro's Betty
1991 Dillinger Evelyn 'Billie' Frechette
1994 Spring Awakening Margie
1995 Slave of Dreams Zulaikha
Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story Elizabeth Taylor TV miniseries
1996 A Season in Purgatory Kit Bradley TV miniseries
1997 The Don's Analyst Isabella Leoni
1998 Nightmare Street Joanna Burke/Sarah Randolph
2001 Off Season Patty Winslow
2002 Scent of Danger Brenna Shaw
2003 Nightwaves Shelby Naylor
2004 Cavedweller M.T.
Pop Rocks Allison Harden
2005 Officer Down Kathryn Shaunessy aka Assassin in Blue
Deadly Isolation Susan Mandaway
2006 Presumed Dead Det. Mary Anne 'Coop' Cooper
2007 The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning Lulu Hogg
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/01/10 at 6:41 am
I love Sherilynn Finn,She is hot sexy. ;)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/01/10 at 6:45 am
I love Sherilynn Finn,She is hot sexy. ;)
Yeah my husband remembered she was in Playboy >:( :-\\
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/01/10 at 6:47 am
Yeah my husband remembered she was in Playboy >:( :-\\
What year? Hmm..maybe I should Google it. ;)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/01/10 at 6:50 am
The person who died on this day...Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley (née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.
Mary Godwin's mother died when she was eleven days old; afterwards, she and her older half-sister, Fanny Imlay, were raised by her father. When Mary was four, Godwin married his neighbour, Mary Jane Clairmont. Godwin provided his daughter with a rich, if informal, education, encouraging her to adhere to his liberal political theories. In 1814, Mary Godwin began a romantic relationship with one of her father’s political followers, the married Percy Bysshe Shelley. Together with Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, they left for France and travelled through Europe; upon their return to England, Mary was pregnant with Percy's child. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt, and the death of their prematurely born daughter. They married in late 1816 after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife, Harriet.
In 1816, the couple famously spent a summer with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont near Geneva, Switzerland, where Mary conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. The Shelleys left Britain in 1818 for Italy, where their second and third children died before Mary Shelley gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence. In 1822, her husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a storm in the Bay of La Spezia. A year later, Mary Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son and a career as a professional author. The last decade of her life was dogged by illness, probably caused by the brain tumour that was to kill her at the age of 53.
Until the 1970s, Mary Shelley was known mainly for her efforts to publish Percy Shelley's works and for her novel Frankenstein, which remains widely read and has inspired many theatrical and film adaptations. Recent scholarship has yielded a more comprehensive view of Mary Shelley’s achievements. Scholars have shown increasing interest in her literary output, particularly in her novels, which include the historical novels Valperga (1823) and Perkin Warbeck (1830), the apocalyptic novel The Last Man (1826), and her final two novels, Lodore (1835) and Falkner (1837). Studies of her lesser-known works such as the travel book Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) and the biographical articles for Dionysius Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829–46) support the growing view that Mary Shelley remained a political radical throughout her life. Mary Shelley's works often argue that cooperation and sympathy, particularly as practised by women in the family, were the ways to reform civil society. This view was a direct challenge to the individualistic Romantic ethos promoted by Percy Shelley and the Enlightenment political theories articulated by her father, William Godwin.
Mary Godwin may have first met the radical poet-philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley in the interval between her two stays in Scotland. By the time she returned home for a second time on 30 March 1814, Percy Shelley had become estranged from his wife and was regularly visiting Godwin, whom he had agreed to bail out of debt. Percy Shelley's radicalism, particularly his economic views, which he had imbibed from Godwin's Political Justice (1793), had alienated him from his wealthy aristocratic family: they wanted him to follow traditional models of the landed aristocracy, and he wanted to donate large amounts of the family's money to schemes intended to help the disadvantaged. Percy Shelley therefore had difficulty gaining access to money until he inherited his estate because his family did not want him wasting it on projects of "political justice". After several months of promises, Shelley announced that he either could not or would not pay off all of Godwin's debts. Godwin was angry and felt betrayed.
Mary and Percy began meeting each other secretly at Mary Wollstonecraft's grave in St Pancras Churchyard, and they fell in love—she was nearly seventeen, he nearly twenty-two. To Mary's dismay, her father disapproved and tried to thwart the relationship and salvage the "spotless fame" of his daughter. At about the same time, Godwin learned of Shelley's inability to pay off his loans for him. Mary, who later wrote of "my excessive and romantic attachment to my father", was confused. She saw Percy Shelley as an embodiment of her parents' liberal and reformist ideas of the 1790s, particularly Godwin's view that marriage was a repressive monopoly, which he had argued in his 1793 edition of Political Justice but since retracted. On 28 July 1814, the couple secretly left for France, taking Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, with them, but leaving Percy's pregnant wife behind.
After convincing Mary Jane Godwin, who had pursued them to Calais, that they did not wish to return, the trio travelled to Paris, and then, by donkey, mule, and carriage, through a France recently ravaged by war, to Switzerland. "It was acting in a novel, being an incarnate romance," Mary Shelley recalled in 1826. As they travelled, Mary and Percy read works by Mary Wollstonecraft and others, kept a joint journal, and continued their own writing. At Lucerne, lack of money forced the three to turn back. They travelled down the Rhine and by land to the Dutch port of Marsluys, arriving at Gravesend, Kent, on 13 September 1814.
Half-length oval portrait of a man wearing a black jacket and a white shirt, which is askew and open to his chest.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was inspired by the radicalism of Godwin's Political Justice (1793). When the poet Robert Southey met Shelley, he felt as if he were seeing himself from the 1790s. (Portrait by Amelia Curran, 1819.)
The situation awaiting Mary Godwin in England was fraught with complications, some of which she had not foreseen. Either before or during the journey, she had become pregnant. She and Percy now found themselves penniless, and, to Mary's genuine surprise, her father refused to have anything to do with her. The couple moved with Claire into lodgings at Somers Town, and later, Nelson Square. They maintained their intense programme of reading and writing and entertained Percy Shelley's friends, such as Thomas Jefferson Hogg and the writer Thomas Love Peacock. Percy Shelley sometimes left home for short periods to dodge creditors. The couple's distraught letters reveal their pain at these separations.
Pregnant and often ill, Mary Godwin had to cope with Percy's joy at the birth of his son by Harriet Shelley in late 1814 and his constant outings with Claire Clairmont. She was partly consoled by the visits of Hogg, whom she disliked at first but soon considered a close friend. Percy Shelley seems to have wanted Mary Godwin and Hogg to become lovers; Mary did not dismiss the idea, since in principle she believed in free love. In practice, however, she loved only Percy Shelley and seems to have ventured no further than flirting with Hogg. On 22 February 1815, she gave birth to a two-months premature baby girl, who was not expected to survive. On 6 March, she wrote to Hogg:
My dearest Hogg my baby is dead—will you come to see me as soon as you can. I wish to see you—It was perfectly well when I went to bed—I awoke in the night to give it suck it appeared to be sleeping so quietly that I would not awake it. It was dead then, but we did not find that out till morning—from its appearance it evidently died of convulsions—Will you come—you are so calm a creature & Shelley is afraid of a fever from the milk—for I am no longer a mother now.
The loss of her child induced acute depression in Mary Godwin, who was haunted by visions of the baby; but she conceived again and had recovered by the summer. With a revival in Percy Shelley's finances after the death of his grandfather, Sir Bysshe Shelley, the couple holidayed in Torquay and then rented a two-storey cottage at Bishopsgate, on the edge of Windsor Great Park. Little is known about this period in Mary Godwin's life, since her journal from May 1815 to July 1816 is lost. At Bishopsgate, Percy wrote his poem Alastor; and on 24 January 1816, Mary gave birth to a second child, William, named after her father and soon nicknamed "Willmouse". In her novel The Last Man, she later imagined Windsor as a Garden of Eden.
Lake Geneva and Frankenstein
Handwritten manuscript of Frankenstein.
Draft of Frankenstein ("It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld my man completed ...")
In May 1816, Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, and their son travelled to Geneva with Claire Clairmont. They planned to spend the summer with the poet Lord Byron, whose recent affair with Claire had left her pregnant. The party arrived at Geneva on 14 May 1816, where Mary called herself "Mrs Shelley". Byron joined them on 25 May, with his young physician, John William Polidori, and rented the Villa Diodati, close to Lake Geneva at the village of Cologny; Percy Shelley rented a smaller building called Maison Chapuis on the waterfront nearby. They spent their time writing, boating on the lake, and talking late into the night.
"It proved a wet, ungenial summer", Mary Shelley remembered in 1831, "and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house". Amongst other subjects, the conversation turned to the experiments of the 18th-century natural philosopher and poet Erasmus Darwin, who was said to have animated dead matter, and to galvanism and the feasibility of returning a corpse or assembled body parts to life. Sitting around a log fire at Byron's villa, the company also amused themselves by reading German ghost stories, prompting Byron to suggest they each write their own supernatural tale. Shortly afterwards, in a waking dream, Mary Godwin conceived the idea for Frankenstein:
I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.
She began writing what she assumed would be a short story. With Percy Shelley's encouragement, she expanded this tale into her first novel, Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818. She later described that summer in Switzerland as the moment "when I first stepped out from childhood into life"
1840 and 1842, mother and son travelled together on the continent, journeys that Mary Shelley recorded in Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842 and 1843 (1844). In 1844, Sir Timothy Shelley finally died at the age of ninety, "falling from the stalk like an overblown flower", as Mary put it. For the first time, she and her son were financially independent, though the estate proved less valuable than they had hoped.
Photograph of a coffin-shaped granite tomb.
In order to fulfil Mary Shelley's wishes, Percy Florence and his wife Jane had the coffins of Mary Shelley's parents exhumed and buried with her in Bournemouth.
In the mid-1840s, Mary Shelley found herself the target of three separate blackmailers. In 1845, an Italian political exile called Gatteschi, whom she had met in Paris, threatened to publish letters she had sent him. A friend of her son's bribed a police chief into seizing Gatteschi's papers, including the letters, which were then destroyed. Shortly afterwards, Mary Shelley bought some letters written by herself and Percy Bysshe Shelley from a man calling himself G. Byron and posing as the illegitimate son of the late Lord Byron. Also in 1845, Percy Bysshe Shelley's cousin Thomas Medwin approached her claiming to have written a damaging biography of Percy Shelley. He said he would suppress it in return for £250, but Mary Shelley refused.
In 1848, Percy Florence married Jane Gibson St John. The marriage proved a happy one, and Mary Shelley and Jane were fond of each other. Mary lived with her son and daughter-in-law at Field Place, Sussex, the Shelleys' ancestral home, and at Chester Square, London, and accompanied them on travels abroad.
Mary Shelley's last years were blighted by illness. From 1839, she suffered from headaches and bouts of paralysis in parts of her body, which sometimes prevented her from reading and writing. On 1 February 1851, at Chester Square, she died at the age of fifty-three from what her physician suspected was a brain tumour. According to Jane Shelley, Mary Shelley had asked to be buried with her mother and father; but Percy and Jane, judging the graveyard at St Pancras to be "dreadful", chose to bury her instead at St Peter's Church, Bournemouth, near their new home at Boscombe. On the first anniversary of Mary Shelley's death, the Shelleys opened her box-desk. Inside they found locks of her dead children's hair, a notebook she had shared with Percy Bysshe Shelley, and a copy of his poem Adonaïs with one page folded round a silk parcel containing some of his ashes and the remains of his heart.
Literary themes and styles
Mary Shelley lived a literary life. Her father encouraged her to learn to write by composing letters, and her favourite occupation as a child was writing stories. Unfortunately, all of Mary's juvenilia were lost when she ran off with Percy in 1814, and none of her surviving manuscripts can be definitively dated before that year. Her first published work is often thought to have been Mounseer Nongtongpaw, comic verses written for Godwin's Juvenile Library when she was ten and a half; however, the poem is attributed to another writer in the most recent authoritative collection of her works. Percy Shelley enthusiastically encouraged Mary Shelley's writing: "My husband was, from the first, very anxious that I should prove myself worthy of my parentage, and enrol myself on the page of fame. He was forever inciting me to obtain literary reputation."
Novels
Autobiographical elements
Certain sections of Mary Shelley's novels are often interpreted as masked rewritings of her life. Critics have pointed to the recurrence of the father–daughter motif in particular as evidence of this autobiographical style. For example, commentators frequently read Mathilda (1820) autobiographically, identifying the three central characters as versions of Mary Shelley, William Godwin, and Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley herself confided that she modelled the central characters of The Last Man on her Italian circle. Lord Raymond, who leaves England to fight for the Greeks and dies in Constantinople, is based on Lord Byron; and the utopian Adrian, Earl of Windsor, who leads his followers in search of a natural paradise and dies when his boat sinks in a storm, is a fictional portrait of Percy Bysshe Shelley. However, as she wrote in her review of Godwin's novel Cloudesley (1830), she did not believe that authors "were merely copying from our own hearts". William Godwin regarded his daughter's characters as types rather than portraits from real life. Some modern critics, such as Patricia Clemit and Jane Blumberg, have taken the same view, resisting autobiographical readings of Mary Shelley's works.
Novelistic genres
" was never heard of more; even her name perished....The private chronicles, from which the foregoing relation has been collected, end with the death of Euthanasia. It is therefore in public histories alone that we find an account of the last years of the life of Castruccio."
— From Mary Shelley, Valperga
Mary Shelley employed the techniques of many different novelistic genres, most vividly the Godwinian novel, Walter Scott's new historical novel, and the Gothic novel. The Godwinian novel, made popular during the 1790s with works such as Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794), "employed a Rousseauvian confessional form to explore the contradictory relations between the self and society", and Frankenstein exhibits many of the same themes and literary devices as Godwin's novel. However, Shelley critiques those Enlightenment ideals that Godwin promotes in his works. In The Last Man, she uses the philosophical form of the Godwinian novel to demonstrate the ultimate meaninglessness of the world. While earlier Godwinian novels had shown how rational individuals could slowly improve society, The Last Man and Frankenstein demonstrate the individual's lack of control over history.
Shelley uses the historical novel to comment on gender relations; for example, Valperga is a feminist version of Scott's masculinist genre. Introducing women into the story who are not part of the historical record, Shelley uses their narratives to question established theological and political institutions. Shelley sets the male protagonist's compulsive greed for conquest in opposition to a female alternative: reason and sensibility. In Perkin Warbeck, Shelley's other historical novel, Lady Gordon stands for the values of friendship, domesticity, and equality. Through her, Shelley offers a feminine alternative to the masculine power politics that destroy the male characters. The novel provides a more inclusive historical narrative to challenge the one which usually relates only masculine events.
Gender
With the rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1970s, Mary Shelley's works, particularly Frankenstein, began to attract much more attention from scholars. Feminist and psychoanalytic critics were largely responsible for the recovery from neglect of Shelley as a writer. Ellen Moers was one of the first to claim that Shelley's loss of a baby was a crucial influence on the writing of Frankenstein. She argues that the novel is a "birth myth" in which Shelley comes to terms with her guilt for causing her mother's death as well as for failing as a parent. In Moers' view, it is a story "about what happens when a man tries to have a baby without a woman ... is profoundly concerned with natural as opposed to unnatural modes of production and reproduction". Victor Frankenstein's failure as a "parent" in the novel has been read as an expression of the anxieties which accompany pregnancy, giving birth, and particularly maternity.
Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar argue in their seminal book The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) that in Frankenstein in particular, Shelley responded to the masculine literary tradition represented by John Milton's Paradise Lost. In their interpretation, Shelley reaffirms this masculine tradition, including the misogyny inherent in it, but at the same time "conceal fantasies of equality that occasionally erupt in monstrous images of rage". Mary Poovey reads the first edition of Frankenstein as part of a larger pattern in Shelley's writing, which begins with literary self-assertion and ends with conventional femininity. Poovey suggests that Frankenstein's multiple narratives enable Shelley to split her artistic persona: she can "express and efface herself at the same time". Shelley's fear of self-assertion is reflected in the fate of Frankenstein, who is punished for his egotism by losing all his domestic ties.
Feminist critics often focus on how authorship itself, particularly female authorship, is represented in and through Shelley's novels. As Shelley scholar Anne K. Mellor explains, Shelley uses the Gothic style not only to explore repressed female sexual desire but also as way to "censor her own speech in Frankenstein". According to Poovey and Mellor, Shelley did not want to promote her own authorial persona and felt deeply inadequate as a writer, and "this shame contributed to the generation of her fictional images of abnormality, perversion, and destruction".
Shelley's writings focus on the role of the family in society and women's role within that family. She celebrates the "feminine affections and compassion" associated with the family and suggests that civil society will fail without them. Shelley was "profoundly committed to an ethic of cooperation, mutual dependence, and self-sacrifice". In Lodore, for example, the central story follows the fortunes of the wife and daughter of the title character, Lord Lodore, who is killed in a duel at the end of the first volume, leaving a trail of legal, financial, and familial obstacles for the two "heroines" to negotiate. The novel is engaged with political and ideological issues, particularly the education and social role of women. It dissects a patriarchal culture that separated the sexes and pressured women into dependence on men. In the view of Shelley scholar Betty T. Bennett, "the novel proposes egalitarian educational paradigms for women and men, which would bring social justice as well as the spiritual and intellectual means by which to meet the challenges life invariably brings". However, Falkner is the only one of Mary Shelley's novels in which the heroine's agenda triumphs. The novel’s resolution proposes that when female values triumph over violent and destructive masculinity, men will be freed to express the "compassion, sympathy, and generosity" of their better natures.
Enlightenment and Romanticism
Frankenstein, like much Gothic fiction of the period, mixes a visceral and alienating subject matter with speculative and thought-provoking themes. Rather than focusing on the twists and turns of the plot, however, the novel foregrounds the mental and moral struggles of the protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, and Shelley imbues the text with her own brand of politicised Romanticism, one that criticised the individualism and egotism of traditional Romanticism. Victor Frankenstein is like Satan in Paradise Lost, and Prometheus: he rebels against tradition; he creates life; and he shapes his own destiny. These traits are not portrayed positively; as Blumberg writes, "his relentless ambition is a self-delusion, clothed as quest for truth". He must abandon his family to fulfill his ambition.
Engraving showing a naked man awaking on the floor and another man fleeing in horror. A skull and a book are next to the naked man and a window, with the moon shining through it, is in the background.
The frontispiece to the 1831 Frankenstein by Theodor von Holst, one of the first two illustrations for the novel
Mary Shelley believed in the Enlightenment idea that people could improve society through the responsible exercise of political power, but she feared that the irresponsible exercise of power would lead to chaos. In practice, her works largely criticise the way 18th-century thinkers such as her parents believed such change could be brought about. The creature in Frankenstein, for example, reads books associated with radical ideals but the education he gains from them is ultimately useless. Shelley's works reveal her as less optimistic than Godwin and Wollstonecraft; she lacks faith in Godwin's theory that humanity could eventually be perfected.
As literary scholar Kari Lokke writes, The Last Man, more so than Frankenstein, "in its refusal to place humanity at the center of the universe, its questioning of our privileged position in relation to nature ... constitutes a profound and prophetic challenge to Western humanism." Specifically, Mary Shelley's allusions to what radicals believed was a failed revolution in France and the Godwinian, Wollstonecraftian, and Burkean responses to it, challenge "Enlightenment faith in the inevitability of progress through collective efforts". As in Frankenstein, Shelley "offers a profoundly disenchanted commentary on the age of revolution, which ends in a total rejection of the progressive ideals of her own generation". Not only does she reject these Enlightenment political ideals, but she also rejects the Romantic notion that the poetic or literary imagination can offer an alternative.
Selected list of works
Main article: List of works by Mary Shelley
* History of Six Weeks' Tour through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, with Letters Descriptive of a Sail round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni (1817)
* Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818)
* Mathilda (1819)
* Valperga; or, The Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca (1823)
* Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1824)
* The Last Man (1826)
* The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830)
* Lodore (1835)
* Falkner (1837)
* The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1839)
* Contributions to Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men (1835–39), part of Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia
* Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842, and 1843 (1844)
Collections of Mary Shelley's papers are housed in Lord Abinger's Shelley Collection on deposit at the Bodleian Library, the New York Public Library (particularly The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle), the Huntington Library, the British Library, and in the John Murray Collection.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/01/10 at 6:51 am
What year? Hmm..maybe I should Google it. ;)
1990
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/01/10 at 6:53 am
1990
Thanks.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/01/10 at 6:59 am
Thanks.
Your Welcome :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/01/10 at 9:03 am
I have twin nieces.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/01/10 at 11:30 am
I have twin nieces.
Cat
Nice, I have aunts that are twins.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/02/10 at 6:41 am
The word of the day...Bounty
You can refer to something that is provided in large amounts as bounty.
A bounty is money that is offered as a reward for doing something, especially for finding or killing a particular person
A bounty hunter is someone who tries to find or kill someone in order to get the reward that has been offered.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/02/10 at 6:52 am
The person born on this day...Duane Chapman
Duane Lee "Dog" Chapman (born February 2, 1953 in Denver, Colorado ) is an American bounty hunter, a former bail bondsman. He stars in Dog the Bounty Hunter, a weekly reality television program which is broadcast on the A&E Network (USA), Virgin 1 (both UK and Ireland), Bravo, FOX8/GO!(Australia), and OLN, Canada. (Australia).
Duane Chapman was born in Denver, Colorado. He dropped out of middle school in the seventh grade. According to his book, he walked into his principal's office and said, "fudge you. You never stuck up for me when you knew I was getting beaten at home. You never believed a word I said. I quit!"
Duane Chapman used to be an amateur boxer in his teens, going by the name "Dog Lee", taken from his nickname and middle name. Dog still enjoys weight training, as evidenced by the Bosco episode, during which Dog's workout regimen is featured.
In 1977 Chapman was sentenced to 5 years in prison and was remanded to Huntsville prison in Huntsville, Texas. When he was in prison, Duane and his first wife, LaFonda Honeycutt, divorced. He served 18 months of his 5 year sentence for the murder of Jerry Oliver in Pampa, Texas. Chapman maintains his innocence of murder but suggests he was a legal accessory for not reporting the shooting to the police. He was released on parole. Two of his co-defendants received probation and a third, their alleged shooter, received ten years in prison.
In 2006, he married his fifth wife, Beth Smith, on his television show in Hawaii. They were together for ten years before they married.
Duane Lee "Dog" Chapman also studies Native American History as a hobby.
Bounty hunting
Chapman's career in bounty hunting began when he was in court disputing child support. When he told the judge he did not have the money to pay, the judge offered him a deal to bring in a fugitive in exchange for the judge to pay part of Chapman's child support for Duane Lee and Leland Chapman. He started his first bondsman business in his hometown of Denver, Colorado before moving to Hawaii with five of his children: Leland Chapman, Duane Lee Chapman, Tucker, Baby Lyssa and Barbara Katie. After his mother's death, he moved back to Colorado for a long stay to work alongside his sister, Jolene Chapman, who also started her own bail bond business on 'Bail Bond's Row'. Duane Chapman and his wife Alice Barmore (now known as Beth Chapman) soon joined with him on his bounties and business. Both moved back to Hawaii to open up another office in downtown Honolulu. This business has been extended to within Hawaii to the Big Island and Maui. He has arrested more than 7,000 people.
Arrest by Mexican government
Main article: Andrew Luster
On June 18, 2003, Chapman made news with his hunt and capture of Max Factor cosmetics heir Andrew Luster, who at the time was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Luster had fled the United States in the middle of his trial for drugging and raping a number of women, and was convicted in absentia on 86 counts including multiple rape charges connected to assaults in 1996, 1997 and 2000. Chapman was assisted by his "hunt team", consisting of his son Leland and his associate, Tim Chapman . After Luster's jailing, Duane Chapman was interviewed for a documentary which was published on 2009 August 28 by Dominick Dunne on Power, Privilege, and Justice broadcast via the TruTV network.
On September 14, 2006, days before the expiration of the statute of limitations, Chapman, along with his son Leland Chapman and associate Tim Chapman, were arrested by United States Marshals and jailed in Honolulu on behalf of the Mexican government. Mexican authorities had charged all three with deprivation of liberty, involving the 2003 apprehension of Andrew Luster, because they had not handed Luster over to them. After not obtaining permission to leave the country in 2003, the Mexican Government declared Duane, Leleand and Tim Chapman, fugitives from justice and tried to get them extradited to Mexico for sentencing. After spending one night in the federal detention center in Honolulu, Chapman told reporters: "The federal marshals treated us with great respect. But let me tell you, you never want to go to a federal prison, because it's terrible."
The next day, September 15, 2006, Chapman appeared in a packed Honolulu courtroom with his ankles shackled. Although the judge agreed that the men were not a flight risk, he ordered that each wear an electronic monitoring device around the ankle. The three men were released on bail ($300,000 for Duane Chapman, $100,000 each for Leland Chapman and Tim Chapman). They were also ordered to wear an electronic ankle bracelet for house arrest.
Beth Chapman was detained and had a hearing after she was caught wearing an A&E body microphone when entering the courthouse for their bond hearing; electronic recording devices are prohibited by law from being carried into federal courthouses. She was released after explaining that she "didn't know they had the mic and transmitter"; the judge was satisfied that no recording was done.
Chapman was fighting extradition in September 2006. His lead attorney Brook Hart reportedly planned to argue that although the charge Chapman faced is a misdemeanor in Mexico, when translated into English it became a felony (kidnapping) under American law. An extradition hearing was set for November 16, 2006, where both sides were to present evidence and witnesses. Chapman has speculated that his arrest was due in part to a possible prisoner exchange agreement between the Mexican and American authorities. According to Chapman, the federal agents 'sold him out', by trading him in for a convicted Mexican drug lord. Duane, Leland, and Tim had their ankle bracelets removed so they could work.
On October 11, 2006, reports surfaced of an open letter dated September 26, 2006, sent on Chapman's behalf by 29 Republican Congressmen to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The letter stated the authors' opposition to Chapman's extradition and requested that Rice deny Mexico's request for same. Subsequently on October 20, 2006, lawyers for Chapman said that the Mexican federal court had granted them an order that halted the criminal case against the bounty hunter until further evidence and witness testimony were gathered.
A court hearing was held on December 22, 2006. The original hearing was postponed because a report from a lower court was not yet received. The court heard both sides of the story, and then decided to recess. Then court proceedings started on January 16, 2007 and the court had up to Tuesday, February 6, 2007 but the deadline was extended.
On February 16, 2007, a Mexican Federal court cleared the way for Duane Chapman to be extradited, ruling there was no reason not to try him with the charge of deprivation of liberty in Mexico. They also added that Mr. Chapman would not last five days in a Mexican prison. In response, on February 23, Hawaii State Representatives Gene Ward, Karen Awana, Rida Cabanilla, Lynn Finnegan, Barbara Marumoto, Colleen Meyer, Kymberly Pine, Joe Bertram, Ken Ito, Marylin Lee, and John Mizuno introduced 'House concurrent resolution 50', "Requesting the President of Mexico and the Second District Court of Guadalajara to drop extradition charges against TV Bounty Hunter, Duane 'Dog' Chapman".
Chapman, along with his lawyer, William C. Bollard, has appeared on numerous media shows. Some of these include: Larry King Live, Greta Van Susteren, Mark and Mercedez Morning Show on Mix 94.1 KMXB in Las Vegas, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet on WFLD, Fox 6 News San Diego, The Glenn Beck Program, and THE 9 on Yahoo!.
On March 7, 2007, legislators in the International Affairs Committee of the Hawaii State House passed a resolution that asks the Mexican government to drop the extradition proceedings against Duane, Leland and Tim Chapman.
Honolulu news outlet KHNL reported on August 1, 2007 that the arrest warrant issued for Chapman and his associates may now be invalidated, as a Mexican court has found that the statute of limitations regarding the arrest has expired. The 15-page legal order was released in Spanish and was translated and verified for legal acuity. The case against the bounty hunters may still be open to legal recourse by Mexican prosecutors.
On August 2, 2007, the First Criminal Court in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, dismissed all criminal charges pending against Duane, Tim and Leland Chapman on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired. The order effectively canceled all pending charges. The ruling, however, was appealed by the prosecution in order to overturn the lower court's decision. A&E was told that in Mexico, rulings against the prosecution are generally appealed as a matter of principle.
On November 5, 2007, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren dismissed the extradition attempt, saying that even though the cases were appealed, the trio are no longer charged with any offenses.
Racial slur and fall out
In March 2007, during a taped conversation with his son Tucker, Chapman used strong language, including the word "******," when referring to Monique Shinnery, his son's African-American girlfriend:
“ Duane "Dog" Chapman: I don't care if she's a Mexican, a whore or whatever. It's not because she's black, it's because we use the word ****** sometimes here. I'm not gonna take a chance ever in life of losing everything I've worked for for 30 years because some fudgeing ****** heard us say ****** and turned us in to the Enquirer magazine. Our career is over! I'm not taking that chance at all! Never in life! Never! Never! If Lyssa was dating a ******, we would all say 'fudge you!' And you know that. If Lyssa brought a black guy home, ya da da... it's not that they're black, it's none of that. It's that we use the word ******. We don't mean you fudgeing scum ****** without a soul. We don't mean that sheesh. But America would think we mean that. And we're not taking a chance on losing everything we got over a racial slur because our son goes with a girl like that. I can't do that, Tucker. You can't expect Gary, Bonnie, Cecily, all them young kids to because 'I'm in love for 7 months' - fudge that! So, I'll help you get another job but you cannot work here unless you break up with her and she's out of your life. I can't handle that sheesh. I got 'em in the parking lot trying to record us. I got that girl saying she's gonna wear a recorder...
Tucker Chapman: I don't even know what to say.
”
The audiotape, which Tucker sold to the National Enquirer, was posted online on October 31, 2007, and prompted a coalition of civil rights leaders to call for Chapman's popular Dog the Bounty Hunter show on A&E to be canceled. After the tape was made public, A&E announced it was suspending production for the series pending an investigation. Conservative civil rights leader Roy Innis said that Chapman "should not have a show."
On October 31, 2007, Chapman issued a public apology:
“ "My sincerest, heartfelt apologies go out to every person I have offended for my regrettable use of very inappropriate language. I am deeply disappointed in myself for speaking out of anger to my son and using such a hateful term in a private phone conversation. It was completely taken out of context. I was disappointed in his choice of a friend, not due to her race, but her character. However, I should have never used that term. I have the utmost respect and aloha for black people – who have already suffered so much due to racial discrimination and acts of hatred. I did not mean to add yet another slap in the face to an entire race of people who have brought so many gifts to this world. I am ashamed of myself and I pledge to do whatever I can to repair this damage I have caused. You see, I live in Hawaii, and we just don't get a whole lotta black people down here in the Aloha State.
"In Hawaii, we have something called Ho'oponopono, where people come together to resolve crises and restore peace and balance. I am meeting with my spiritual advisor, Rev. Tim Storey, and hope to meet with other black leaders so they can see who I really am and teach me the right thing to do to make things right, again.
"I know that all of my fans are deeply disappointed in me, as well, as I have tried to be a model for doing the right thing. I did not do the right thing this time, and hope you will forgive me. We learn from our mistakes, as my story of overcoming a life of crime has proven, and I will learn from this one for the rest of my life."
”
On November 2, 2007, A&E announced it is removing the show from their schedule "for the foreseeable future." On the same day Yum Brands announced pulling ad support for the TV series.
On December 21, 2007, Roy Innis, the chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, one of the first to call the A&E network to have the show taken off the air, met with Alicia Colon of The New York Sun and Chapman. Innis stated for the daily newspaper, "After meeting with him and his wife, Beth, and hearing his side of the story, we realized that the controversy had unjustly spiraled out of control without context."
He went on to say, "Duane has taken ownership of the damage of his words and has taken on the responsibility of being a racial healer for our country... I have been with this man several times and had extensive dialogues with him. I consider him and his wife good friends. Duane is a changed man and has a higher purpose. Popular television is a wasteland of meaningless titillation and degradation. The Dog's potential to take his celebrity and turn it into something redeeming for our culture and society is immense. It is for these reasons that we want his television show back on the air."
Renewal of show
Innis' December 2007 statement and a petition with over 40,000 signatures requested the return of Chapman's program. On February 19, 2008, A&E announced that the show would return. Reruns of Dog The Bounty Hunter, along with never before seen episodes from season 4, began airing on June 25, 2008. New episodes (the show's fifth season) began airing on July 16, 2008.
The show is currently into its seventh season, the first episode of which aired on December 2, 2009.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/02/10 at 6:57 am
The person who died on this day...Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff (November 23, 1887 – February 2, 1969) was an English actor who emigrated to Canada in the 1910s. He is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 film Frankenstein, 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, and 1939 film Son of Frankenstein. His popularity following Frankenstein in the early 1930s was such that for a brief time he was billed simply as "Karloff" or, on some movie posters, "Karloff the Uncanny".
In 1909, Pratt travelled to Canada and some time later changed his professional name to "Boris Karloff". Some have theorized that he took the stage name from a mad scientist character in the novel The Drums of Jeopardy called "Boris Karlov". However, the novel was not published until 1920, at least eight years after Karloff had been using the name on stage and in silent films (Warner Oland played "Boris Karlov" in a movie version in 1931). Another possible influence was thought to be a character in the Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasy novel H.R.H. The Rider which features a "Prince Boris of Karlova", but as the novel was not published until 1915, the influence may be backward, that Burroughs saw Karloff in a play and adapted the name for the character. Karloff always claimed he chose the first name "Boris" because it sounded foreign and exotic, and that "Karloff" was a family name. However, his daughter Sara Karloff publicly denied any knowledge of Slavic forebears, "Karloff" or otherwise. One reason for the name change was to prevent embarrassment to his family. Whether or not his brothers (all dignified members of the British foreign service) actually considered young William the "black sheep of the family" for having become an actor, Karloff himself apparently worried they did feel that way. He did not reunite with his family again until 1933, when he went back to England to make The Ghoul, extremely worried that his siblings would disapprove of his new, macabre claim to world fame. Instead, his elder brothers jostled for position around their "baby" brother and happily posed for publicity photographs with him.
Karloff joined the Jeanne Russell Co. in 1911 and performed in towns like Kamloops, BC and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. In 1912, while at Regina, Saskatchewan, he was present for a devastating tornado. He later took a job as a railway baggage handler and joined the Harry St. Clair Co., that performed in Minot, North Dakota, for a year, in an opera house above a hardware store.
Due to the years of difficult manual labor in Canada and the U.S. while trying to establish his acting career, he suffered back problems for the rest of his life. Because of his health, he did not fight in World War I.
Career in Hollywood
Karloff as The Monster from the Bride of Frankenstein trailer (1935)
Once Karloff arrived in Hollywood, he made dozens of silent films, but work was sporadic, and he often had to take up manual labor, such as digging ditches and driving a cement truck, to pay the bills. His role as Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein (1931) made him a star. A year later, he played another iconic character, Imhotep, in The Mummy.
The five-foot, eleven-inch, brown-eyed Karloff played a wide variety of roles in other genres besides horror. He was memorably gunned down in a bowling alley in the 1932 film Scarface. He played a religious WWI soldier in the 1934 John Ford epic The Lost Patrol. Karloff gave a string of lauded performances in 1930s Universal horror movies, including several with his main rival for heir to the horror throne of Lon Chaney, Sr.: Béla Lugosi, whose refusal to play the monster in Frankenstein made Karloff's subsequent career possible. Karloff played Frankenstein's monster three times, the other films being Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939), which also featured Lugosi. Karloff would revisit the Frankenstein mythos in film several times after leaving the role. The first would be as the villainous Dr. Niemann in House of Frankenstein (1944), where Karloff would be contrasted against Glenn Strange's portrayal of the Monster.
Karloff returned to the role of the "mad scientist" in 1958's Frankenstein 1970, as Baron Victor von Frankenstein II, the grandson of the original inventor. The finale reveals that the crippled Baron has given his own face (i.e., "Karloff's") to the Monster. The actor appeared at a celebrity baseball game as the Monster in 1940, hitting a gag home run and making catcher Buster Keaton fall into an acrobatic dead faint as the Monster stomped into home plate. Norman Z. McLeod filmed a sequence in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Karloff in the Monster make-up, but it was deleted. Karloff donned the headpiece and neck bolts for the final time in 1962 for a Halloween episode of the TV series Route 66, but he was playing "Boris Karloff," who, within the story, was playing "the Monster."
While the long, creative partnership between Karloff and Lugosi never led to a close mutual friendship, it produced some of the actors' most revered and enduring productions, beginning with The Black Cat. Follow-ups included Gift of Gab (1934), The Raven (1935), The Invisible Ray (1936), Black Friday (1940), You'll Find Out (also 1940), and The Body Snatcher (1945). During this period he also starred with Basil Rathbone in Tower of London (1939).
From 1945-1946, Karloff appeared in three films for RKO produced by Val Lewton: Isle of the Dead, The Body Snatcher, and Bedlam. In a 1946 interview with Louis Berg of the Los Angeles Times, Karloff discussed his three-picture deal with RKO, his reasons for leaving Universal Pictures and working with producer Lewton. Karloff left Universal because he thought the Frankenstein franchise had run its course. The latest installment was what he called a "'monster clambake,' with everything thrown in - Frankenstein, Dracula, a hunchback and a 'man-beast' that howled in the night. It was too much. Karloff thought it was ridiculous and said so." Berg continues, "Mr. Karloff has great love and respect for Mr. Lewton as the man who rescued him from the living dead and restored, so to speak, his soul".
During this period, Karloff was also a frequent guest on radio programs, whether it was starring in Arch Oboler's Chicago-based Lights Out productions (most notably the episode "Cat Wife") or spoofing his horror image with Fred Allen or Jack Benny.
An enthusiastic performer, he returned to the Broadway stage in the original production of Arsenic and Old Lace in 1941, in which he played a homicidal gangster enraged to be frequently mistaken for Karloff. Although Frank Capra cast Raymond Massey in the 1944 film, (which was shot in 1941, while Karloff was still appearing in the role on Broadway), Karloff reprised the role on television with Tony Randall and Tom Bosley in a 1962 production on the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Somewhat less successful was his work in the J. B. Priestley play The Linden Tree. He also appeared as Captain Hook in the play Peter Pan with Jean Arthur. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his work opposite Julie Harris in The Lark, by the French playwright Jean Anouilh about Joan of Arc, which was also reprised on Hallmark Hall of Fame.
In later years, Karloff hosted and acted in a number of television series, most notably Thriller, Out of This World, and The Veil, the latter of which was never broadcast and only came to light in the 1990s. In the 1960s, Karloff appeared in several films for American International Pictures, including The Comedy of Terrors, The Raven, and The Terror, the latter two directed by Roger Corman, and Die, Monster, Die!
During the 1950s Karloff appeared on British TV in the series Colonel March of Scotland Yard, in which he portrayed John Dickson Carr's fictional detective Colonel March who was known for solving apparently impossible crimes.
As a guest on The Gisele MacKenzie Show, Karloff sings "Those Were the Good Old Days" from Damn Yankees, while Gisele MacKenzie performs the solo, "Give Me the Simple Life". On The Red Skelton Show, Karloff guest starred along with horror actor Vincent Price in a parody of Frankenstein, with Red Skelton as the monster "Klem Kadiddle Monster." In 1966 Karloff also appeared with Robert Vaughn and Stefanie Powers in the spy series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., in the episode "The Mother Muffin Affair." Karloff performed in drag as the titular Mother Muffin. That same year he also played an Indian Maharajah on the adventure series The Wild Wild West ("The Night of the Golden Cobra"). In 1967, he played an eccentric Spanish professor who thinks he's Don Quixote in a whimsical episode of I Spy ("Mainly on the Plains").
In the mid-1960s, Karloff gained a late-career surge of American popularity when he narrated the made-for-television animated film of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and provided "the sounds of the Grinch" (the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" was sung not by Karloff, but by American voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft). Karloff later won a Grammy in the spoken word category after the story was released as a record.
In 1968 he starred in Targets, a movie directed by Peter Bogdanovich about a young man who embarks on a spree of killings carried out with handguns and high powered rifles. The movie starred Karloff as "retired horror film actor" Byron Orlok (a lightly-disguised version of himself) facing an end of life crisis, resolved through a confrontation with the shooter.
Karloff ended his career appearing in a trio of low-budget Mexican horror films that were shot shortly before his death; all were released posthumously, with the last, The Incredible Invasion, not released until 1971, two years after Karloff's death.
Spoken Word
Other records Karloff made for the children's market included Three Little Pigs and Other Fairy Stories, Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories and, with Cyril Ritchard and Celeste Holm, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, and Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark.
Personal life
In contrast to the sinister characters he played on screen, Karloff was known in real life as a very kind gentleman who gave generously, especially to children's charities. Beginning in 1940, Karloff dressed up as Santa Claus every Christmas to hand out presents to physically disabled children in a Baltimore hospital.
Karloff was also a charter member of the Screen Actors Guild, and was especially outspoken regarding working conditions on sets that actors were expected to deal with in the mid-1930s (some of which were extremely hazardous). He married six times and had one child, a daughter, by his fifth wife.
In 1931, Boris Karloff took out insurance against premature aging that might be caused by his fright make-up.
Death
Boris Karloff lived out his final years at his cottage, 'Roundabout,' in the Hampshire village of Bramshott. After a long battle with arthritis and emphysema, he contracted pneumonia, succumbing to it in King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, Sussex, England, on February 2, 1969. He was cremated, following a requested low-key service, at Guildford Crematorium, Godalming, Surrey, where he is commemorated by a plaque in the Garden of Remembrance. A memorial service was held at St Paul's, Covent Garden (The Actors' Church), London, where there is also a plaque.
However, even death could not put an immediate halt to Karloff's media career. Four Mexican films for which Karloff shot his scenes in Los Angeles were released over a two-year period after he had died. They were dismissed, by critics and fans alike as undistinguished efforts. Also, during the run of Thriller, Karloff lent his name and likeness to a comic book for Gold Key Comics based upon the series. After Thriller was cancelled, the comic was retitled Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery. An illustrated likeness of Karloff continued to introduce each issue of this publication for nearly a decade after the real Karloff died; the comic lasted until the early 1980s.
Legacy
For his contribution to film and television, Boris Karloff was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1737 Vine Street (for motion pictures) and 6664 Hollywood Boulevard (for television) (Lindsay, 1975).
In 1998, Karloff (as Frankenstein's Monster and The Mummy) was featured in a series of "Monster Stamps" issued by the U.S. Postal Service.
In the webcomic Schlock Mercenary, the AI responsible for piloting the mercenary warship Touch and Go is initially created with a spooky voice and demeanour attributed to it being given a 'Karloff Skin'.
Kirk Hammett has been seen using ESP guitars customized to bear images of Boris Karloff as The Mummy and as Frankenstien's monster. He owns the rights to both guitars and is not currently allowing ESP to release them.
Filmography
Further information: Boris Karloff filmography
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/02/10 at 8:01 am
The person born on this day...Duane Chapman
Duane Lee "Dog" Chapman (born February 2, 1953 in Denver, Colorado ) is an American bounty hunter, a former bail bondsman. He stars in Dog the Bounty Hunter, a weekly reality television program which is broadcast on the A&E Network (USA), Virgin 1 (both UK and Ireland), Bravo, FOX8/GO!(Australia), and OLN, Canada. (Australia).
Duane Chapman was born in Denver, Colorado. He dropped out of middle school in the seventh grade. According to his book, he walked into his principal's office and said, "fudge you. You never stuck up for me when you knew I was getting beaten at home. You never believed a word I said. I quit!"
Duane Chapman used to be an amateur boxer in his teens, going by the name "Dog Lee", taken from his nickname and middle name. Dog still enjoys weight training, as evidenced by the Bosco episode, during which Dog's workout regimen is featured.
In 1977 Chapman was sentenced to 5 years in prison and was remanded to Huntsville prison in Huntsville, Texas. When he was in prison, Duane and his first wife, LaFonda Honeycutt, divorced. He served 18 months of his 5 year sentence for the murder of Jerry Oliver in Pampa, Texas. Chapman maintains his innocence of murder but suggests he was a legal accessory for not reporting the shooting to the police. He was released on parole. Two of his co-defendants received probation and a third, their alleged shooter, received ten years in prison.
In 2006, he married his fifth wife, Beth Smith, on his television show in Hawaii. They were together for ten years before they married.
Duane Lee "Dog" Chapman also studies Native American History as a hobby.
Bounty hunting
Chapman's career in bounty hunting began when he was in court disputing child support. When he told the judge he did not have the money to pay, the judge offered him a deal to bring in a fugitive in exchange for the judge to pay part of Chapman's child support for Duane Lee and Leland Chapman. He started his first bondsman business in his hometown of Denver, Colorado before moving to Hawaii with five of his children: Leland Chapman, Duane Lee Chapman, Tucker, Baby Lyssa and Barbara Katie. After his mother's death, he moved back to Colorado for a long stay to work alongside his sister, Jolene Chapman, who also started her own bail bond business on 'Bail Bond's Row'. Duane Chapman and his wife Alice Barmore (now known as Beth Chapman) soon joined with him on his bounties and business. Both moved back to Hawaii to open up another office in downtown Honolulu. This business has been extended to within Hawaii to the Big Island and Maui. He has arrested more than 7,000 people.
Arrest by Mexican government
Main article: Andrew Luster
On June 18, 2003, Chapman made news with his hunt and capture of Max Factor cosmetics heir Andrew Luster, who at the time was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Luster had fled the United States in the middle of his trial for drugging and raping a number of women, and was convicted in absentia on 86 counts including multiple rape charges connected to assaults in 1996, 1997 and 2000. Chapman was assisted by his "hunt team", consisting of his son Leland and his associate, Tim Chapman . After Luster's jailing, Duane Chapman was interviewed for a documentary which was published on 2009 August 28 by Dominick Dunne on Power, Privilege, and Justice broadcast via the TruTV network.
On September 14, 2006, days before the expiration of the statute of limitations, Chapman, along with his son Leland Chapman and associate Tim Chapman, were arrested by United States Marshals and jailed in Honolulu on behalf of the Mexican government. Mexican authorities had charged all three with deprivation of liberty, involving the 2003 apprehension of Andrew Luster, because they had not handed Luster over to them. After not obtaining permission to leave the country in 2003, the Mexican Government declared Duane, Leleand and Tim Chapman, fugitives from justice and tried to get them extradited to Mexico for sentencing. After spending one night in the federal detention center in Honolulu, Chapman told reporters: "The federal marshals treated us with great respect. But let me tell you, you never want to go to a federal prison, because it's terrible."
The next day, September 15, 2006, Chapman appeared in a packed Honolulu courtroom with his ankles shackled. Although the judge agreed that the men were not a flight risk, he ordered that each wear an electronic monitoring device around the ankle. The three men were released on bail ($300,000 for Duane Chapman, $100,000 each for Leland Chapman and Tim Chapman). They were also ordered to wear an electronic ankle bracelet for house arrest.
Beth Chapman was detained and had a hearing after she was caught wearing an A&E body microphone when entering the courthouse for their bond hearing; electronic recording devices are prohibited by law from being carried into federal courthouses. She was released after explaining that she "didn't know they had the mic and transmitter"; the judge was satisfied that no recording was done.
Chapman was fighting extradition in September 2006. His lead attorney Brook Hart reportedly planned to argue that although the charge Chapman faced is a misdemeanor in Mexico, when translated into English it became a felony (kidnapping) under American law. An extradition hearing was set for November 16, 2006, where both sides were to present evidence and witnesses. Chapman has speculated that his arrest was due in part to a possible prisoner exchange agreement between the Mexican and American authorities. According to Chapman, the federal agents 'sold him out', by trading him in for a convicted Mexican drug lord. Duane, Leland, and Tim had their ankle bracelets removed so they could work.
On October 11, 2006, reports surfaced of an open letter dated September 26, 2006, sent on Chapman's behalf by 29 Republican Congressmen to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The letter stated the authors' opposition to Chapman's extradition and requested that Rice deny Mexico's request for same. Subsequently on October 20, 2006, lawyers for Chapman said that the Mexican federal court had granted them an order that halted the criminal case against the bounty hunter until further evidence and witness testimony were gathered.
A court hearing was held on December 22, 2006. The original hearing was postponed because a report from a lower court was not yet received. The court heard both sides of the story, and then decided to recess. Then court proceedings started on January 16, 2007 and the court had up to Tuesday, February 6, 2007 but the deadline was extended.
On February 16, 2007, a Mexican Federal court cleared the way for Duane Chapman to be extradited, ruling there was no reason not to try him with the charge of deprivation of liberty in Mexico. They also added that Mr. Chapman would not last five days in a Mexican prison. In response, on February 23, Hawaii State Representatives Gene Ward, Karen Awana, Rida Cabanilla, Lynn Finnegan, Barbara Marumoto, Colleen Meyer, Kymberly Pine, Joe Bertram, Ken Ito, Marylin Lee, and John Mizuno introduced 'House concurrent resolution 50', "Requesting the President of Mexico and the Second District Court of Guadalajara to drop extradition charges against TV Bounty Hunter, Duane 'Dog' Chapman".
Chapman, along with his lawyer, William C. Bollard, has appeared on numerous media shows. Some of these include: Larry King Live, Greta Van Susteren, Mark and Mercedez Morning Show on Mix 94.1 KMXB in Las Vegas, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet on WFLD, Fox 6 News San Diego, The Glenn Beck Program, and THE 9 on Yahoo!.
On March 7, 2007, legislators in the International Affairs Committee of the Hawaii State House passed a resolution that asks the Mexican government to drop the extradition proceedings against Duane, Leland and Tim Chapman.
Honolulu news outlet KHNL reported on August 1, 2007 that the arrest warrant issued for Chapman and his associates may now be invalidated, as a Mexican court has found that the statute of limitations regarding the arrest has expired. The 15-page legal order was released in Spanish and was translated and verified for legal acuity. The case against the bounty hunters may still be open to legal recourse by Mexican prosecutors.
On August 2, 2007, the First Criminal Court in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, dismissed all criminal charges pending against Duane, Tim and Leland Chapman on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired. The order effectively canceled all pending charges. The ruling, however, was appealed by the prosecution in order to overturn the lower court's decision. A&E was told that in Mexico, rulings against the prosecution are generally appealed as a matter of principle.
On November 5, 2007, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren dismissed the extradition attempt, saying that even though the cases were appealed, the trio are no longer charged with any offenses.
Racial slur and fall out
In March 2007, during a taped conversation with his son Tucker, Chapman used strong language, including the word "******," when referring to Monique Shinnery, his son's African-American girlfriend:
“ Duane "Dog" Chapman: I don't care if she's a Mexican, a whore or whatever. It's not because she's black, it's because we use the word ****** sometimes here. I'm not gonna take a chance ever in life of losing everything I've worked for for 30 years because some fudgeing ****** heard us say ****** and turned us in to the Enquirer magazine. Our career is over! I'm not taking that chance at all! Never in life! Never! Never! If Lyssa was dating a ******, we would all say 'fudge you!' And you know that. If Lyssa brought a black guy home, ya da da... it's not that they're black, it's none of that. It's that we use the word ******. We don't mean you fudgeing scum ****** without a soul. We don't mean that sheesh. But America would think we mean that. And we're not taking a chance on losing everything we got over a racial slur because our son goes with a girl like that. I can't do that, Tucker. You can't expect Gary, Bonnie, Cecily, all them young kids to because 'I'm in love for 7 months' - fudge that! So, I'll help you get another job but you cannot work here unless you break up with her and she's out of your life. I can't handle that sheesh. I got 'em in the parking lot trying to record us. I got that girl saying she's gonna wear a recorder...
Tucker Chapman: I don't even know what to say.
”
The audiotape, which Tucker sold to the National Enquirer, was posted online on October 31, 2007, and prompted a coalition of civil rights leaders to call for Chapman's popular Dog the Bounty Hunter show on A&E to be canceled. After the tape was made public, A&E announced it was suspending production for the series pending an investigation. Conservative civil rights leader Roy Innis said that Chapman "should not have a show."
On October 31, 2007, Chapman issued a public apology:
“ "My sincerest, heartfelt apologies go out to every person I have offended for my regrettable use of very inappropriate language. I am deeply disappointed in myself for speaking out of anger to my son and using such a hateful term in a private phone conversation. It was completely taken out of context. I was disappointed in his choice of a friend, not due to her race, but her character. However, I should have never used that term. I have the utmost respect and aloha for black people – who have already suffered so much due to racial discrimination and acts of hatred. I did not mean to add yet another slap in the face to an entire race of people who have brought so many gifts to this world. I am ashamed of myself and I pledge to do whatever I can to repair this damage I have caused. You see, I live in Hawaii, and we just don't get a whole lotta black people down here in the Aloha State.
"In Hawaii, we have something called Ho'oponopono, where people come together to resolve crises and restore peace and balance. I am meeting with my spiritual advisor, Rev. Tim Storey, and hope to meet with other black leaders so they can see who I really am and teach me the right thing to do to make things right, again.
"I know that all of my fans are deeply disappointed in me, as well, as I have tried to be a model for doing the right thing. I did not do the right thing this time, and hope you will forgive me. We learn from our mistakes, as my story of overcoming a life of crime has proven, and I will learn from this one for the rest of my life."
”
On November 2, 2007, A&E announced it is removing the show from their schedule "for the foreseeable future." On the same day Yum Brands announced pulling ad support for the TV series.
On December 21, 2007, Roy Innis, the chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, one of the first to call the A&E network to have the show taken off the air, met with Alicia Colon of The New York Sun and Chapman. Innis stated for the daily newspaper, "After meeting with him and his wife, Beth, and hearing his side of the story, we realized that the controversy had unjustly spiraled out of control without context."
He went on to say, "Duane has taken ownership of the damage of his words and has taken on the responsibility of being a racial healer for our country... I have been with this man several times and had extensive dialogues with him. I consider him and his wife good friends. Duane is a changed man and has a higher purpose. Popular television is a wasteland of meaningless titillation and degradation. The Dog's potential to take his celebrity and turn it into something redeeming for our culture and society is immense. It is for these reasons that we want his television show back on the air."
Renewal of show
Innis' December 2007 statement and a petition with over 40,000 signatures requested the return of Chapman's program. On February 19, 2008, A&E announced that the show would return. Reruns of Dog The Bounty Hunter, along with never before seen episodes from season 4, began airing on June 25, 2008. New episodes (the show's fifth season) began airing on July 16, 2008.
The show is currently into its seventh season, the first episode of which aired on December 2, 2009.
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Dog,The Bounty Hunter.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/03/10 at 7:03 am
The word of the day...Nurse
A nurse is a person whose job is to care for people who are ill.
If you nurse someone, you care for them when they are ill.
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu50/kobe_034/DSCF4651.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v694/Kellycfan267/DH_20703632412-01-15.jpg
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f244/wlittle1686/Medical%20pictures/NH.jpg
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r210/jram1203/Videos/IMG_0412.jpg
http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz242/Azeus420/JokerNurseGmail.jpg
http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/ae116/Twinderellas/Birth%20and%20NICU/Pictures/CaydyandTammy.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/03/10 at 7:12 am
The person born on this day...Maura Tierney
Maura Therese Tierney (born February 3, 1965) is an American film and television actress, who is likely best known for her roles as Lisa Miller on NewsRadio and Abby Lockhart on the television medical drama ER. Following ER, Tierney was set to star in the NBC series, Parenthood; however, she left the show after filming the pilot to undergo treatment for breast cancer
After appearing in several plays, she moved to Los Angeles, California and in 1987 got her first break in a role in Walt Disney's made-for-TV film Student Exchange. Tierney's first starring role in a film was in a low-budget, independently-produced film called Dead Women in Lingerie, shot in 24 days. The film never received a theatrical release, although it was released on DVD in 2005.
Tierney continued winning small roles in film and television, though it was not until her leading role in the sitcom NewsRadio from 1995–1999 that she received regular national exposure. While she was a NewsRadio cast member, she also appeared in two successful films (Primal Fear and Forces of Nature), and the even more successful Jim Carrey film Liar Liar.
After NewsRadio was canceled, Tierney decided not to pursue a role in another sitcom:
“ hen NewsRadio got canceled, ... I thought, there's probably not gonna be something like again for me...So then, when ER called,...that was a way to stay in that would remain interesting for me. ”
Tierney played Nurse Abigail "Abby" Lockhart on ER, a character that began as a guest appearance as an OB nurse in November 1999, then expanded in February 2000 to a full-time regular part as an ER nurse (and later, after completion of medical school, a full-on ER doctor). Within a year, her work on ER had earned her an Emmy Award nomination, recognition she credits to a "juicy" story arc featuring Sally Field as Lockhart's mother, who suffers from bipolar disorder.
Tierney confirmed in April 2008 that she would be leaving ER shortly after the beginning of the show's fifteenth season. In October 2008, she made her final regular appearance on the series after nearly 10 seasons on the show. She did return to make a cameo appearance on one additional episode later on during the final season.
As of 2007 Tierney's highest-profile film since joining the cast of ER was the 2002 film Insomnia. That same year she also starred in Scotland, Pa., portraying a Lady Macbeth-like character written specifically for her by then-husband Billy Morrissette. She was praised by critics for her performance. She collaborated with NewsRadio writer Joe Furey for a special, "Working with Joe Furey" featurette for Furey's film Love and Support. In 2004, Tierney won the second season tournament of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown against Lauren Graham.
She returned to the stage in May 2006 in an appearance opposite Eric McCormack in the off-Broadway premiere of Some Girl(s). She also appeared in the 2008 films Semi-Pro, Baby Mama, The Go-Getter and Finding Amanda.
Tierney played the role of Laurel in the off-Broadway play Three Changes with Dylan McDermott. from September 16 to October 4, 2008.
Personal life
Tierney married actor-director Billy Morrissette on February 1, 1993, two days before her 28th birthday, after the two met on the set of a never-aired television series. She filed for divorce 13 years later, citing irreconcilable differences. They had no children.
On February 1, 2009, which would have been her own 16th wedding anniversary, she officiated at the wedding of ER castmate/friend, Parminder Nagra and photographer James Stenson.
On December 14, 2009, Maura's father, former Boston City Council President Joseph M. Tierney, died at his Hyde Park home at age 68 after a brief battle with cancer.
Breast cancer
Tierney had been cast to star in the 2009 NBC drama, Parenthood. According to The Hollywood Reporter on July 10, 2009, the series was pushed to midseason. Filming had been scheduled to begin July 27. Production has been postponed for eight weeks to late September, according to NBC, "due to medical evaluation that (Tierney) is undergoing ... e are unable to release further details and ask that you respect her privacy at this time."
On July 13, 2009 it was announced that Tierney would have surgery to remove a tumor from her breast. On September 10, 2009, it was announced that she had left the cast of Parenthood due to schedule conflicts with her cancer treatments, and would not be returning to the show. Lauren Graham replaced her.
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1987 Student Exchange Kathy Maltby TV movies.
1988 Crossing the Mob Michelle
The Van Dyke Show
10 episodes Jillian Ryan
1989 Family Ties
Ep: My Best Friend's Girl Darlene
1990 Booker
Ep: Reunion Donna Cofax
Flying Blind Donna TV movie.
1991 Dead Women in Lingerie Molly Field
The Linguini Incident Cecelia
Law & Order
Ep: Aria Patricia 'Patti' Blaine
1992 White Sands Noreen
1993 Fly by Night Denise
The Temp Sharon Derns
1994 Lifestories: Families in Crisis
Ep: A Body to Die For: The Aaron Henry Story
Out of Darkness Meg TV movie.
704 Hauser
5 episodes Cherlyn
1995 Mercy Simonet
NewsRadio
97 episodes
1995-1999 Lisa Miller
1996 Primal Fear Naomi Chance
1997 Liar Liar Audrey Reede
1998 Primary Colors Daisy Green
1999 Forces of Nature Bridget Cahill
Oxygen Det. Madeline Foster
Instinct Lynn Powell
ER
189 episodes
1999-2009 Dr. Abby Lockhart
2000 Mexico City Pam on Phone (voice)
King of the Hill
Ep: Movin' On Up Tanya (voice)
2001 Scotland, Pa Pat McBeth
2002 Insomnia Rachel Clement
Rooftop Kisses Denise
The Nazi Helen
2003 Melvin Goes to Dinner Leslie
2004 Welcome to Mooseport Sally Mannis
2006 Danny Roane: First Time Director Maura Tierney
Diggers Gina
2007 The Go-Getter Hal's Pets
2008 Semi-Pro Lynn
Baby Mama Caroline
Finding Amanda Lorraine Mendon
2009 Rescue Me
6 episodes Kelly McPhee
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/03/10 at 7:16 am
The person who died on this day...Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash, Holly is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll." His works and innovations inspired and influenced both his contemporaries and later musicians, notably The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Don McLean, and Bob Dylan, and exerted a profound influence on popular music.
Holly was in the first group of inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Holly #13 among "The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time".
Holly saw Elvis Presley sing in Lubbock in 1955 and began to incorporate a rockabilly style into his music, which gradually evolved into rock music. On October 15, he opened on the same bill with Presley in Lubbock, catching the eye of a Nashville talent scout. Holly's transition to rock continued when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets at a local show organized by Eddie Crandall, the manager for Marty Robbins.
Following this performance, Decca Records signed him to a contract in February 1956, misspelling his name as "Holly". He adopted it for his professional career. Holly formed his own band, which would later be called the Crickets. It consisted of Holly (lead guitar and vocalist), Niki Sullivan (guitar), Joe B. Mauldin (bass), and Jerry Allison (drums).
They went to Nashville for three recording sessions with producer Owen Bradley. However, he chafed under a restrictive atmosphere that allowed him little input. Among the tracks he recorded was an early version of "That'll Be The Day", which took its title from a line that John Wayne's character says repeatedly in the 1956 film, The Searchers. (This initial version of the song played more slowly and about half an octave higher than the later hit version.) Decca chose to release two singles, "Blue Days, Black Nights" and "Modern Don Juan", which failed to make an impression. On January 22, 1957, Decca informed Holly that his contract would not be renewed, insisting however that he could not record the same songs for anyone else for five years.
Norman Petty Recording Studios in Clovis, New Mexico
Holly then hired Norman Petty as manager, and the band began recording at Petty's studios in Clovis, New Mexico. Petty contacted music publishers and labels, and Brunswick Records, a subsidiary of Decca, signed the Crickets on March 19, 1957. Holly signed as a solo artist with another Decca subsidiary, Coral Records. This put him in the unusual position of having two recording contracts at the same time.
On May 27, "That'll Be The Day" was released as a single, credited to the Crickets to try to bypass Decca's claimed legal rights. When the song became a hit, Decca decided not to press its claim. "That'll Be the Day" topped the US "Best Sellers in Stores" chart on September 23 and was the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in November. The Crickets performed "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue", on The Ed Sullivan Show on December 1.
Holly managed to bridge the racial divide that marked rock n' roll. While Elvis made black music more acceptable to white audiences, Holly won over an all-black audience when the Crickets were booked at New York's Apollo Theater for August 16–22, 1956. Unlike the immediate response shown in the 1978 movie The Buddy Holly Story, it actually took several performances for the audience to warm to him. In August 1957, the Crickets were the only white performers on a national tour.
As Holly was signed as both a solo artist and as part of the Crickets, two debut albums were released: The "Chirping" Crickets on November 27, 1957 and Buddy Holly on February 20, 1958. His singles "Peggy Sue" and "Oh Boy!" reached the top ten on both the United States and United Kingdom charts. Buddy Holly and the Crickets toured Australia in January 1958, and the UK in March. Their third and final album, That'll Be the Day, was put together from early recordings and was released in April.
Marriage
In June 1958, he met Maria Elena Santiago, who was working as a receptionist for Murray Deutch, an executive at Peer-Southern Music, a New York music publisher.
Holly managed to have Santiago invited to a luncheon at Howard Johnson's, thanks to Deutch's secretary, Jo Harper. He asked her to have dinner with him that night at P. J. Clarke's. Holly proposed marriage to her on their very first date. "While we were having dinner, he got up and came back with his hands behind his back. He brought out a red rose and said, "This is for you. Would you marry me?" He went to her guardian's house the next morning to get her approval. Santiago at first thought he was kidding, but they married in Lubbock on August 15, 1958, less than two months later. "I'd never had a boyfriend in my life. I'd never been on a date before. But when I saw Buddy, it was like magic. We had something special: love at first sight," she told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal on what would have been their 50th wedding anniversary. The newlyweds honeymooned in Acapulco.
Maria Elena traveled on tours, doing everything from the laundry to equipment setup to ensure the group got paid. Although Holly had already begun to become disillusioned with Norman Petty before meeting his bride, it was through Maria Elena and her aunt Provi, who was the head of Latin American music at Peer Southern, that he began to fully realize what was going on with his manager, who was paying the band's royalties into his own company's account.
Holly wrote the song "True Love Ways" about his relationship with his young wife. It was recorded in her presence on October 21, 1958 at Decca's Pythian Temple, with Dick Jacob, Coral-Brunswick's new head of Artists & Repertoire, serving as both producer and conductor of the eighteen-piece orchestra, which included members of the New York Symphony Orchestra, NBC Television's house orchestra and Abraham "Boomie" Richman, formerly of Benny Goodman's band.
It was not until Holly died that many fans became aware of his marriage.
Holly in New York
The ambitious Holly became increasingly interested in the New York music/recording/publishing scene, while his bandmates wanted to go back home to Lubbock. As a result, the group split up in late 1958. The Hollys settled in at Greenwich Village, New York, in the new Brevoort apartment block at 9th Street and Fifth Avenue. It was here that he recorded the series of acoustic songs, including "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" and "What to Do", known as the "Apartment Tapes", which were released after his death.
The Hollys frequented many of New York's music venues, including The Village Gate, Blue Note, Village Vanguard, and Johnny Johnson's. Maria Elena reported that Buddy was keen to learn finger-style flamenco guitar and would often visit her aunt's home to play the piano there. He wanted to develop collaborations between soul singers and rock 'n' roll, hoping to make an album with Ray Charles and gospel legend Mahalia Jackson. He also had ambitions to work in film, like Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran, and registered for acting classes with Lee Strasburg's Actors' Studio, where the likes of Marlon Brando and James Dean had trained.
However, he was still having trouble getting his royalties from Petty, so he hired the noted lawyer Harold Orenstein at the recommendation of his friends, the Everly Brothers, who had engaged Orenstein following their own disputes with their manager Wesley Rose. Yet, with the money still being withheld by Petty and with rent due, Buddy was forced to go back on the road.
Death
Holly's headstone in the City of Lubbock Cemetery
Main article: The Day the Music Died
Buddy was offered the Winter Dance Party by the GAC agency, a three-week tour across the Midwest opening on January 23, 1959, with other notable performers such as Dion and the Belmonts, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. He assembled a backing band consisting of Tommy Allsup (guitar), Waylon Jennings (bass) and Carl Bunch (drums) and billed as The Crickets.
The tour turned out to be a miserable ordeal for the performers, who were subjected to long overnight travel in a bus plagued with a faulty heating system in -25°F (-32°C) temperatures. The bus also broke down several times between stops. Following a performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 2, 1959, Holly chartered a small airplane to take him to the next stop on the tour. He, Valens, Richardson, and the pilot were killed en route to Moorhead, Minnesota, when their plane crashed soon after taking off from nearby Mason City in the early morning hours of February 3. Don McLean referred to it as "The Day the Music Died" in his song "American Pie".
Holly's funeral was held on February 7, 1959, at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock. The service was performed by Ben D. Johnson, who had presided at the Hollys' wedding just months earlier. The pallbearers were Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, Niki Sullivan, Bob Montgomery, Sonny Curtis and Phil Everly. Waylon Jennings was unable to attend due to his commitment to the still touring Winter Dance Party. The body was interred in the City of Lubbock Cemetery in the eastern part of the city. Holly's headstone carries the correct spelling of his surname (Holley) and a carving of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.
Holly's pregnant wife became a widow after barely six months of marriage and miscarried soon after. María Elena Holly did not attend the funeral and has never visited the grave site. She later told the Avalanche-Journal:
In a way, I blame myself. I was not feeling well when he left. I was two weeks pregnant, and I wanted Buddy to stay with me, but he had scheduled that tour. It was the only time I wasn't with him. And I blame myself because I know that, if only I had gone along, Buddy never would have gotten into that airplane.
Style
Holly's music was sophisticated for its day, including the use of instruments considered novel for rock and roll, such as the celesta (heard on "Everyday"). Holly was an influential lead and rhythm guitarist, notably on songs such as "Peggy Sue" and "Not Fade Away". While Holly could pump out boy-loves-girl songs with the best of his contemporaries, other songs featured more sophisticated lyrics and more complex harmonies and melodies than had previously appeared in the genre.
Many of his songs feature a unique vocal "hiccup" technique, a glottal stop, to emphasize certain words in any given song, especially the rockers. Other singers (such as Elvis) have used a similar technique, though less obviously and consistently. Examples of this can be found at the start of the raucous "Rave On!": "Weh-eh-ell, the little things you say and do, make me want to be with you-ou..."; in "That'll Be the Day": "Well, you give me all your lovin' and your -turtle dovin'..."; and in "Peggy Sue": "I love you Peggy Sue - with a love so rare and tr-ue ...".
Influence
Buddy Holly statue on the Lubbock Walk of Fame
Holly set the template for the standard rock and roll band: two guitars, bass, and drums. He was also one of the first in the genre to write, produce, and perform his own songs.
Contrary to popular belief, teenagers John Lennon and Paul McCartney did not attend a Holly concert, although they watched his TV appearance on Sunday Night at the London Palladium; Tony Bramwell, a school friend of McCartney and George Harrison, did. Bramwell met Holly, and freely shared his records with all three. Lennon and McCartney later cited Holly as a primary influence. (Their band's name, The Beatles, was chosen partly in homage to Holly's Crickets.) The Beatles did a cover version of "Words of Love" that was a close reproduction of Holly's version, released on 1964's Beatles for Sale. During the January 1969 sessions for the Let It Be album, the Beatles played a slow impromptu version of "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues" — although not written by Holly, it was popularized by him — with Lennon mimicking Holly's vocal style; the recording was eventually released in the mid-1990s on Anthology 3. Paul McCartney's band Wings recorded their version of "Love is Strange" on their first album Wild Life. In addition, John Lennon recorded a cover version of "Peggy Sue" on his 1975 album Rock 'n' Roll. McCartney owns the publishing rights to Holly's song catalogue.
A 17-year-old Bob Dylan attended the January 31, 1959 show, two nights before Holly's death. Dylan referred to this in his 1998 Grammy acceptance speech for his Time out of Mind being named Album of the Year:
And I just want to say that when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet away from him...and he LOOKED at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was — I don't know how or why — but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way.
The Holly mural on 19th Street in Lubbock
Keith Richards attended one of Holly's performances, where he heard "Not Fade Away" for the first time. The Rolling Stones had an early hit covering the song.
In an August 24, 1978 Rolling Stone interview, Bruce Springsteen told Dave Marsh, "I play Buddy Holly every night before I go on; that keeps me honest."
Various rock and roll histories have asserted that the singing group The Hollies were named in homage to Buddy Holly. According to the band's website, although the group admired Holly (and years later produced an album covering some of his songs), their name was inspired primarily by the sprigs of holly in evidence around Christmas of 1962.
Discography
Main article: Buddy Holly discography
Buddy Holly released only three albums in his lifetime. Nonetheless, he recorded so prolifically that Coral Records was able to release brand-new albums and singles for 10 years after his death, although the technical quality was very mixed, some being studio quality and others home recordings. Holly's simple demonstration recordings were overdubbed by studio musicians to bring them up to then-commercial standards. The best of these overdubbed records is often considered to be the first posthumous single, the 1959 coupling of "Peggy Sue Got Married" and "Crying, Waiting, Hoping", produced by Jack Hansen, with added backing vocals by the Ray Charles Singers in simulation of an authentic Crickets record. "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" was actually supposed to be the "A" side of the 45, with the backup group effectively echoing Buddy's call-and-response vocal. The Hansen session, in which Holly's last six original compositions were overdubbed, was issued on the 1960 Coral LP The Buddy Holly Story, Vol. 2. But the best "posthumous" records were the studio recordings, which included "Wishing" and "Reminiscing".
Buddy Holly continued to be promoted and sold as an "active" artist, and his records had a loyal following, especially in Europe. The demand for unissued Holly material was so great that Norman Petty resorted to overdubbing whatever he could find: alternate takes of studio recordings, originally rejected masters, "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" and the other five 1959 tracks (adding new surf-guitar arrangements), and even Holly's amateur demos from 1954 (where the low-fidelity vocals are often muffled behind the new orchestrations). The last new Buddy Holly album was Giant (featuring the single "Love Is Strange"), issued in 1969. Between the 1959–60 Jack Hansen overdubs, the 1960s Norman Petty overdubs, various alternate takes, and Holly's undubbed originals, collectors can often choose from multiple versions of the same song.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/03/10 at 7:43 am
The word of the day...Nurse
A nurse is a person whose job is to care for people who are ill.
If you nurse someone, you care for them when they are ill.
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu50/kobe_034/DSCF4651.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v694/Kellycfan267/DH_20703632412-01-15.jpg
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f244/wlittle1686/Medical%20pictures/NH.jpg
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r210/jram1203/Videos/IMG_0412.jpg
http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz242/Azeus420/JokerNurseGmail.jpg
http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/ae116/Twinderellas/Birth%20and%20NICU/Pictures/CaydyandTammy.jpg
http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/fire/dscd0180.jpg
They'll check your temperature for you. ;) ;D^
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/03/10 at 8:50 am
One of my step-daughters is a nurse.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/03/10 at 10:08 am
One of my step-daughters is a nurse.
Cat
Does she like it.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/03/10 at 10:31 am
Does she like it.
I think so. I haven't heard her complain-not even about her hours.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/03/10 at 11:55 am
The person who died on this day...Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash, Holly is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll." His works and innovations inspired and influenced both his contemporaries and later musicians, notably The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Don McLean, and Bob Dylan, and exerted a profound influence on popular music.
Holly was in the first group of inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Holly #13 among "The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time".
Holly saw Elvis Presley sing in Lubbock in 1955 and began to incorporate a rockabilly style into his music, which gradually evolved into rock music. On October 15, he opened on the same bill with Presley in Lubbock, catching the eye of a Nashville talent scout. Holly's transition to rock continued when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets at a local show organized by Eddie Crandall, the manager for Marty Robbins.
Following this performance, Decca Records signed him to a contract in February 1956, misspelling his name as "Holly". He adopted it for his professional career. Holly formed his own band, which would later be called the Crickets. It consisted of Holly (lead guitar and vocalist), Niki Sullivan (guitar), Joe B. Mauldin (bass), and Jerry Allison (drums).
They went to Nashville for three recording sessions with producer Owen Bradley. However, he chafed under a restrictive atmosphere that allowed him little input. Among the tracks he recorded was an early version of "That'll Be The Day", which took its title from a line that John Wayne's character says repeatedly in the 1956 film, The Searchers. (This initial version of the song played more slowly and about half an octave higher than the later hit version.) Decca chose to release two singles, "Blue Days, Black Nights" and "Modern Don Juan", which failed to make an impression. On January 22, 1957, Decca informed Holly that his contract would not be renewed, insisting however that he could not record the same songs for anyone else for five years.
Norman Petty Recording Studios in Clovis, New Mexico
Holly then hired Norman Petty as manager, and the band began recording at Petty's studios in Clovis, New Mexico. Petty contacted music publishers and labels, and Brunswick Records, a subsidiary of Decca, signed the Crickets on March 19, 1957. Holly signed as a solo artist with another Decca subsidiary, Coral Records. This put him in the unusual position of having two recording contracts at the same time.
On May 27, "That'll Be The Day" was released as a single, credited to the Crickets to try to bypass Decca's claimed legal rights. When the song became a hit, Decca decided not to press its claim. "That'll Be the Day" topped the US "Best Sellers in Stores" chart on September 23 and was the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in November. The Crickets performed "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue", on The Ed Sullivan Show on December 1.
Holly managed to bridge the racial divide that marked rock n' roll. While Elvis made black music more acceptable to white audiences, Holly won over an all-black audience when the Crickets were booked at New York's Apollo Theater for August 16–22, 1956. Unlike the immediate response shown in the 1978 movie The Buddy Holly Story, it actually took several performances for the audience to warm to him. In August 1957, the Crickets were the only white performers on a national tour.
As Holly was signed as both a solo artist and as part of the Crickets, two debut albums were released: The "Chirping" Crickets on November 27, 1957 and Buddy Holly on February 20, 1958. His singles "Peggy Sue" and "Oh Boy!" reached the top ten on both the United States and United Kingdom charts. Buddy Holly and the Crickets toured Australia in January 1958, and the UK in March. Their third and final album, That'll Be the Day, was put together from early recordings and was released in April.
Marriage
In June 1958, he met Maria Elena Santiago, who was working as a receptionist for Murray Deutch, an executive at Peer-Southern Music, a New York music publisher.
Holly managed to have Santiago invited to a luncheon at Howard Johnson's, thanks to Deutch's secretary, Jo Harper. He asked her to have dinner with him that night at P. J. Clarke's. Holly proposed marriage to her on their very first date. "While we were having dinner, he got up and came back with his hands behind his back. He brought out a red rose and said, "This is for you. Would you marry me?" He went to her guardian's house the next morning to get her approval. Santiago at first thought he was kidding, but they married in Lubbock on August 15, 1958, less than two months later. "I'd never had a boyfriend in my life. I'd never been on a date before. But when I saw Buddy, it was like magic. We had something special: love at first sight," she told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal on what would have been their 50th wedding anniversary. The newlyweds honeymooned in Acapulco.
Maria Elena traveled on tours, doing everything from the laundry to equipment setup to ensure the group got paid. Although Holly had already begun to become disillusioned with Norman Petty before meeting his bride, it was through Maria Elena and her aunt Provi, who was the head of Latin American music at Peer Southern, that he began to fully realize what was going on with his manager, who was paying the band's royalties into his own company's account.
Holly wrote the song "True Love Ways" about his relationship with his young wife. It was recorded in her presence on October 21, 1958 at Decca's Pythian Temple, with Dick Jacob, Coral-Brunswick's new head of Artists & Repertoire, serving as both producer and conductor of the eighteen-piece orchestra, which included members of the New York Symphony Orchestra, NBC Television's house orchestra and Abraham "Boomie" Richman, formerly of Benny Goodman's band.
It was not until Holly died that many fans became aware of his marriage.
Holly in New York
The ambitious Holly became increasingly interested in the New York music/recording/publishing scene, while his bandmates wanted to go back home to Lubbock. As a result, the group split up in late 1958. The Hollys settled in at Greenwich Village, New York, in the new Brevoort apartment block at 9th Street and Fifth Avenue. It was here that he recorded the series of acoustic songs, including "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" and "What to Do", known as the "Apartment Tapes", which were released after his death.
The Hollys frequented many of New York's music venues, including The Village Gate, Blue Note, Village Vanguard, and Johnny Johnson's. Maria Elena reported that Buddy was keen to learn finger-style flamenco guitar and would often visit her aunt's home to play the piano there. He wanted to develop collaborations between soul singers and rock 'n' roll, hoping to make an album with Ray Charles and gospel legend Mahalia Jackson. He also had ambitions to work in film, like Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran, and registered for acting classes with Lee Strasburg's Actors' Studio, where the likes of Marlon Brando and James Dean had trained.
However, he was still having trouble getting his royalties from Petty, so he hired the noted lawyer Harold Orenstein at the recommendation of his friends, the Everly Brothers, who had engaged Orenstein following their own disputes with their manager Wesley Rose. Yet, with the money still being withheld by Petty and with rent due, Buddy was forced to go back on the road.
Death
Holly's headstone in the City of Lubbock Cemetery
Main article: The Day the Music Died
Buddy was offered the Winter Dance Party by the GAC agency, a three-week tour across the Midwest opening on January 23, 1959, with other notable performers such as Dion and the Belmonts, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. He assembled a backing band consisting of Tommy Allsup (guitar), Waylon Jennings (bass) and Carl Bunch (drums) and billed as The Crickets.
The tour turned out to be a miserable ordeal for the performers, who were subjected to long overnight travel in a bus plagued with a faulty heating system in -25°F (-32°C) temperatures. The bus also broke down several times between stops. Following a performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 2, 1959, Holly chartered a small airplane to take him to the next stop on the tour. He, Valens, Richardson, and the pilot were killed en route to Moorhead, Minnesota, when their plane crashed soon after taking off from nearby Mason City in the early morning hours of February 3. Don McLean referred to it as "The Day the Music Died" in his song "American Pie".
Holly's funeral was held on February 7, 1959, at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock. The service was performed by Ben D. Johnson, who had presided at the Hollys' wedding just months earlier. The pallbearers were Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, Niki Sullivan, Bob Montgomery, Sonny Curtis and Phil Everly. Waylon Jennings was unable to attend due to his commitment to the still touring Winter Dance Party. The body was interred in the City of Lubbock Cemetery in the eastern part of the city. Holly's headstone carries the correct spelling of his surname (Holley) and a carving of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.
Holly's pregnant wife became a widow after barely six months of marriage and miscarried soon after. María Elena Holly did not attend the funeral and has never visited the grave site. She later told the Avalanche-Journal:
In a way, I blame myself. I was not feeling well when he left. I was two weeks pregnant, and I wanted Buddy to stay with me, but he had scheduled that tour. It was the only time I wasn't with him. And I blame myself because I know that, if only I had gone along, Buddy never would have gotten into that airplane.
Style
Holly's music was sophisticated for its day, including the use of instruments considered novel for rock and roll, such as the celesta (heard on "Everyday"). Holly was an influential lead and rhythm guitarist, notably on songs such as "Peggy Sue" and "Not Fade Away". While Holly could pump out boy-loves-girl songs with the best of his contemporaries, other songs featured more sophisticated lyrics and more complex harmonies and melodies than had previously appeared in the genre.
Many of his songs feature a unique vocal "hiccup" technique, a glottal stop, to emphasize certain words in any given song, especially the rockers. Other singers (such as Elvis) have used a similar technique, though less obviously and consistently. Examples of this can be found at the start of the raucous "Rave On!": "Weh-eh-ell, the little things you say and do, make me want to be with you-ou..."; in "That'll Be the Day": "Well, you give me all your lovin' and your -turtle dovin'..."; and in "Peggy Sue": "I love you Peggy Sue - with a love so rare and tr-ue ...".
Influence
Buddy Holly statue on the Lubbock Walk of Fame
Holly set the template for the standard rock and roll band: two guitars, bass, and drums. He was also one of the first in the genre to write, produce, and perform his own songs.
Contrary to popular belief, teenagers John Lennon and Paul McCartney did not attend a Holly concert, although they watched his TV appearance on Sunday Night at the London Palladium; Tony Bramwell, a school friend of McCartney and George Harrison, did. Bramwell met Holly, and freely shared his records with all three. Lennon and McCartney later cited Holly as a primary influence. (Their band's name, The Beatles, was chosen partly in homage to Holly's Crickets.) The Beatles did a cover version of "Words of Love" that was a close reproduction of Holly's version, released on 1964's Beatles for Sale. During the January 1969 sessions for the Let It Be album, the Beatles played a slow impromptu version of "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues" — although not written by Holly, it was popularized by him — with Lennon mimicking Holly's vocal style; the recording was eventually released in the mid-1990s on Anthology 3. Paul McCartney's band Wings recorded their version of "Love is Strange" on their first album Wild Life. In addition, John Lennon recorded a cover version of "Peggy Sue" on his 1975 album Rock 'n' Roll. McCartney owns the publishing rights to Holly's song catalogue.
A 17-year-old Bob Dylan attended the January 31, 1959 show, two nights before Holly's death. Dylan referred to this in his 1998 Grammy acceptance speech for his Time out of Mind being named Album of the Year:
And I just want to say that when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet away from him...and he LOOKED at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was — I don't know how or why — but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way.
The Holly mural on 19th Street in Lubbock
Keith Richards attended one of Holly's performances, where he heard "Not Fade Away" for the first time. The Rolling Stones had an early hit covering the song.
In an August 24, 1978 Rolling Stone interview, Bruce Springsteen told Dave Marsh, "I play Buddy Holly every night before I go on; that keeps me honest."
Various rock and roll histories have asserted that the singing group The Hollies were named in homage to Buddy Holly. According to the band's website, although the group admired Holly (and years later produced an album covering some of his songs), their name was inspired primarily by the sprigs of holly in evidence around Christmas of 1962.
Discography
Main article: Buddy Holly discography
Buddy Holly released only three albums in his lifetime. Nonetheless, he recorded so prolifically that Coral Records was able to release brand-new albums and singles for 10 years after his death, although the technical quality was very mixed, some being studio quality and others home recordings. Holly's simple demonstration recordings were overdubbed by studio musicians to bring them up to then-commercial standards. The best of these overdubbed records is often considered to be the first posthumous single, the 1959 coupling of "Peggy Sue Got Married" and "Crying, Waiting, Hoping", produced by Jack Hansen, with added backing vocals by the Ray Charles Singers in simulation of an authentic Crickets record. "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" was actually supposed to be the "A" side of the 45, with the backup group effectively echoing Buddy's call-and-response vocal. The Hansen session, in which Holly's last six original compositions were overdubbed, was issued on the 1960 Coral LP The Buddy Holly Story, Vol. 2. But the best "posthumous" records were the studio recordings, which included "Wishing" and "Reminiscing".
Buddy Holly continued to be promoted and sold as an "active" artist, and his records had a loyal following, especially in Europe. The demand for unissued Holly material was so great that Norman Petty resorted to overdubbing whatever he could find: alternate takes of studio recordings, originally rejected masters, "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" and the other five 1959 tracks (adding new surf-guitar arrangements), and even Holly's amateur demos from 1954 (where the low-fidelity vocals are often muffled behind the new orchestrations). The last new Buddy Holly album was Giant (featuring the single "Love Is Strange"), issued in 1969. Between the 1959–60 Jack Hansen overdubs, the 1960s Norman Petty overdubs, various alternate takes, and Holly's undubbed originals, collectors can often choose from multiple versions of the same song.
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A very talented man with great songs in short a short period of time.
Just imagine how many more hits we would have heard. He died much too young.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/03/10 at 1:05 pm
A very talented man with great songs in short a short period of time.
Just imagine how many more hits we would have heard. He died much too young.
Totally agree. But not just him but Richie Valens, & Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr. AKA The Big Bopper. Truly the day the music died. :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'(
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/03/10 at 1:56 pm
The person who died on this day...Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff (November 23, 1887 – February 2, 1969) was an English actor who emigrated to Canada in the 1910s. He is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 film Frankenstein, 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, and 1939 film Son of Frankenstein. His popularity following Frankenstein in the early 1930s was such that for a brief time he was billed simply as "Karloff" or, on some movie posters, "Karloff the Uncanny".
In 1909, Pratt travelled to Canada and some time later changed his professional name to "Boris Karloff". Some have theorized that he took the stage name from a mad scientist character in the novel The Drums of Jeopardy called "Boris Karlov". However, the novel was not published until 1920, at least eight years after Karloff had been using the name on stage and in silent films (Warner Oland played "Boris Karlov" in a movie version in 1931). Another possible influence was thought to be a character in the Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasy novel H.R.H. The Rider which features a "Prince Boris of Karlova", but as the novel was not published until 1915, the influence may be backward, that Burroughs saw Karloff in a play and adapted the name for the character. Karloff always claimed he chose the first name "Boris" because it sounded foreign and exotic, and that "Karloff" was a family name. However, his daughter Sara Karloff publicly denied any knowledge of Slavic forebears, "Karloff" or otherwise. One reason for the name change was to prevent embarrassment to his family. Whether or not his brothers (all dignified members of the British foreign service) actually considered young William the "black sheep of the family" for having become an actor, Karloff himself apparently worried they did feel that way. He did not reunite with his family again until 1933, when he went back to England to make The Ghoul, extremely worried that his siblings would disapprove of his new, macabre claim to world fame. Instead, his elder brothers jostled for position around their "baby" brother and happily posed for publicity photographs with him.
Karloff joined the Jeanne Russell Co. in 1911 and performed in towns like Kamloops, BC and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. In 1912, while at Regina, Saskatchewan, he was present for a devastating tornado. He later took a job as a railway baggage handler and joined the Harry St. Clair Co., that performed in Minot, North Dakota, for a year, in an opera house above a hardware store.
Due to the years of difficult manual labor in Canada and the U.S. while trying to establish his acting career, he suffered back problems for the rest of his life. Because of his health, he did not fight in World War I.
Career in Hollywood
Karloff as The Monster from the Bride of Frankenstein trailer (1935)
Once Karloff arrived in Hollywood, he made dozens of silent films, but work was sporadic, and he often had to take up manual labor, such as digging ditches and driving a cement truck, to pay the bills. His role as Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein (1931) made him a star. A year later, he played another iconic character, Imhotep, in The Mummy.
The five-foot, eleven-inch, brown-eyed Karloff played a wide variety of roles in other genres besides horror. He was memorably gunned down in a bowling alley in the 1932 film Scarface. He played a religious WWI soldier in the 1934 John Ford epic The Lost Patrol. Karloff gave a string of lauded performances in 1930s Universal horror movies, including several with his main rival for heir to the horror throne of Lon Chaney, Sr.: Béla Lugosi, whose refusal to play the monster in Frankenstein made Karloff's subsequent career possible. Karloff played Frankenstein's monster three times, the other films being Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939), which also featured Lugosi. Karloff would revisit the Frankenstein mythos in film several times after leaving the role. The first would be as the villainous Dr. Niemann in House of Frankenstein (1944), where Karloff would be contrasted against Glenn Strange's portrayal of the Monster.
Karloff returned to the role of the "mad scientist" in 1958's Frankenstein 1970, as Baron Victor von Frankenstein II, the grandson of the original inventor. The finale reveals that the crippled Baron has given his own face (i.e., "Karloff's") to the Monster. The actor appeared at a celebrity baseball game as the Monster in 1940, hitting a gag home run and making catcher Buster Keaton fall into an acrobatic dead faint as the Monster stomped into home plate. Norman Z. McLeod filmed a sequence in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Karloff in the Monster make-up, but it was deleted. Karloff donned the headpiece and neck bolts for the final time in 1962 for a Halloween episode of the TV series Route 66, but he was playing "Boris Karloff," who, within the story, was playing "the Monster."
While the long, creative partnership between Karloff and Lugosi never led to a close mutual friendship, it produced some of the actors' most revered and enduring productions, beginning with The Black Cat. Follow-ups included Gift of Gab (1934), The Raven (1935), The Invisible Ray (1936), Black Friday (1940), You'll Find Out (also 1940), and The Body Snatcher (1945). During this period he also starred with Basil Rathbone in Tower of London (1939).
From 1945-1946, Karloff appeared in three films for RKO produced by Val Lewton: Isle of the Dead, The Body Snatcher, and Bedlam. In a 1946 interview with Louis Berg of the Los Angeles Times, Karloff discussed his three-picture deal with RKO, his reasons for leaving Universal Pictures and working with producer Lewton. Karloff left Universal because he thought the Frankenstein franchise had run its course. The latest installment was what he called a "'monster clambake,' with everything thrown in - Frankenstein, Dracula, a hunchback and a 'man-beast' that howled in the night. It was too much. Karloff thought it was ridiculous and said so." Berg continues, "Mr. Karloff has great love and respect for Mr. Lewton as the man who rescued him from the living dead and restored, so to speak, his soul".
During this period, Karloff was also a frequent guest on radio programs, whether it was starring in Arch Oboler's Chicago-based Lights Out productions (most notably the episode "Cat Wife") or spoofing his horror image with Fred Allen or Jack Benny.
An enthusiastic performer, he returned to the Broadway stage in the original production of Arsenic and Old Lace in 1941, in which he played a homicidal gangster enraged to be frequently mistaken for Karloff. Although Frank Capra cast Raymond Massey in the 1944 film, (which was shot in 1941, while Karloff was still appearing in the role on Broadway), Karloff reprised the role on television with Tony Randall and Tom Bosley in a 1962 production on the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Somewhat less successful was his work in the J. B. Priestley play The Linden Tree. He also appeared as Captain Hook in the play Peter Pan with Jean Arthur. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his work opposite Julie Harris in The Lark, by the French playwright Jean Anouilh about Joan of Arc, which was also reprised on Hallmark Hall of Fame.
In later years, Karloff hosted and acted in a number of television series, most notably Thriller, Out of This World, and The Veil, the latter of which was never broadcast and only came to light in the 1990s. In the 1960s, Karloff appeared in several films for American International Pictures, including The Comedy of Terrors, The Raven, and The Terror, the latter two directed by Roger Corman, and Die, Monster, Die!
During the 1950s Karloff appeared on British TV in the series Colonel March of Scotland Yard, in which he portrayed John Dickson Carr's fictional detective Colonel March who was known for solving apparently impossible crimes.
As a guest on The Gisele MacKenzie Show, Karloff sings "Those Were the Good Old Days" from Damn Yankees, while Gisele MacKenzie performs the solo, "Give Me the Simple Life". On The Red Skelton Show, Karloff guest starred along with horror actor Vincent Price in a parody of Frankenstein, with Red Skelton as the monster "Klem Kadiddle Monster." In 1966 Karloff also appeared with Robert Vaughn and Stefanie Powers in the spy series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., in the episode "The Mother Muffin Affair." Karloff performed in drag as the titular Mother Muffin. That same year he also played an Indian Maharajah on the adventure series The Wild Wild West ("The Night of the Golden Cobra"). In 1967, he played an eccentric Spanish professor who thinks he's Don Quixote in a whimsical episode of I Spy ("Mainly on the Plains").
In the mid-1960s, Karloff gained a late-career surge of American popularity when he narrated the made-for-television animated film of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and provided "the sounds of the Grinch" (the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" was sung not by Karloff, but by American voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft). Karloff later won a Grammy in the spoken word category after the story was released as a record.
In 1968 he starred in Targets, a movie directed by Peter Bogdanovich about a young man who embarks on a spree of killings carried out with handguns and high powered rifles. The movie starred Karloff as "retired horror film actor" Byron Orlok (a lightly-disguised version of himself) facing an end of life crisis, resolved through a confrontation with the shooter.
Karloff ended his career appearing in a trio of low-budget Mexican horror films that were shot shortly before his death; all were released posthumously, with the last, The Incredible Invasion, not released until 1971, two years after Karloff's death.
Spoken Word
Other records Karloff made for the children's market included Three Little Pigs and Other Fairy Stories, Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories and, with Cyril Ritchard and Celeste Holm, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, and Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark.
Personal life
In contrast to the sinister characters he played on screen, Karloff was known in real life as a very kind gentleman who gave generously, especially to children's charities. Beginning in 1940, Karloff dressed up as Santa Claus every Christmas to hand out presents to physically disabled children in a Baltimore hospital.
Karloff was also a charter member of the Screen Actors Guild, and was especially outspoken regarding working conditions on sets that actors were expected to deal with in the mid-1930s (some of which were extremely hazardous). He married six times and had one child, a daughter, by his fifth wife.
In 1931, Boris Karloff took out insurance against premature aging that might be caused by his fright make-up.
Death
Boris Karloff lived out his final years at his cottage, 'Roundabout,' in the Hampshire village of Bramshott. After a long battle with arthritis and emphysema, he contracted pneumonia, succumbing to it in King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, Sussex, England, on February 2, 1969. He was cremated, following a requested low-key service, at Guildford Crematorium, Godalming, Surrey, where he is commemorated by a plaque in the Garden of Remembrance. A memorial service was held at St Paul's, Covent Garden (The Actors' Church), London, where there is also a plaque.
However, even death could not put an immediate halt to Karloff's media career. Four Mexican films for which Karloff shot his scenes in Los Angeles were released over a two-year period after he had died. They were dismissed, by critics and fans alike as undistinguished efforts. Also, during the run of Thriller, Karloff lent his name and likeness to a comic book for Gold Key Comics based upon the series. After Thriller was cancelled, the comic was retitled Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery. An illustrated likeness of Karloff continued to introduce each issue of this publication for nearly a decade after the real Karloff died; the comic lasted until the early 1980s.
Legacy
For his contribution to film and television, Boris Karloff was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1737 Vine Street (for motion pictures) and 6664 Hollywood Boulevard (for television) (Lindsay, 1975).
In 1998, Karloff (as Frankenstein's Monster and The Mummy) was featured in a series of "Monster Stamps" issued by the U.S. Postal Service.
In the webcomic Schlock Mercenary, the AI responsible for piloting the mercenary warship Touch and Go is initially created with a spooky voice and demeanour attributed to it being given a 'Karloff Skin'.
Kirk Hammett has been seen using ESP guitars customized to bear images of Boris Karloff as The Mummy and as Frankenstien's monster. He owns the rights to both guitars and is not currently allowing ESP to release them.
Filmography
Further information: Boris Karloff filmography
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A blue plaque for Boris Karloff in Forest Hill Road, East Dulwich, London
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Womble on 02/03/10 at 7:09 pm
Interesting and entertaining bio on Karloff. Thanks for sharing, Ninny. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/03/10 at 7:16 pm
A very talented man with great songs in short a short period of time.
Just imagine how many more hits we would have heard. He died much too young.
Totally agree. But not just him but Richie Valens, & Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr. AKA The Big Bopper. Truly the day the music died. :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'(
Cat
This is true we lost 3 talented people that day :\'( :\'( :\'(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/03/10 at 7:18 pm
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/15/19867211_edeee41dd7.jpg
A blue plaque for Boris Karloff in Forest Hill Road, East Dulwich, London
He was one of the greatest horror actors around
Interesting and entertaining bio on Karloff. Thanks for sharing, Ninny. :)
I'm glad you liked it. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/03/10 at 7:53 pm
One of my step-daughters is a nurse.
Cat
is she a regular nurse?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/04/10 at 6:18 am
The word of the day...School
A school is a place where children are educated. You usually refer to this place as school when you are talking about the time that children spend there and the activities that they do there.
A school is the pupils or staff at a school.
A privately-run place where a particular skill or subject is taught can be referred to as a school.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/04/10 at 6:39 am
The person born on this day...Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer, songwriter and broadcaster whose career spans more than four decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors and baby dolls, Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock.
Alice Cooper was originally a band consisting of Furnier on vocals and harmonica, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and drummer Neal Smith. The original Alice Cooper band broke into the international music mainstream with the 1971 hit "I'm Eighteen" from the album Love it to Death, which was followed by the even bigger single "School's Out" in 1972. The band reached their commercial peak with the 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies.
Furnier's solo career as Alice Cooper, adopting the band's name as his own name, began with the 1975 concept album Welcome to My Nightmare. In 2008 he released Along Came a Spider, his 18th solo album. Expanding from his original Detroit rock roots, over the years Cooper has experimented with many different musical styles, including conceptual rock, art rock, glam metal, hard rock, new wave, pop rock, soft rock, experimental rock and industrial rock. In recent times he has returned more to his garage rock roots.
Alice Cooper is known for his social and witty persona offstage, The Rolling Stone Album Guide going so far as to refer to him as the world's most "beloved heavy metal entertainer". He helped to shape the sound and look of heavy metal, and is seen as being the person who "first introduced horror imagery to rock'n'roll, and whose stagecraft and showmanship have permanently transformed the genre". Away from music, Cooper is a film actor, a golfing celebrity, a restaurateur and, since 2004, a popular radio DJ with his classic rock show Nights with Alice Cooper.
On VH1's "100 Greatest artists of Hard Rock", Cooper was ranked #20..
In 1968, upon learning that Todd Rundgren also had a band called Nazz, the band were again in need of another stage name. Furnier recognized that the group needed a gimmick to succeed, and that other bands were not exploiting the showmanship potential of the stage. He subsequently chose Alice Cooper as the band's name and adopted this stage name as his own.
Early press releases claimed that the name was agreed upon after a session with a Ouija board, during which it was revealed that Furnier was the reincarnation of a 17th century witch named Alice Cooper. However, it is now widely accepted that this story was in fact a publicity stunt—Cooper in later interviews confirmed that the name actually came out of thin air, conjuring an image of "a cute and sweet little girl with a hatchet behind her back". (The name was also once said to be an inside joke associated with a character in the television show Mayberry R.F.D.; Alice Cooper is also the name of Betty Cooper's mother in the Archie comic strips).
In later interviews, Cooper admitted that "Alice Cooper" was only intended to be the name of the band, as Cooper himself used his birth name (Vincent Furnier) during the band's early days. However, as the band played more shows, numerous fans were coming up to Cooper and saying, "Hey, Alice!" Cooper was unaware that the fans were addressing him, and was taken aback by the notion that the fans were mistaking the band's name for his own.
Nonetheless, at the time Cooper and the band realized that the concept of a male playing the role of an androgynous witch, in tattered women's clothing and wearing make-up, would definitely have the potential to cause considerable social controversy and grab headlines. Cooper has stated in interviews that his look was inspired in part by the film Barbarella. "When I saw Anita Pallenberg playing the Great Tyrant in that movie in 1968, wearing long black leather gloves with switchblades coming out of them, I thought, ‘That’s what Alice should look like.’ That, and a little bit of Emma Peel from The Avengers. Alice has also cited What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? as an influence on the make up.
" Furnier would later admit that the name change was one of his most important and brilliant career moves.
The classic Alice Cooper group line-up consisted of singer Alice Cooper (Vincent Furnier), lead guitarist Glen Buxton, rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith. With the exception of Smith, who graduated from Camelback High School (which is referred to in the song "Alma Mater" on the School's Out album), all of the band members were on the Cortez High School cross-country team, and many of Cooper's stage 'effects' were inspired by their cross-country coach, Emmett Smith (one of Smith's class projects was to build a working guillotine for slicing watermelons). Cooper, Buxton and Dunaway were also art students, and their admiration for the works of surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí would further inspire their future stage antics.
One night, after an unsuccessful gig at a club in Venice, California called The Cheetah, where the band emptied the entire room of patrons after playing just ten minutes, they were approached and enlisted by music manager Shep Gordon, who ironically saw the band's seemingly negative impact that night as a force that could be directed in a more positive direction. Shep then managed to arrange an audition for the band with composer and renowned record producer Frank Zappa, who was looking to sign bizarre music acts to his new record label, Straight Records. For the audition, Zappa told them to come to his house "at 7 o'clock", however, the band mistakenly assumed he meant 7 o'clock in the morning. Being woken up by a band willing to play that particular brand of psychedelic rock at seven in the morning impressed Zappa enough to sign them on a three-album deal. It was another Zappa signed act, the all-female GTOs, who liked to "dress the Cooper boys up like full size barbie dolls", that played a major role in developing the band's early onstage look. Cooper's first album Pretties for You was released in 1969 and the album had a slight psychedelic feel to the album. Although it touched the US charts for one week at #193, ultimately met with critical and commercial failure.
After an unrehearsed stage routine involving Cooper and a live chicken garnered attention from the press, the band decided to capitalize on tabloid sensationalism, creating in the process a new subgenre, shock rock. Cooper claims that the infamous 'Chicken Incident', which took place at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in September 1969, was in fact an accident. A chicken somehow made its way on stage during Cooper's performance; not having any experience around farm animals, Cooper presumed that, since the chicken had wings, it would be able to fly. He picked it up and threw it out over the crowd, expecting it to fly away; the bird instead plummeted into the first few rows of the crowd occupied by disabled people in wheelchairs, who reportedly proceeded to tear the animal to pieces.
The next day, the incident made the front page of many national newspapers, and Zappa phoned him to ask if the story, which reported that Cooper had bitten the head off the chicken and drunk its blood on stage, was true. Cooper denied the rumor, whereupon Zappa told him, "Well, whatever you do, don't tell anyone you didn't do it", obviously recognising that such kind of publicity would be priceless for the band.
Despite the publicity the band received from the Chicken Incident, their stronger second album, Easy Action, released in 1970, met with the same fate as its predecessor. Music label Warner Bros. Records then purchased Straight Records from Frank Zappa, and the Alice Cooper group was set to receive a higher level of promotion from the more major label. It was around this time that the band, fed up with Californians' indifference to their act, relocated to Cooper's birthplace, Detroit, where their bizarre stage act was much better received. Detroit would remain their steady home base until 1972. "LA just didn’t get it. They were all on the wrong drug for us. They were on acid and we were basically drinking beer. We fit much more in Detroit than we did anywhere else..."
1970s
In 1970, after two failed albums, the Alice Cooper group was teamed up with fledgling producer Bob Ezrin for their third album, the last in their contract with Straight Records, and the band's last chance to create a hit. That hit soon came with the single "I'm Eighteen", released in November 1970, which reached number 21 in the Billboard Hot 100. The album that followed, Love it to Death, released in February 1971, proved to be their breakthrough record, reaching number 35 in the U.S. Billboard 200 album charts. It would be the first of eleven Alice Cooper group and solo albums produced by Ezrin, who is widely seen as being instrumental in helping to create and develop the band's definitive sound. The band's trailblazing mix of glam and increasingly violent stage theatrics stood out in stark contrast to the bearded, denim-clad hippie bands of the time. As Cooper himself stated: "We were into fun, sex, death and money when everybody was into peace and love. We wanted to see what was next. It turned out we were next, and we drove a stake through the heart of the Love Generation".
Sporting tight sequined costumes by the prominent rock fashion designer Cindy Dunaway (sister of band member Neal Smith, and wife of band member Dennis Dunaway) and stage shows that involved mock fights and Gothic torture modes being imposed on Cooper, the androgynous stage role now presented a villainous side which posed a potential threat to modern society. With Cooper needing to be punished for his immoral ways, the first of a number of methods of execution were incorporated into the show: the Electric Chair. The success of the band's single, the album, and their tour of 1971, which saw their first and hugely successful tour of Europe (audience members reportedly included Elton John and David Bowie), provided enough encouragement for Warner Bros. to offer the band a new multi-album contract.
Their follow-up album Killer, released in late 1971, continued the commercial success of Love It To Death and included further single success with "Under My Wheels" and "Be My Lover" in early 1972, and "Halo Of Flies", which became a Top 10 hit in the Netherlands. Thematically, Killer expanded on the villainous side of Cooper's androgynous stage role, with its music becoming the soundtrack to the group's morality-based stage show, which by then featured a boa constrictor hugging Cooper onstage and the murderous axe chopping of bloodied dead baby dolls. In addition, the method of execution had developed into death by hanging: The Gallows. By mid-1972, the Alice Cooper show had become infamous, but what the band really needed was a big hit single.
That summer saw the release of the appropriately titled single "School's Out". It went Top 10 in the US, was a #1 single in the UK, and remains a staple on classic rock radio to this day. School's Out the album reached #2 on the US charts and sold over a million copies. The band now relocated to their new mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. With Cooper's on-stage androgynous persona completely replaced with brattiness and machismo, the band's traveling carnival of filth and terror cemented their success with subsequent tours in the US and Europe, and won over devoted fans in droves while at the same time horrifying parents and outraging the social establishment.
In England, Mary Whitheouse, a well known campaigner for values of morality and decency, succeeded in having the BBC ban the video for "School's Out" and Member of Parliament Leo Abse petitioned Home Secretary Reginald Maudling to have the group banned altogether from performing in the country. However, this seemed to have little effect on the band's popularity, as they were selected to be the first band to appear on the television series ABC In Concert in September 1972, and in February 1973 Billion Dollar Babies appeared, which was the band's most commercially successful album. It reached #1 in both the US and UK, and is also viewed by many critics as representing the band's creative peak. "Elected", a 1972 Top 10 UK hit from the album, which inspired one of the first MTV-style story-line promo videos ever made for a song (three years before Queen's promotional video for "Bohemian Rhapsody"), was followed by two more UK Top 10 singles, "Hello Hooray" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy", the latter of which was the last UK single from the album; it reached #25 in the US. The title track, featuring guest vocals by Donovan, was also a US hit single. Due to Glen Buxton's health problems, around this time, Mick Mashbir was added to the band (who also played, without credit, on Muscle of Love).
With a string of successful concept albums and several hit singles, the band continued their grueling schedule and toured the US once again. Continued attempts by politicians and pressure groups to ban their shocking act only served to fuel the myth of Alice Cooper further and generate even greater public interest. Their 1973 US tour broke box office records previously set by The Rolling Stones and raised rock theatrics to new heights; the multi-level stage show by then featured numerous special effects, including Billion Dollar Bills, decapitated baby dolls and mannequins, a dental psychosis scene complete with dancing teeth, and the ultimate execution prop and highlight of the show: the guillotine. The guillotine and other stage effects were designed for the band by magician James Randi, who appeared on stage during some of the shows as executioner. The Alice Cooper group had now reached its peak and it was among the most visible and successful acts in the industry. (Cooper's stage antics would influence a host of later bands, including, among others, Kiss, Blue Öyster Cult, GWAR, W.A.S.P. and, later, Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie.) Beneath the surface, however, the repetitive schedule of recording and touring had begun to take its toll on the band, and Cooper, who was under the constant pressure of getting into character for that night's show, was consistently sighted nursing a can of beer.
Muscle of Love, released at the end of 1973, was to be the last studio album from the classic line-up, and marked Alice Cooper's last UK Top 20 single of the 1970s with "Teenage Lament '74". A theme song was recorded for the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, but a different song of the same name by Lulu was chosen instead. By 1974, the Muscle of Love album had not matched the top-charting success of its predecessor, and the band began to have constant disagreements. Cooper wanted to retain the theatrics in the show that had brought them so much attention, while the rest of the group thought they should be toned down so that they could concentrate more on the music which had given them credibility. Largely as a result of this difference of opinion, the band decided to take a much-needed hiatus.
During this time, Cooper relocated back to Los Angeles and started appearing regularly on TV shows such as Hollywood Squares, and Warner Bros. released the Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits compilation album which featured classic artwork and which performed better than Muscle of Love, reaching the US Top 10. However, the band's feature film Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper (mainly concert footage with a faint storyline and 'comedic' sketches woven throughout), released on a minor theatrical run mostly to drive-in theaters, saw little box office success.
As some of the Alice Cooper band's members had begun recording solo albums Cooper decided to do the same himself, and 1975 saw the release of his first solo album Welcome To My Nightmare. Its success marked the final break with the original members of the band, with Cooper collaborating with their producer Bob Ezrin who recruited Lou Reed's backing band, including guitarist Dick Wagner to play on the album. Spearheaded by the US Top 20 hit "Only Women Bleed", a ballad, the album was released by Atlantic Records in March of that year and became a Top 10 hit for Cooper. It was a concept album, based on the nightmare of a child named Steven, featuring narration by classic horror movie film star Vincent Price (several years after Welcome To My Nightmare, he guested on Michael Jackson's "Thriller"), and serving as the soundtrack to Cooper's new stage show, which now included more theatrics than ever (including an eight foot tall furry Cyclops which Cooper decapitates and kills).
However, by this time alcohol was clearly affecting Cooper's performances. During the Welcome to My Nightmare tour in Vancouver, and only a few songs into the routine, Cooper tripped over a footlight, staggered a few paces, lost his bearings and plunged head first off the stage and onto the concrete floor of the Pacific Colosseum. Some fans, thinking it was all part of the act, reached through the barriers to pull at his blood-matted hair before bouncers could pull him away for help. He was taken to a local hospital, where medical staff stitched his head wound and provided him with a skullcap. Cooper returned to the venue a couple of hours later and tried to perform a couple of more songs, but within minutes he had to call it a night. The opening act, Suzi Quatro, had already left the building and the remainder of the concert was cancelled.
Accompanying the album and stage show was the TV special The Nightmare, starring Cooper and Vincent Price in person, which aired on US prime-time TV in April 1975. The Nightmare, the first rock music video album ever made (it was later released on home video in 1983 and gained a Grammy Awards nomination for Best Long Form Music Video), was regarded as another groundbreaking moment in rock history. Adding to all that, a concert film, also called Welcome to My Nightmare and filmed live at London's Wembley Arena in September 1975, was released to theaters in 1976. Though it failed at the box office, it later became a midnight movie favorite and a cult classic. Such was the immense success of this solo project that Cooper decided to continue alone as a solo artist, and the original band became officially defunct. It was also during this time that Cooper co-founded the legendary drinking club The Hollywood Vampires, which gave him yet another reason to indulge his continued ample appetite for alcohol.
Following the 1976 US #12 hit "I Never Cry", another ballad, two albums, Alice Cooper Goes to Hell and Lace and Whiskey, and another ballad hit, the US #9 "You and Me", it became clear from his performances during his 1977 US tour that he was in dire need of help with his alcoholism (at his alcoholic peak it was rumoured that Cooper was consuming up to two cases of Budweiser and a bottle of whiskey a day). Following the tour, Cooper had himself hospitalized in a New York sanitarium for treatment, during which time the live album The Alice Cooper Show was released. His experience in the sanitarium was the inspiration for his 1978 semi-autobiographical album From The Inside, which Cooper co-wrote with Bernie Taupin. The release spawned another US Top 20 hit "How You Gonna See Me Now", which peaked at #12, and was yet another ballad, based on his fear of how his wife would react to him after his spell in hospital.
The subsequent tour's stage show was based inside an asylum, and was filmed for Cooper's first home video release, The Strange Case of Alice Cooper, in 1979. Around this time, Cooper performed "Welcome To My Nightmare", "You and Me", and "School's Out" on The Muppet Show (episode # 307) on March 28, 1978 (he played one of the devil's henchmen trying to dupe Kermit the Frog and Gonzo into selling their souls). He also appeared in an against-type casting in the campy role of a piano playing, disco bellboy in Mae West's final film, Sextette. Cooper also led celebrities in raising money to remodel the famous Hollywood Sign in California. Cooper himself contributed over $27,000 to the project, buying an O in the sign in memory of friend and comedian Groucho Marx.
During an interview for the program Entertainment USA in 1986, Cooper stunned interviewer Jonathan King by stating that The Yardbirds were his favorite band of all time. Perhaps King should not have been so taken aback, as Cooper had as far back as 1969 gone on record as saying that it was music from the mid-sixties, and particularly from British bands The Beatles, The Who, and The Rolling Stones, as well as The Yardbirds, that had had the greatest influence on him. Cooper would later pay homage to The Who by appearing in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who in 1994 at Carnegie Hall in New York, and performing a cover of "My Generation" on the Brutal Planet tour of 2000.
During an interview that Cooper himself conducted with Ozzy Osbourne on his radio show, Nights with Alice Cooper in 2007, Cooper again affirmed his debt of gratitude to these bands, and to The Beatles in particular. During their discussion, Cooper and Osbourne bemoaned the often inferior quality of songwriting coming from contemporary rock artists. Cooper stated that in his opinion the cause of the problem was that certain modern bands "had forgotten to listen to The Beatles".
On the 25th Anniversary DVD of Cabaret, Liza Minelli stated that her good friend, Alice Cooper, had told her that his whole career was based on the movie Cabaret.
Evidence of Cooper's eclectic tastes in both classic and contemporary rock music, from the 1960s to the present, can be seen in the track listings of his radio show; in addition, when Cooper appeared on the BBC Radio 2 program "Tracks of My Years" in September 2007, he cited his favourite tracks of all time as being the following: "19th Nervous Breakdown" (1966) by The Rolling Stones, "Turning Japanese" (1980) by The Vapors, "My Sharona" (1979) by The Knack, "Beds Are Burning" (1987) by Midnight Oil, "My Generation" (1965) by The Who, "Welcome To The Jungle" (1987) by Guns N' Roses, "Rebel Rebel" (1974) by David Bowie, "Over Under Sideways Down" (1966) by The Yardbirds, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" (2003) by Jet and "A Hard Day's Night" (1964) by The Beatles.
Rob Zombie, former frontman of White Zombie, claims his first "metal moment" was seeing Alice Cooper on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert.
In a 1978 interview with Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan stated, "I think Alice Cooper is an overlooked songwriter".
In the foreword to Alice Cooper's CD retrospective box set The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper, John Lydon of The Sex Pistols pronounced Killer as the greatest rock album of all time, and in 2002 Lydon presented his own tribute program to Cooper on BBC radio.
The Flaming Lips are longtime Alice Cooper fans and used the bass line from "Levity Ball" (an early song from the 1969 release Pretties for You) for their song "The Ceiling Is Bending". They also covered "Sun Arise" for an Alice Cooper tribute album. (Cooper's version, which closes the album Love It To Death, was itself a cover of a Rolf Harris song.)
In 1999 Cleopatra Records released Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper featuring a number of contributions from rock and metal all-star collaborations, including Dave Mustaine, Roger Daltrey, Ronnie James Dio, Slash, Bruce Dickinson, and Steve Jones. The album was notable for the fact that it was possible to assemble a different supergroup for each cover version on the record, which gave an indication of the depth of esteem in which Cooper is held by other eminent musicians within the music industry.
Heavy metal rocker Jon Mikl Thor, also known as Thor, stated in an interview that Alice Cooper was his idol and hero.
A song by alternative rock group They Might Be Giants from their 1994 album John Henry entitled "Why Must I Be Sad?" mentions 13 Cooper songs, and has been described as being "from the perspective of a kid who hears all of his unspoken sadness given voice in the music of Alice Cooper; Alice says everything the kid has been wishing he could say about his alienated, frustrated, teenage world".
Such unlikely non-musician fans of Cooper included Groucho Marx and Mae West, who both reportedly saw the early shows as a form of vaudeville revue, and artist Salvador Dalí, who on attending a show in 1973 described it as being surreal, and made a hologram, First Cylindric Chromo-Hologram Portrait of Alice Cooper's Brain.
Personal life
In the period when the Alice Cooper group was signed to Frank Zappa's Straight label, Miss Christine of the GTOs became Cooper's girlfriend. Miss Christine (real name: Christine Frka), who had actually recommended Zappa to the group, died on November 5, 1972 of an overdose. Another long-time girlfriend of Cooper's was Cindy Lang, with whom he lived for several years. They separated in 1975. Lang sued Cooper for palimony, and they eventually settled out of court in the early 1980s. After his separation from Lang, Cooper was briefly linked with sex symbol/actress Raquel Welch. Cooper then reportedly left Welch, however, to marry, on March 20 1976, ballerina instructor/choreographer Sheryl Goddard, who performed in the Alice Cooper show from 1975 to 1982. In November 1983, at the height of Cooper's alcoholism, Sheryl filed for divorce, but by mid-1984, she and Cooper had reconciled. The couple has remained together since. In a 2002 television interview, Cooper claimed that he had "never cheated" on his wife in all the time they had been together. In the same interview, he also claimed that the secret to a lasting and successful relationship is to continue going out on dates with your partner. The couple have three children: elder daughter Calico Cooper (born 1981), an actress and singer who has been performing in the Alice Cooper show since 2000; son Dash (b. 1985), a student at Arizona State University, and also plays in a band called Runaway Phoenix; and younger daughter Sonora Rose (b. 1993).
Cooper, a huge fan of The Simpsons, was asked to contribute a storyline for the September 2004 edition of Bongo Comics's Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror, a special Monsters of Rock issue that also included stories plotted by Gene Simmons, Rob Zombie and Pat Boone. Cooper's story featured Homer Simpson being a Jason Voorhees, Friday the 13th style killer and Alice and the citizens of Springfield are being stalked by Homer.
On June 20, 2005, ahead of his June–July 2005 tour, Cooper had a wide-ranging interview with interviewer of celebrities Andrew Denton for the Australian ABC Television's Enough Rope. Cooper discussed various issues during a revealing and frank talk, including the horrors of acute alcoholism and his subsequent cure, being a Christian, and his social and work relationship with his family. During the interview, Cooper remarked "I look at Mick Jagger and he's on an 18-month tour and he's six years older than me, so I figure, when he retires, I have six more years. I will not let him beat me when it comes to longevity."
Discography
See: Alice Cooper discography
Filmography
See: Alice Cooper filmography
List of Alice Cooper band personnel
See: list of Alice Cooper personnel
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/04/10 at 6:44 am
The person who died on this day...Karen Carpenter
Karen Anne Carpenter (March 2, 1950 – February 4, 1983) was an American singer and drummer. She and her brother, Richard, formed the 1970s duo The Carpenters. Her drumming skills were considerable, but it is for her vocal performances that she is best remembered.
She suffered from anorexia nervosa, a little known disease at the time, and died at the age of 32 from heart failure, later attributed to complications related to her illness.
From 1965 to 1968, Karen, her brother Richard and his college friend Wes Jacobs, a bassist and tuba player, formed The Richard Carpenter Trio. The band played jazz at numerous nightclubs, and also appeared on a TV talent show called Your All American College Show.
Karen, Richard, and other musicians, including Gary Sims and John Bettis, also performed as an ensemble known as Spectrum. Spectrum focused on a harmonious, vocal sound, and recorded many demo tapes in the garage studio of friend and bassist Joe Osborn. Many of those tapes were rejected. According to former Carpenters member John Bettis, those rejections "took their toll."
Finally, in April 1969 A&M Records signed the Carpenters to a recording contract. Karen Carpenter sang most of the songs on the band's first album, "Offering" (later retitled Ticket to Ride). The issued single (later the title track), which was a cover of a Beatles song, became their first single: it reached #54 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts. Their next album, 1970's Close to You, featured two massive hit singles: "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun." They peaked at #1 and #2, respectively, on the Hot 100.
Karen Carpenter started out as both the group's drummer and lead singer, and she originally sang all her vocals from behind the drum set. Eventually, she was persuaded to stand at the microphone to sing the band's hits while another musician played the drums, although she still did some drumming. (Former Mouseketeer Cubby O'Brien served as the band's other drummer for many years.)
After the release of Now & Then in 1973, the albums tended to have Karen singing more and drumming less. Karen rarely selected the songs she would sing, and often felt she had very little control over her life. She dieted obsessively and developed anorexia nervosa. At the same time, her brother Richard developed an addiction to Quaaludes.
The Carpenters frequently cancelled tour dates, and they stopped touring altogether after September 4, 1978, when they gave their last live concert at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. In 1981, after the release of the Made in America album (which turned out to be their last) the Carpenters returned to the stage and did some tour dates, including their final live performance in Brazil.
As a drummer
Karen's drumming was praised by fellow drummers Hal Blaine, Cubby O'Brien, Buddy Rich and Modern Drummer magazine. Many people are unaware that Karen had an impeccable ability to play the drums, in part because the public wanted a singing Karen Carpenter, rather than a drumming Karen Carpenter. However, according to Richard Carpenter in an interview, Karen always considered herself a "drummer who sang."
Carpenter started playing the drum set in 1964. She was always enthusiastic about the drums, and taught herself how to play complicated drum lines with "exotic time signatures", according to Richard Carpenter.
Solo album
In 1979, Richard Carpenter took a year off to cure a dependency on quaaludes, and Karen decided to make a solo album with producer Phil Ramone. Her solo work was markedly different from usual Carpenters fare, consisting of adult-oriented and disco/dance-tempo material with more sexual lyrics and the use of Karen's higher vocal register.
The project met a tepid response from Richard and A&M executives in early 1980. The album was shelved by A&M CEO Herb Alpert, in spite of Quincy Jones' attempts to talk Alpert into releasing the record after some tracks had been remixed. A&M made the Carpenters pay $400,000 to cover the cost of recording Karen's unreleased solo album, which was to be charged against the duo's future royalties.
Carpenters fans got a taste of the album in 1989 when some of its tracks (as remixed by Richard) were mixed onto the album Lovelines, the final album of Carpenters' new unreleased material. Seven years later, in 1996, the entire album, featuring mixes approved by Karen before her death and one unmixed bonus track, was finally released.
Personal life
Karen lived with her parents until she was 26 years old. After the Carpenters became successful in the early 1970s, she and her brother bought two apartment buildings in Downey. Called "Close To You" and "Only Just Begun," both apartments can still be found at 8388 5th Street, Downey, California.
In 1976, Karen bought two Century City apartments, gutted them, and turned them into one condominium. Located at 2222 Avenue of the Stars, the doorbell chimed the first six notes of "We've Only Just Begun". As a housewarming gift, her mother gave her a collection of leather-bound classic works of literature. Karen collected Disney memorabilia, loved to play softball and baseball, and listed Petula Clark, Olivia Newton-John and Dionne Warwick among her closest friends.
Karen dated a number of well-known men including Mike Curb, Tony Danza, Mark Harmon, Steve Martin and Alan Osmond. The songwriter Tom Bahler wrote the song "She's Out of My Life" (which eventually became a hit single for Michael Jackson) after she broke up with him because she discovered that he had fathered a child with a married woman.
After a whirlwind romance, Karen married real estate developer Thomas James Burris on August 31, 1980 at the Beverly Hills Hotel in the Crystal Room. Burris, a divorcee with an 18-year old son, was nine years older than she was. A new song performed by Karen at the ceremony, "Because We Are In Love," was released in 1981. The couple went to Bora Bora for their honeymoon. Karen called her family from the island and described it as "Boring Boring." The marriage was not a happy one, and the couple filed for divorce in November 1981.
The song "Now", recorded in April 1982, was the last song Karen Carpenter recorded. She recorded it after a two-week intermission in her therapy with psychotherapist Steven Levenkron in New York City for her anorexia. The sight of Karen upon her return to California in April shook Richard and his parents, since she had lost a considerable amount of weight since beginning her therapy with Steven Levenkron. In September 1982, Karen's treatment, which had never convinced her family as being an effective method, took a sinister turn of events when Karen called her psyschotherapist to tell him she felt dizzy and that her heart was beating irregularly. Karen was admitted to Lennox Hospital in New York and hooked up to an intranvenous drip, which would be the cause of her much debated 30 pound weight gain in 8 weeks. Richard recalled visiting her in the hospital, saying 'Karen, this is crap. Don't you understand? This is crap! You're going about this all the wrong way, this guy isn't getting anything accomplished, because you're in a hospital now!'
Karen returned to California in November 1982, determined to reinvigorate her career, finalize her divorce and begin a new album with Richard. She had gained 30 pounds over a two-month stay in New York, and the sudden weight gain (much of which was the result of intravenous feeding) further strained her heart, which was already weak from years of crash dieting. At the height of her illness, Karen was taking ten times the normal daily dose of thyroid replacement medication (equivalent to 1 milligram, as opposed to the normal 100 microgram dose), in order to speed up her metabolism.
On December 17, 1982, Karen made her last public appearance in the "multi-purpose" room of the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, California singing for her godchildren and their classmates who attended the school. She sang Christmas carols for friends.
A few weeks before Karen died, Richard tried to get through to Karen that she was still sick, saying many years later "Karen had marvellous, big brown eyes. And there was just no life in them. " Speaking of a meeting with his sister and Werner Wolfen, the Carpenters' financial advisor, two weeks prior to her death, Richard said:
Karen was hot as hell at me for even questioning how she looked. And I told her 'the only reason I'm bringing all of this up, and talking to people...is because I'm concerned and because I love you.' And am I glad I said that because within weeks, that was that. She was dead.'"
Death
On February 4, 1983, less than a month before her thirty-third birthday, Karen suffered heart failure at her parents' home in Downey, California. She was taken to Downey Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead twenty minutes later. The LA coroner gave the cause of death as "heartbeat irregularities brought on by chemical imbalances associated with anorexia nervosa." Her divorce was scheduled to have been finalized that day.
The autopsy stated that Karen's death was the result of emetine cardiotoxicity due to anorexia nervosa. Under the anatomical summary, the first item was heart failure, with anorexia as second. The third finding was cachexia, which is extremely low weight and weakness and general body decline associated with chronic disease. Emetine cardiotoxicity implies that Karen abused ipecac syrup, an easily obtained emetic medicine that is only meant to be taken by persons who have accidentally swallowed poison. Agnes and Richard disputed this finding. Both have stated that they never found empty vials of ipecac in her apartment, nor was there any concrete evidence that Karen had been vomiting. Richard believes that Karen was not willing to do this because it could damage her vocal cords, relying on laxatives alone to maintain her low body weight.
Her funeral service took place on February 8, 1983, at the Downey United Methodist Church where the Rev. Charles Neal, an old family friend and their pastor in New Haven, officiated. Carpenter, dressed in a rose colored suit, lay in an open white casket. Over a thousand mourners passed through to say goodbye, among them her friends Dorothy Hamill, Olivia Newton-John, Petula Clark, and Dionne Warwick. Carpenter's estranged husband Tom attended her funeral, where he took off his wedding ring and threw it into the casket.
She was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California. In 2003, she was re-interred, next to her parents, in a mausoleum at the Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California.
After death
Carpenter's death brought lasting media attention to anorexia nervosa and also to bulimia. In the years after Carpenter's death, there were a number of celebrities who decided to go public about their eating disorders, among them Tracey Gold and Diana, Princess of Wales. Medical centers and hospitals began receiving increased contacts from people with these disorders. The general public had little knowledge of anorexia nervosa and bulimia prior to Carpenter's death, making the condition difficult to identify and treat.
Her family started the "Karen A. Carpenter Memorial Foundation," which raised money for research on anorexia nervosa and eating disorders. Today the name of the organization has been changed to the "Carpenter Family Foundation." In addition to eating disorders, the foundation now funds the arts, entertainment and education.
Carpenters' star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
On October 12, 1983, the Carpenters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is located at 6931 Hollywood Blvd., a few yards from the Kodak Theater. Richard, Harold and Agnes Carpenter attended the inauguration, as did many fans.
In 1987, movie director Todd Haynes used songs by Richard and Karen in his movie Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. In the movie, Haynes portrayed the Carpenters with Barbie dolls, rather than live actors. The movie was later pulled from distribution after Richard Carpenter won a court case involving song royalties; Haynes had not obtained legal permission to use The Carpenters' recordings.
On January 1, 1989, the similarly-titled made-for-TV movie The Karen Carpenter Story aired on CBS with Cynthia Gibb in the title role. Gibb lip-synced the songs to Carpenter's recorded voice. Both films use the song "This Masquerade" in the background while showing Karen's marriage to Burris.
Lists containing Karen Carpenter
1975 - In Playboy's annual opinion poll, its readers voted Karen Carpenter the Best Rock Drummer of the year.
1999 - VH1 ranked Karen Carpenter at #29 on their list of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll.
2008 - Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Karen Carpenter number 94 on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
Albums
Studio albums
* Offering (later reissued as 'Ticket To Ride') (1969)
* Close to You (1970)
* Carpenters (1971)
* A Song for You (1972)
* Now & Then (1973)
* The Singles: 1969-1973 (1973)
* Horizon (1975)
* A Kind of Hush (1976)
* Passage (1977)
* Christmas Portrait (1978)
* The Singles: 1974-1978 (1978)
* Made in America (1981)
* Voice of the Heart (1983)
* An Old-Fashioned Christmas (1984)
* Lovelines (1989)
* As Time Goes By (2003)
Solo albums
* Karen Carpenter (1996)
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/04/10 at 7:48 am
Wow...Alice Cooper and Karen Carpenter.... I like them both. Cooper looked monstrous but sang some of the greatest ballads of the 70's. I read his bio with great interest.
Karen Carpenter was simply one of the greatest female voices of last century. Incredibly under rated....
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/04/10 at 7:59 am
I LOVE the Welcome To My Nightmare album. The only Alice Cooper album I have.
I remember when Karen died. So sad. She was such a great talent.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/04/10 at 8:04 am
is she a regular nurse?
As opposed to a irregular nurse? ???
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/04/10 at 8:06 am
The word of the day...School
A school is a place where children are educated. You usually refer to this place as school when you are talking about the time that children spend there and the activities that they do there.
A school is the pupils or staff at a school.
A privately-run place where a particular skill or subject is taught can be referred to as a school.
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f226/q_t_girl/School/Brittany.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g250/cdewitt557/School.jpg
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af71/zappwns/Real-Life-Pics/school-flood.png
http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad196/stephanyamaranta/school.jpg
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I can't believe it's been 18 years since I graduated High School. :o
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/04/10 at 8:07 am
As opposed to a irregular nurse? ???
Cat
What's that supposed to mean?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/04/10 at 8:10 am
I LOVE the Welcome To My Nightmare album. The only Alice Cooper album I have.
I remember when Karen died. So sad. She was such a great talent.
Cat
It was my only Cooper album also. The single Dept of Youth was a bigger hit over here (from memory) than it was in the U.S. (only #67 in The States).
I also didn't realize that Alice Cooper was the band name prior to him becoming a single act.... ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/04/10 at 8:11 am
Alice Cooper was at Wrestlemania 2 in Jake Roberts's corner against The HonkyTonk Man.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/04/10 at 8:18 am
It was my only Cooper album also. The single Dept of Youth was a bigger hit over here (from memory) than it was in the U.S. (only #67 in The States).
I also didn't realize that Alice Cooper was the band name prior to him becoming a single act.... ;D
I love Dept of Youth. I don't know if you ever listened to the end as the song starts to fade (it is barely audible) when he asks, "And who gave it to you?" and the kids yell "Donnie Osmond" and he said, "WHAT?" That always cracks me up.
Of course I do Love Some Folks, Years Ago & Steven. Great songs.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/04/10 at 8:20 am
I love Dept of Youth. I don't know if you ever listened to the end as the song starts to fade (it is barely audible) when he asks, "And who gave it to you?" and the kids yell "Donnie Osmond" and he said, "WHAT?" That always cracks me up.
Of course I do Love Some Folks, Years Ago & Steven. Great songs.
Cat
YEESSS! I forgot about that. That was always amusing.... ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/04/10 at 9:17 am
Wow...Alice Cooper and Karen Carpenter.... I like them both. Cooper looked monstrous but sang some of the greatest ballads of the 70's. I read his bio with great interest.
Karen Carpenter was simply one of the greatest female voices of last century. Incredibly under rated....
I LOVE the Welcome To My Nightmare album. The only Alice Cooper album I have.
I remember when Karen died. So sad. She was such a great talent.
Cat
Yes interesting that they both have different styles, but I also liked both...Karen was one of the greatest, plus a female drummer back in the 70's now you didn't see that.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/04/10 at 9:19 am
As opposed to a irregular nurse? ???
Cat
I was dying to say that but bite my lip ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/04/10 at 12:09 pm
Yes interesting that they both have different styles, but I also liked both...Karen was one of the greatest, plus a female drummer back in the 70's now you didn't see that.
Karen..still miss ya. Your sweet voice..a touch of sadness in it...Those carpenter songs...
Classics.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/04/10 at 1:47 pm
Karen..still miss ya. Your sweet voice..a touch of sadness in it...Those carpenter songs...
Classics.
I've been listening to some of their songs today..very nice
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/04/10 at 1:50 pm
I also didn't realize that Alice Cooper was the band name prior to him becoming a single act.... ;D
Neither did I...until I read about it a few months ago.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/04/10 at 3:10 pm
The person born on this day...Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer, songwriter and broadcaster whose career spans more than four decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors and baby dolls, Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock.
Alice Cooper was originally a band consisting of Furnier on vocals and harmonica, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and drummer Neal Smith. The original Alice Cooper band broke into the international music mainstream with the 1971 hit "I'm Eighteen" from the album Love it to Death, which was followed by the even bigger single "School's Out" in 1972. The band reached their commercial peak with the 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies.
Furnier's solo career as Alice Cooper, adopting the band's name as his own name, began with the 1975 concept album Welcome to My Nightmare. In 2008 he released Along Came a Spider, his 18th solo album. Expanding from his original Detroit rock roots, over the years Cooper has experimented with many different musical styles, including conceptual rock, art rock, glam metal, hard rock, new wave, pop rock, soft rock, experimental rock and industrial rock. In recent times he has returned more to his garage rock roots.
Alice Cooper is known for his social and witty persona offstage, The Rolling Stone Album Guide going so far as to refer to him as the world's most "beloved heavy metal entertainer". He helped to shape the sound and look of heavy metal, and is seen as being the person who "first introduced horror imagery to rock'n'roll, and whose stagecraft and showmanship have permanently transformed the genre". Away from music, Cooper is a film actor, a golfing celebrity, a restaurateur and, since 2004, a popular radio DJ with his classic rock show Nights with Alice Cooper.
On VH1's "100 Greatest artists of Hard Rock", Cooper was ranked #20..
In 1968, upon learning that Todd Rundgren also had a band called Nazz, the band were again in need of another stage name. Furnier recognized that the group needed a gimmick to succeed, and that other bands were not exploiting the showmanship potential of the stage. He subsequently chose Alice Cooper as the band's name and adopted this stage name as his own.
Early press releases claimed that the name was agreed upon after a session with a Ouija board, during which it was revealed that Furnier was the reincarnation of a 17th century witch named Alice Cooper. However, it is now widely accepted that this story was in fact a publicity stunt—Cooper in later interviews confirmed that the name actually came out of thin air, conjuring an image of "a cute and sweet little girl with a hatchet behind her back". (The name was also once said to be an inside joke associated with a character in the television show Mayberry R.F.D.; Alice Cooper is also the name of Betty Cooper's mother in the Archie comic strips).
In later interviews, Cooper admitted that "Alice Cooper" was only intended to be the name of the band, as Cooper himself used his birth name (Vincent Furnier) during the band's early days. However, as the band played more shows, numerous fans were coming up to Cooper and saying, "Hey, Alice!" Cooper was unaware that the fans were addressing him, and was taken aback by the notion that the fans were mistaking the band's name for his own.
Nonetheless, at the time Cooper and the band realized that the concept of a male playing the role of an androgynous witch, in tattered women's clothing and wearing make-up, would definitely have the potential to cause considerable social controversy and grab headlines. Cooper has stated in interviews that his look was inspired in part by the film Barbarella. "When I saw Anita Pallenberg playing the Great Tyrant in that movie in 1968, wearing long black leather gloves with switchblades coming out of them, I thought, ‘That’s what Alice should look like.’ That, and a little bit of Emma Peel from The Avengers. Alice has also cited What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? as an influence on the make up.
" Furnier would later admit that the name change was one of his most important and brilliant career moves.
The classic Alice Cooper group line-up consisted of singer Alice Cooper (Vincent Furnier), lead guitarist Glen Buxton, rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith. With the exception of Smith, who graduated from Camelback High School (which is referred to in the song "Alma Mater" on the School's Out album), all of the band members were on the Cortez High School cross-country team, and many of Cooper's stage 'effects' were inspired by their cross-country coach, Emmett Smith (one of Smith's class projects was to build a working guillotine for slicing watermelons). Cooper, Buxton and Dunaway were also art students, and their admiration for the works of surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí would further inspire their future stage antics.
One night, after an unsuccessful gig at a club in Venice, California called The Cheetah, where the band emptied the entire room of patrons after playing just ten minutes, they were approached and enlisted by music manager Shep Gordon, who ironically saw the band's seemingly negative impact that night as a force that could be directed in a more positive direction. Shep then managed to arrange an audition for the band with composer and renowned record producer Frank Zappa, who was looking to sign bizarre music acts to his new record label, Straight Records. For the audition, Zappa told them to come to his house "at 7 o'clock", however, the band mistakenly assumed he meant 7 o'clock in the morning. Being woken up by a band willing to play that particular brand of psychedelic rock at seven in the morning impressed Zappa enough to sign them on a three-album deal. It was another Zappa signed act, the all-female GTOs, who liked to "dress the Cooper boys up like full size barbie dolls", that played a major role in developing the band's early onstage look. Cooper's first album Pretties for You was released in 1969 and the album had a slight psychedelic feel to the album. Although it touched the US charts for one week at #193, ultimately met with critical and commercial failure.
After an unrehearsed stage routine involving Cooper and a live chicken garnered attention from the press, the band decided to capitalize on tabloid sensationalism, creating in the process a new subgenre, shock rock. Cooper claims that the infamous 'Chicken Incident', which took place at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in September 1969, was in fact an accident. A chicken somehow made its way on stage during Cooper's performance; not having any experience around farm animals, Cooper presumed that, since the chicken had wings, it would be able to fly. He picked it up and threw it out over the crowd, expecting it to fly away; the bird instead plummeted into the first few rows of the crowd occupied by disabled people in wheelchairs, who reportedly proceeded to tear the animal to pieces.
The next day, the incident made the front page of many national newspapers, and Zappa phoned him to ask if the story, which reported that Cooper had bitten the head off the chicken and drunk its blood on stage, was true. Cooper denied the rumor, whereupon Zappa told him, "Well, whatever you do, don't tell anyone you didn't do it", obviously recognising that such kind of publicity would be priceless for the band.
Despite the publicity the band received from the Chicken Incident, their stronger second album, Easy Action, released in 1970, met with the same fate as its predecessor. Music label Warner Bros. Records then purchased Straight Records from Frank Zappa, and the Alice Cooper group was set to receive a higher level of promotion from the more major label. It was around this time that the band, fed up with Californians' indifference to their act, relocated to Cooper's birthplace, Detroit, where their bizarre stage act was much better received. Detroit would remain their steady home base until 1972. "LA just didn’t get it. They were all on the wrong drug for us. They were on acid and we were basically drinking beer. We fit much more in Detroit than we did anywhere else..."
1970s
In 1970, after two failed albums, the Alice Cooper group was teamed up with fledgling producer Bob Ezrin for their third album, the last in their contract with Straight Records, and the band's last chance to create a hit. That hit soon came with the single "I'm Eighteen", released in November 1970, which reached number 21 in the Billboard Hot 100. The album that followed, Love it to Death, released in February 1971, proved to be their breakthrough record, reaching number 35 in the U.S. Billboard 200 album charts. It would be the first of eleven Alice Cooper group and solo albums produced by Ezrin, who is widely seen as being instrumental in helping to create and develop the band's definitive sound. The band's trailblazing mix of glam and increasingly violent stage theatrics stood out in stark contrast to the bearded, denim-clad hippie bands of the time. As Cooper himself stated: "We were into fun, sex, death and money when everybody was into peace and love. We wanted to see what was next. It turned out we were next, and we drove a stake through the heart of the Love Generation".
Sporting tight sequined costumes by the prominent rock fashion designer Cindy Dunaway (sister of band member Neal Smith, and wife of band member Dennis Dunaway) and stage shows that involved mock fights and Gothic torture modes being imposed on Cooper, the androgynous stage role now presented a villainous side which posed a potential threat to modern society. With Cooper needing to be punished for his immoral ways, the first of a number of methods of execution were incorporated into the show: the Electric Chair. The success of the band's single, the album, and their tour of 1971, which saw their first and hugely successful tour of Europe (audience members reportedly included Elton John and David Bowie), provided enough encouragement for Warner Bros. to offer the band a new multi-album contract.
Their follow-up album Killer, released in late 1971, continued the commercial success of Love It To Death and included further single success with "Under My Wheels" and "Be My Lover" in early 1972, and "Halo Of Flies", which became a Top 10 hit in the Netherlands. Thematically, Killer expanded on the villainous side of Cooper's androgynous stage role, with its music becoming the soundtrack to the group's morality-based stage show, which by then featured a boa constrictor hugging Cooper onstage and the murderous axe chopping of bloodied dead baby dolls. In addition, the method of execution had developed into death by hanging: The Gallows. By mid-1972, the Alice Cooper show had become infamous, but what the band really needed was a big hit single.
That summer saw the release of the appropriately titled single "School's Out". It went Top 10 in the US, was a #1 single in the UK, and remains a staple on classic rock radio to this day. School's Out the album reached #2 on the US charts and sold over a million copies. The band now relocated to their new mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. With Cooper's on-stage androgynous persona completely replaced with brattiness and machismo, the band's traveling carnival of filth and terror cemented their success with subsequent tours in the US and Europe, and won over devoted fans in droves while at the same time horrifying parents and outraging the social establishment.
In England, Mary Whitheouse, a well known campaigner for values of morality and decency, succeeded in having the BBC ban the video for "School's Out" and Member of Parliament Leo Abse petitioned Home Secretary Reginald Maudling to have the group banned altogether from performing in the country. However, this seemed to have little effect on the band's popularity, as they were selected to be the first band to appear on the television series ABC In Concert in September 1972, and in February 1973 Billion Dollar Babies appeared, which was the band's most commercially successful album. It reached #1 in both the US and UK, and is also viewed by many critics as representing the band's creative peak. "Elected", a 1972 Top 10 UK hit from the album, which inspired one of the first MTV-style story-line promo videos ever made for a song (three years before Queen's promotional video for "Bohemian Rhapsody"), was followed by two more UK Top 10 singles, "Hello Hooray" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy", the latter of which was the last UK single from the album; it reached #25 in the US. The title track, featuring guest vocals by Donovan, was also a US hit single. Due to Glen Buxton's health problems, around this time, Mick Mashbir was added to the band (who also played, without credit, on Muscle of Love).
With a string of successful concept albums and several hit singles, the band continued their grueling schedule and toured the US once again. Continued attempts by politicians and pressure groups to ban their shocking act only served to fuel the myth of Alice Cooper further and generate even greater public interest. Their 1973 US tour broke box office records previously set by The Rolling Stones and raised rock theatrics to new heights; the multi-level stage show by then featured numerous special effects, including Billion Dollar Bills, decapitated baby dolls and mannequins, a dental psychosis scene complete with dancing teeth, and the ultimate execution prop and highlight of the show: the guillotine. The guillotine and other stage effects were designed for the band by magician James Randi, who appeared on stage during some of the shows as executioner. The Alice Cooper group had now reached its peak and it was among the most visible and successful acts in the industry. (Cooper's stage antics would influence a host of later bands, including, among others, Kiss, Blue Öyster Cult, GWAR, W.A.S.P. and, later, Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie.) Beneath the surface, however, the repetitive schedule of recording and touring had begun to take its toll on the band, and Cooper, who was under the constant pressure of getting into character for that night's show, was consistently sighted nursing a can of beer.
Muscle of Love, released at the end of 1973, was to be the last studio album from the classic line-up, and marked Alice Cooper's last UK Top 20 single of the 1970s with "Teenage Lament '74". A theme song was recorded for the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, but a different song of the same name by Lulu was chosen instead. By 1974, the Muscle of Love album had not matched the top-charting success of its predecessor, and the band began to have constant disagreements. Cooper wanted to retain the theatrics in the show that had brought them so much attention, while the rest of the group thought they should be toned down so that they could concentrate more on the music which had given them credibility. Largely as a result of this difference of opinion, the band decided to take a much-needed hiatus.
During this time, Cooper relocated back to Los Angeles and started appearing regularly on TV shows such as Hollywood Squares, and Warner Bros. released the Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits compilation album which featured classic artwork and which performed better than Muscle of Love, reaching the US Top 10. However, the band's feature film Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper (mainly concert footage with a faint storyline and 'comedic' sketches woven throughout), released on a minor theatrical run mostly to drive-in theaters, saw little box office success.
As some of the Alice Cooper band's members had begun recording solo albums Cooper decided to do the same himself, and 1975 saw the release of his first solo album Welcome To My Nightmare. Its success marked the final break with the original members of the band, with Cooper collaborating with their producer Bob Ezrin who recruited Lou Reed's backing band, including guitarist Dick Wagner to play on the album. Spearheaded by the US Top 20 hit "Only Women Bleed", a ballad, the album was released by Atlantic Records in March of that year and became a Top 10 hit for Cooper. It was a concept album, based on the nightmare of a child named Steven, featuring narration by classic horror movie film star Vincent Price (several years after Welcome To My Nightmare, he guested on Michael Jackson's "Thriller"), and serving as the soundtrack to Cooper's new stage show, which now included more theatrics than ever (including an eight foot tall furry Cyclops which Cooper decapitates and kills).
However, by this time alcohol was clearly affecting Cooper's performances. During the Welcome to My Nightmare tour in Vancouver, and only a few songs into the routine, Cooper tripped over a footlight, staggered a few paces, lost his bearings and plunged head first off the stage and onto the concrete floor of the Pacific Colosseum. Some fans, thinking it was all part of the act, reached through the barriers to pull at his blood-matted hair before bouncers could pull him away for help. He was taken to a local hospital, where medical staff stitched his head wound and provided him with a skullcap. Cooper returned to the venue a couple of hours later and tried to perform a couple of more songs, but within minutes he had to call it a night. The opening act, Suzi Quatro, had already left the building and the remainder of the concert was cancelled.
Accompanying the album and stage show was the TV special The Nightmare, starring Cooper and Vincent Price in person, which aired on US prime-time TV in April 1975. The Nightmare, the first rock music video album ever made (it was later released on home video in 1983 and gained a Grammy Awards nomination for Best Long Form Music Video), was regarded as another groundbreaking moment in rock history. Adding to all that, a concert film, also called Welcome to My Nightmare and filmed live at London's Wembley Arena in September 1975, was released to theaters in 1976. Though it failed at the box office, it later became a midnight movie favorite and a cult classic. Such was the immense success of this solo project that Cooper decided to continue alone as a solo artist, and the original band became officially defunct. It was also during this time that Cooper co-founded the legendary drinking club The Hollywood Vampires, which gave him yet another reason to indulge his continued ample appetite for alcohol.
Following the 1976 US #12 hit "I Never Cry", another ballad, two albums, Alice Cooper Goes to Hell and Lace and Whiskey, and another ballad hit, the US #9 "You and Me", it became clear from his performances during his 1977 US tour that he was in dire need of help with his alcoholism (at his alcoholic peak it was rumoured that Cooper was consuming up to two cases of Budweiser and a bottle of whiskey a day). Following the tour, Cooper had himself hospitalized in a New York sanitarium for treatment, during which time the live album The Alice Cooper Show was released. His experience in the sanitarium was the inspiration for his 1978 semi-autobiographical album From The Inside, which Cooper co-wrote with Bernie Taupin. The release spawned another US Top 20 hit "How You Gonna See Me Now", which peaked at #12, and was yet another ballad, based on his fear of how his wife would react to him after his spell in hospital.
The subsequent tour's stage show was based inside an asylum, and was filmed for Cooper's first home video release, The Strange Case of Alice Cooper, in 1979. Around this time, Cooper performed "Welcome To My Nightmare", "You and Me", and "School's Out" on The Muppet Show (episode # 307) on March 28, 1978 (he played one of the devil's henchmen trying to dupe Kermit the Frog and Gonzo into selling their souls). He also appeared in an against-type casting in the campy role of a piano playing, disco bellboy in Mae West's final film, Sextette. Cooper also led celebrities in raising money to remodel the famous Hollywood Sign in California. Cooper himself contributed over $27,000 to the project, buying an O in the sign in memory of friend and comedian Groucho Marx.
During an interview for the program Entertainment USA in 1986, Cooper stunned interviewer Jonathan King by stating that The Yardbirds were his favorite band of all time. Perhaps King should not have been so taken aback, as Cooper had as far back as 1969 gone on record as saying that it was music from the mid-sixties, and particularly from British bands The Beatles, The Who, and The Rolling Stones, as well as The Yardbirds, that had had the greatest influence on him. Cooper would later pay homage to The Who by appearing in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who in 1994 at Carnegie Hall in New York, and performing a cover of "My Generation" on the Brutal Planet tour of 2000.
During an interview that Cooper himself conducted with Ozzy Osbourne on his radio show, Nights with Alice Cooper in 2007, Cooper again affirmed his debt of gratitude to these bands, and to The Beatles in particular. During their discussion, Cooper and Osbourne bemoaned the often inferior quality of songwriting coming from contemporary rock artists. Cooper stated that in his opinion the cause of the problem was that certain modern bands "had forgotten to listen to The Beatles".
On the 25th Anniversary DVD of Cabaret, Liza Minelli stated that her good friend, Alice Cooper, had told her that his whole career was based on the movie Cabaret.
Evidence of Cooper's eclectic tastes in both classic and contemporary rock music, from the 1960s to the present, can be seen in the track listings of his radio show; in addition, when Cooper appeared on the BBC Radio 2 program "Tracks of My Years" in September 2007, he cited his favourite tracks of all time as being the following: "19th Nervous Breakdown" (1966) by The Rolling Stones, "Turning Japanese" (1980) by The Vapors, "My Sharona" (1979) by The Knack, "Beds Are Burning" (1987) by Midnight Oil, "My Generation" (1965) by The Who, "Welcome To The Jungle" (1987) by Guns N' Roses, "Rebel Rebel" (1974) by David Bowie, "Over Under Sideways Down" (1966) by The Yardbirds, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" (2003) by Jet and "A Hard Day's Night" (1964) by The Beatles.
Rob Zombie, former frontman of White Zombie, claims his first "metal moment" was seeing Alice Cooper on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert.
In a 1978 interview with Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan stated, "I think Alice Cooper is an overlooked songwriter".
In the foreword to Alice Cooper's CD retrospective box set The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper, John Lydon of The Sex Pistols pronounced Killer as the greatest rock album of all time, and in 2002 Lydon presented his own tribute program to Cooper on BBC radio.
The Flaming Lips are longtime Alice Cooper fans and used the bass line from "Levity Ball" (an early song from the 1969 release Pretties for You) for their song "The Ceiling Is Bending". They also covered "Sun Arise" for an Alice Cooper tribute album. (Cooper's version, which closes the album Love It To Death, was itself a cover of a Rolf Harris song.)
In 1999 Cleopatra Records released Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper featuring a number of contributions from rock and metal all-star collaborations, including Dave Mustaine, Roger Daltrey, Ronnie James Dio, Slash, Bruce Dickinson, and Steve Jones. The album was notable for the fact that it was possible to assemble a different supergroup for each cover version on the record, which gave an indication of the depth of esteem in which Cooper is held by other eminent musicians within the music industry.
Heavy metal rocker Jon Mikl Thor, also known as Thor, stated in an interview that Alice Cooper was his idol and hero.
A song by alternative rock group They Might Be Giants from their 1994 album John Henry entitled "Why Must I Be Sad?" mentions 13 Cooper songs, and has been described as being "from the perspective of a kid who hears all of his unspoken sadness given voice in the music of Alice Cooper; Alice says everything the kid has been wishing he could say about his alienated, frustrated, teenage world".
Such unlikely non-musician fans of Cooper included Groucho Marx and Mae West, who both reportedly saw the early shows as a form of vaudeville revue, and artist Salvador Dalí, who on attending a show in 1973 described it as being surreal, and made a hologram, First Cylindric Chromo-Hologram Portrait of Alice Cooper's Brain.
Personal life
In the period when the Alice Cooper group was signed to Frank Zappa's Straight label, Miss Christine of the GTOs became Cooper's girlfriend. Miss Christine (real name: Christine Frka), who had actually recommended Zappa to the group, died on November 5, 1972 of an overdose. Another long-time girlfriend of Cooper's was Cindy Lang, with whom he lived for several years. They separated in 1975. Lang sued Cooper for palimony, and they eventually settled out of court in the early 1980s. After his separation from Lang, Cooper was briefly linked with sex symbol/actress Raquel Welch. Cooper then reportedly left Welch, however, to marry, on March 20 1976, ballerina instructor/choreographer Sheryl Goddard, who performed in the Alice Cooper show from 1975 to 1982. In November 1983, at the height of Cooper's alcoholism, Sheryl filed for divorce, but by mid-1984, she and Cooper had reconciled. The couple has remained together since. In a 2002 television interview, Cooper claimed that he had "never cheated" on his wife in all the time they had been together. In the same interview, he also claimed that the secret to a lasting and successful relationship is to continue going out on dates with your partner. The couple have three children: elder daughter Calico Cooper (born 1981), an actress and singer who has been performing in the Alice Cooper show since 2000; son Dash (b. 1985), a student at Arizona State University, and also plays in a band called Runaway Phoenix; and younger daughter Sonora Rose (b. 1993).
Cooper, a huge fan of The Simpsons, was asked to contribute a storyline for the September 2004 edition of Bongo Comics's Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror, a special Monsters of Rock issue that also included stories plotted by Gene Simmons, Rob Zombie and Pat Boone. Cooper's story featured Homer Simpson being a Jason Voorhees, Friday the 13th style killer and Alice and the citizens of Springfield are being stalked by Homer.
On June 20, 2005, ahead of his June–July 2005 tour, Cooper had a wide-ranging interview with interviewer of celebrities Andrew Denton for the Australian ABC Television's Enough Rope. Cooper discussed various issues during a revealing and frank talk, including the horrors of acute alcoholism and his subsequent cure, being a Christian, and his social and work relationship with his family. During the interview, Cooper remarked "I look at Mick Jagger and he's on an 18-month tour and he's six years older than me, so I figure, when he retires, I have six more years. I will not let him beat me when it comes to longevity."
Discography
See: Alice Cooper discography
Filmography
See: Alice Cooper filmography
List of Alice Cooper band personnel
See: list of Alice Cooper personnel
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http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e182/MaidenMan666/fcooper.jpg
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http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g216/pookie_kitten/alice_cooper.gif
Hello hurray!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/04/10 at 3:28 pm
Neither did I...until I read about it a few months ago.
Yes this was in my original copy, but I had too many words :(
The actual ownership of the Alice Cooper name is often cited by intellectual property lawyers and law professors as an example of the value of a single copyright or trademark. Since "Alice Cooper" was originally the name of the band, and not the lead singer (e.g. Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull, Meat Loaf, etc.), and it was actually owned by the band as whole, Cooper paid, and continues to pay, a yearly royalty to his original bandmates for the right to use the name commercially. Although the exact amount is not known, insiders agree that it is large enough for the other band members to live comfortably on.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/04/10 at 3:31 pm
Yes this was in my original copy, but I had too many words :(
The actual ownership of the Alice Cooper name is often cited by intellectual property lawyers and law professors as an example of the value of a single copyright or trademark. Since "Alice Cooper" was originally the name of the band, and not the lead singer (e.g. Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull, Meat Loaf, etc.), and it was actually owned by the band as whole, Cooper paid, and continues to pay, a yearly royalty to his original bandmates for the right to use the name commercially. Although the exact amount is not known, insiders agree that it is large enough for the other band members to live comfortably on.
Thanks for the explanation on that ;)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/04/10 at 3:37 pm
I've been listening to some of their songs today..very nice
like Rainy Days And Mondays?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/04/10 at 6:20 pm
like Rainy Days And Mondays?
Yes and Superstar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Nm_0pC4FM&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_fresh+div-1r-2-HM#
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/04/10 at 7:33 pm
Back in the day, wayyy back in the 70s, we used to sing "School's out" on the last day of school before the summer holidays. Wonder if anyone else on these boards did that?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Womble on 02/04/10 at 9:01 pm
Nice bio on Karen Carpenter, Ninny. I've always liked her. Thanks for sharing. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/04/10 at 10:20 pm
Okay...I admit that I thought the song "Only Women Bleed" was about something else! :-\\
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/05/10 at 1:49 am
Sports person of the day: Hank Aaron (born February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama)
Aaron is widely considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. In 1999, editors at The Sporting News ranked Hank Aaron fifth on their list of "Greatest Baseball Players.
He played 21 seasons with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves in the National League, and his last two years (1975–76) with the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League. His most notable achievement was setting the MLB record for most career home runs with 755, which he held for 33 years until being surpassed by San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds on August 7, 2007. Many still maintain Aaron holds the record since Barry has been linked with steroids.
http://www.vintagecardprices.com/pics/1830/110/165092.jpg
He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973, and is the only player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times. He is one of only four players to have at least seventeen seasons with 150 or more hits. Aaron made the All-Star team every year from 1955 until 1975 and won three Rawlings Gold Glove Awards. In 1957, he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award, while that same year, the Braves won the World Series, his one World Series victory during his career.
http://rhapsodyinbooks.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/hank-aaron-6.jpg
Aaron's consistency helped him to establish a number of important hitting records during his 23-year career. Aaron holds the MLB records for the most career runs batted in (2,297), the most career extra base hits (1,477), and the most career total bases (6,856); he is also in the top five for career hits with 3,771 (third) and runs with 2,174, which is tied for fourth with Babe Ruth). He also is in second place in at-bats (12,364), and in third place in games played (3,298). Aaron's nicknames include "Hammer," "Hammerin' Hank"
http://urbansportstalk.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/hank-aaron.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/05/10 at 1:56 am
British Person of the Day: Ben Ainslie
Charles Benedict Ainslie, CBE (born 5 February 1977 in Macclesfield) is an English sailor and three-times Olympic gold medalist. He started sailing at the age of 4 and first competed at the age of 10. Ainslie's first international competition was the 1989 Optimist world championships held in Japan where he placed 37th.
The son of Roderick 'Roddy' Ainslie, who captained a boat that took part in the first Whitbread Round The World Race in 1973, he won a gold medal at the World Youth Championships in 1995 and was awarded the title of British Yachtsman of the Year in 1995, 1999, 2000 and 2002. He was elected ISAF World Sailor of the Year in 1998, 2002 and 2008.
Sailing
Olympic medal record
Sailing
Gold 2008 Beijing Finn
Gold 2004 Athens Finn
Gold 2000 Sydney Laser
Silver 1996 Atlanta Laser
Ainslie was a gold medalist at the 1993 Laser Radial World Championship, gold medalist at the 1993 Laser Radial European Championship, silver medalist at the 1994 IYRU World Youth Sailing Championship in Marathon, Greece and gold medalist at the 1995 IYRU World Youth Sailing Championship in Hamilton, Bermuda.
Ainslie won silver at the 1996 Olympic Games and gold in the 2000 Summer Olympics in the Laser class. He put on 40 pounds (18 kg) and moved to the larger Finn class for the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he won gold, a feat he repeated in the 2008 competition. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2001 New Year Honours after his success in Sydney, and was promoted to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2005 New Year Honours following the Athens Games. He was again promoted, to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours, following the Beijing Games.
America's Cup
At the beginning of 2005 he worked in the role of Tactician in the New Zealand based Team New Zealand who were preparing to compete in the challenger selection process to win the right to Challenge for the 32nd America's Cup.
In May 2005 Ainslie took the decision to relinquish the role of tactician and focus on improving his Match Racing skills as helmsman of the 'B' boat used to practice and tune the race boat helmed by Dean Barker.
He is presently skipper on Team Origin.
New Zealand Match Racing Championships
In November 2008, Ainslie finished first place in the New Zealand Match racing Championships
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00791/ben_ainslie4_791788c.jpg
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/04/0223ainslie/1.JPG
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 5:41 am
Back in the day, wayyy back in the 70s, we used to sing "School's out" on the last day of school before the summer holidays. Wonder if anyone else on these boards did that?
All the time ;D
Okay...I admit that I thought the song "Only Women Bleed" was about something else! :-\\
Actually I did too :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 5:43 am
Sports person of the day: Hank Aaron (born February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama)
Aaron is widely considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. In 1999, editors at The Sporting News ranked Hank Aaron fifth on their list of "Greatest Baseball Players.
He played 21 seasons with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves in the National League, and his last two years (1975–76) with the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League. His most notable achievement was setting the MLB record for most career home runs with 755, which he held for 33 years until being surpassed by San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds on August 7, 2007. Many still maintain Aaron holds the record since Barry has been linked with steroids.
http://www.vintagecardprices.com/pics/1830/110/165092.jpg
He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973, and is the only player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times. He is one of only four players to have at least seventeen seasons with 150 or more hits. Aaron made the All-Star team every year from 1955 until 1975 and won three Rawlings Gold Glove Awards. In 1957, he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award, while that same year, the Braves won the World Series, his one World Series victory during his career.
http://rhapsodyinbooks.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/hank-aaron-6.jpg
Aaron's consistency helped him to establish a number of important hitting records during his 23-year career. Aaron holds the MLB records for the most career runs batted in (2,297), the most career extra base hits (1,477), and the most career total bases (6,856); he is also in the top five for career hits with 3,771 (third) and runs with 2,174, which is tied for fourth with Babe Ruth). He also is in second place in at-bats (12,364), and in third place in games played (3,298). Aaron's nicknames include "Hammer," "Hammerin' Hank"
http://urbansportstalk.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/hank-aaron.jpg
Nice bio :) good thing I checked I had picked Hank as my person.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 5:45 am
Thanks for the explanation on that ;)
Your welcome :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 5:45 am
Nice bio on Karen Carpenter, Ninny. I've always liked her. Thanks for sharing. :)
I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 5:48 am
British Person of the Day: Ben Ainslie
Charles Benedict Ainslie, CBE (born 5 February 1977 in Macclesfield) is an English sailor and three-times Olympic gold medalist. He started sailing at the age of 4 and first competed at the age of 10. Ainslie's first international competition was the 1989 Optimist world championships held in Japan where he placed 37th.
The son of Roderick 'Roddy' Ainslie, who captained a boat that took part in the first Whitbread Round The World Race in 1973, he won a gold medal at the World Youth Championships in 1995 and was awarded the title of British Yachtsman of the Year in 1995, 1999, 2000 and 2002. He was elected ISAF World Sailor of the Year in 1998, 2002 and 2008.
Sailing
Olympic medal record
Sailing
Gold 2008 Beijing Finn
Gold 2004 Athens Finn
Gold 2000 Sydney Laser
Silver 1996 Atlanta Laser
Ainslie was a gold medalist at the 1993 Laser Radial World Championship, gold medalist at the 1993 Laser Radial European Championship, silver medalist at the 1994 IYRU World Youth Sailing Championship in Marathon, Greece and gold medalist at the 1995 IYRU World Youth Sailing Championship in Hamilton, Bermuda.
Ainslie won silver at the 1996 Olympic Games and gold in the 2000 Summer Olympics in the Laser class. He put on 40 pounds (18 kg) and moved to the larger Finn class for the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he won gold, a feat he repeated in the 2008 competition. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2001 New Year Honours after his success in Sydney, and was promoted to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2005 New Year Honours following the Athens Games. He was again promoted, to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours, following the Beijing Games.
America's Cup
At the beginning of 2005 he worked in the role of Tactician in the New Zealand based Team New Zealand who were preparing to compete in the challenger selection process to win the right to Challenge for the 32nd America's Cup.
In May 2005 Ainslie took the decision to relinquish the role of tactician and focus on improving his Match Racing skills as helmsman of the 'B' boat used to practice and tune the race boat helmed by Dean Barker.
He is presently skipper on Team Origin.
New Zealand Match Racing Championships
In November 2008, Ainslie finished first place in the New Zealand Match racing Championships
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00791/ben_ainslie4_791788c.jpg
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/04/0223ainslie/1.JPG
Thanks Phil. I tied taking basic sailing lessons in college, all went well till they discovered I couldn't swim ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 5:54 am
The word of the day...Grapes
#
Grapes are small green or dark purple fruit which grow in bunches. Grapes can be eaten raw, used for making wine, or dried. N-COUNT food
#
If you describe someone's attitude as sour grapes, you mean that they say something is worthless or undesirable because they want it themselves but cannot have it.
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb247/af994241/DSC03894.jpg
http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt308/jojac98/flowers/CIMG2571.jpg
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss249/ottawacakemaker/Cake239.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh131/PatronB/Ebay%20pics/Resize/grapesniagra.jpg
http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii169/zippyduda/bellucci13gr3.jpg
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff92/leprechaunlight/CopyofPicture16.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh131/PatronB/Ebay%20pics/Resize/grapeconcord.jpg
http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz71/Empire1000/TheGrapesOfWrath.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 5:59 am
The person born on this day...John Carradine
John Carradine (February 5, 1906 – November 27, 1988) was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns.
Beginning with The Prisoner of Shark Island (1934), Carradine appeared in ten John Ford productions, including The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Stagecoach (1939). He also portrayed the Biblical hero Aaron in The Ten Commandments (1956). He did considerable stage work, much of which provided his only opportunity to work in a classic drama context. He toured with his own Shakespearean company in the 1940s, playing Hamlet and Macbeth. His Broadway roles included Ferdinand in a 1946 production of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, the Ragpicker in a 13-month run of Jean Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot, Lycus in a 15-month run of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and DeLacey in the expensive one-night flop Frankenstein in 1981. He also toured in road companies of such shows as Tobacco Road and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in which he was properly emaciated as the cancer-ridden Big Daddy.
Carradine claimed to have appeared in more than 450 movies, but only 225 movies can be documented (his count is closer to fact if theatrical movies, made-for-TV movies and TV shows are included). He often played eccentric, mad or diabolical characters, especially in the horror genre with which he had become identified as a "star" by the mid-1940s. He occasionally, however, did play a "good guy" role, as in The Grapes of Wrath, in which he played Casy, the ill-fated "preacher". He appeared in seemingly dozens of low-budget horror films from the 1940s onwards, in order to finance a touring classical theatre company. He even sang the theme song to one film he appeared in briefly, Red Zone Cuba. He also made more than one hundred television appearances, including CBS's My Friend Flicka, NBC's Overland Trail in the 1960 episode "The Reckoning" and on ABC's Harrigan and Son and The Legend of Jesse James. He made recurring appearances as the mortician, Mr. Gateman, on CBS's The Munsters. In 1985, Carradine won a Daytime Emmy award for his performance as an eccentric old man who lives by the railroad tracks in the Young People's Special, Umbrella Jack.
In 1982, he did the voice of the Great Owl in the animated feature The Secret of NIMH. One of Carradine's final film appearances was Peggy Sue Got Married in 1986. Carradine's last released film credit was Bikini Drive-In, released years after his death.
Carradine's deep, resonant voice earned him the nickname "The Voice". He was also known as the "Bard of the Boulevard" due to his idiosyncratic habit of strolling Hollywood streets while reciting Shakespearean soliloquies, something he always denied.
Personal life
Four of Carradine's five sons became actors: David Carradine, Robert Carradine, Keith Carradine, and Bruce Carradine. David's show, Kung Fu, featured his father John and half-brother Robert in the episode "Dark Angel". John would appear as the same character, the Reverend Serenity Johnson, in two more episodes: "The Nature of Evil" and "Ambush". Keith Carradine portrayed a younger version of his half-brother David's character throughout the series.
Carradine was married four times. His wives were Ardanelle McCool, mother of Bruce and David. Bruce, Ardanelle's son from a previous marriage, was adopted by John. John was married to Ardanelle from 1935 to 1944; Sonia Sorel, mother of Keith, Robert and Chris from 1944 to 1956; Doris Rich from 1957 to 1971, ending in her death; and Emily Cisneros from 1975 to 1988, who survived him.
Carradine suffered from painful and crippling arthritis during his later years, but continued working nonetheless.
Death
On November 27, 1988, Carradine died of natural causes in Milan, Italy at age 82. His final words were: "Milan: What a beautiful place to die".
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, John Carradine has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6240 Hollywood Blvd.
In 2003, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Filmography
Main article: John Carradine filmography
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 6:04 am
The person who died on this day...Doug McClure
Douglas Osborne McClure (May 11, 1935 – February 5, 1995) was an American actor whose career in film and television extended from the 1950s to the 1990s. Born in Glendale, California, to Donald Reed McClure and the former Clara Clapp, he is best known for his appearances as Trampas in the NBC western series The Virginian.
McClure's The Virginian co-stars were James Drury, Roberta Shore, Lee J. Cobb, Randy Boone, Gary Clarke, and Tim Matheson in the later seasons. Before The Virginian, McClure costarred in two other series: (1) as Frank "Flip" Flippen on NBC's western, Overland Trail (1960), with co-star William Bendix, and (2) as Jed Sills on the CBS detective series Checkmate (1960-1962) opposite Anthony George as Don Corey and Sebastian Cabot as Dr. Carl Hyatt. In 1958 and 1959, McClure appeared in three episodes of the syndicated western series 26 Men, stories of the Arizona Rangers. He appeared as Adam Davis in 1959 in the episode "The Court Martial of Trooper Davis" of the syndicated series Mackenzie's Raiders starring Richard Carlson. He was in the third episode of The Twilight Zone, "Mr. Denton on Doomsday".
He also starred in science fiction films such as At the Earth's Core, The Land That Time Forgot and The People That Time Forgot, all three based on the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. In 1967, he played the Errol Flynn role in a re-make of Against All Flags titled The King's Pirate. He co-starred on the sitcom Out of This World later in his career. Along with Troy Donahue, he gave his name to the character of Troy McClure on The Simpsons.
On February 5, 1995, McClure died from lung cancer in Sherman Oaks, California. He was 59 and is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery. In addition to his fifth wife, he was survived by three daughters, Valerie and Tane McClure, who is an actress.
McClure has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 7065 Hollywood Blvd. That star was unveiled in what proved to be his final public appearance in 1994.
Filmography
* The Enemy Below (1957)
* Gidget (1959)
* The Unforgiven (1960)
* Because They're Young (1960)
* The Lively Set! (1964)
* Shenandoah (1965)
* Beau Geste (1966)
* The King's Pirate (1967)
* Playmates (1972)
* The Judge and Jake Wyler (1972)
* "Die blutigen Geier von Alaska" (Germany, 1973)
* The Land That Time Forgot (1975)
* At the Earth's Core (1976)
* The People That Time Forgot (1977)
* Warlords of Atlantis (1978)
* Wild and Wooly (1978)
* The Rebels - Pt. 2 of the Kent Family Chronicles (1979)
* Humanoids from the Deep (1980)
* Firebird 2015 A.D. (1981)
* The House Where Evil Dwells (1982)
* Cannonball Run II (1984)
* 52 Pick-Up (1986)
* Omega Syndrome (1986)
* Prime Suspect (1988)
* Dark Before Dawn (1988)
* Battling for Baby (1992)
* Dead Man's Revenge (1993)
* Maverick (1994)
* Riders in the Storm (1995)
Television
* COronado 9 - Jimmy Hoke in "The Widow of Kill Cove" (1960)
* Johnny Midnight - Rice in "Mother's Boy" (1960)
* Overland Trail - Frank Flippin (1960)
* Checkmate - Jed Stills (1960-1962)
* The Virginian - Trampas (1962-1971)
* The Longest Hundred Miles (1967)
* Barbary Coast - Cash Conover (1975)
* Satan's Triangle - Lt. J. Haig (1975)
* Search - C. R. Grover (1972-1973)
* Roots - Jimmy Brent (1977)
* Out of This World - Mayor Kyle Applegate (1987-1991)
* The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1994)
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http://i449.photobucket.com/albums/qq213/robsonj3/doug.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/05/10 at 6:39 am
The word of the day...Grapes
#
Grapes are small green or dark purple fruit which grow in bunches. Grapes can be eaten raw, used for making wine, or dried. N-COUNT food
#
If you describe someone's attitude as sour grapes, you mean that they say something is worthless or undesirable because they want it themselves but cannot have it.
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb247/af994241/DSC03894.jpg
http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt308/jojac98/flowers/CIMG2571.jpg
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss249/ottawacakemaker/Cake239.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh131/PatronB/Ebay%20pics/Resize/grapesniagra.jpg
http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii169/zippyduda/bellucci13gr3.jpg
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff92/leprechaunlight/CopyofPicture16.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh131/PatronB/Ebay%20pics/Resize/grapeconcord.jpg
http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz71/Empire1000/TheGrapesOfWrath.jpg
grapes are so delicious.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/05/10 at 6:53 am
One of the pics made me forget about the grapes! ...but mmmmmmm anyway! ;)
I liked Doug McClure...I remembered seeing him in a pirate movie when I was young (probably The Kings Pirate)... :)
Carradine reminds me of Vincent Price in one of those pics....
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 8:17 am
grapes are so delicious.
Yes they are :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 8:19 am
One of the pics made me forget about the grapes! ...but mmmmmmm anyway! ;)
I liked Doug McClure...I remembered seeing him in a pirate movie when I was young (probably The Kings Pirate)... :)
Carradine reminds me of Vincent Price in one of those pics....
Well I thought Howie would mention that pic ;D
I thought the same thing, that the pic looked like Vincent Price.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/05/10 at 11:26 am
One of the pics made me forget about the grapes! ...but mmmmmmm anyway! ;)
I liked Doug McClure...I remembered seeing him in a pirate movie when I was young (probably The Kings Pirate)... :)
Carradine reminds me of Vincent Price in one of those pics....
I liked Doug McClure too, and yes, Carradine's resemblance with Vincent Price, agreed.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/05/10 at 11:29 am
Interesting you chose the food "Grapes" today, because that's the nickname of Canada's most famous hockey personality, Don Cherry, and it's his birthday today (born Feb 5, 1934)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/05/10 at 1:59 pm
Thanks Phil. I tied taking basic sailing lessons in college, all went well till they discovered I couldn't swim ;D
I do not enjoy being on a boat too.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/05/10 at 2:06 pm
I do not enjoy being on a boat too.
I like boats, and like to swim.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/05/10 at 3:02 pm
The person who died on this day...Doug McClure
Douglas Osborne McClure (May 11, 1935 – February 5, 1995) was an American actor whose career in film and television extended from the 1950s to the 1990s. Born in Glendale, California, to Donald Reed McClure and the former Clara Clapp, he is best known for his appearances as Trampas in the NBC western series The Virginian.
McClure's The Virginian co-stars were James Drury, Roberta Shore, Lee J. Cobb, Randy Boone, Gary Clarke, and Tim Matheson in the later seasons. Before The Virginian, McClure costarred in two other series: (1) as Frank "Flip" Flippen on NBC's western, Overland Trail (1960), with co-star William Bendix, and (2) as Jed Sills on the CBS detective series Checkmate (1960-1962) opposite Anthony George as Don Corey and Sebastian Cabot as Dr. Carl Hyatt. In 1958 and 1959, McClure appeared in three episodes of the syndicated western series 26 Men, stories of the Arizona Rangers. He appeared as Adam Davis in 1959 in the episode "The Court Martial of Trooper Davis" of the syndicated series Mackenzie's Raiders starring Richard Carlson. He was in the third episode of The Twilight Zone, "Mr. Denton on Doomsday".
He also starred in science fiction films such as At the Earth's Core, The Land That Time Forgot and The People That Time Forgot, all three based on the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. In 1967, he played the Errol Flynn role in a re-make of Against All Flags titled The King's Pirate. He co-starred on the sitcom Out of This World later in his career. Along with Troy Donahue, he gave his name to the character of Troy McClure on The Simpsons.
On February 5, 1995, McClure died from lung cancer in Sherman Oaks, California. He was 59 and is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery. In addition to his fifth wife, he was survived by three daughters, Valerie and Tane McClure, who is an actress.
McClure has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 7065 Hollywood Blvd. That star was unveiled in what proved to be his final public appearance in 1994.
Filmography
* The Enemy Below (1957)
* Gidget (1959)
* The Unforgiven (1960)
* Because They're Young (1960)
* The Lively Set! (1964)
* Shenandoah (1965)
* Beau Geste (1966)
* The King's Pirate (1967)
* Playmates (1972)
* The Judge and Jake Wyler (1972)
* "Die blutigen Geier von Alaska" (Germany, 1973)
* The Land That Time Forgot (1975)
* At the Earth's Core (1976)
* The People That Time Forgot (1977)
* Warlords of Atlantis (1978)
* Wild and Wooly (1978)
* The Rebels - Pt. 2 of the Kent Family Chronicles (1979)
* Humanoids from the Deep (1980)
* Firebird 2015 A.D. (1981)
* The House Where Evil Dwells (1982)
* Cannonball Run II (1984)
* 52 Pick-Up (1986)
* Omega Syndrome (1986)
* Prime Suspect (1988)
* Dark Before Dawn (1988)
* Battling for Baby (1992)
* Dead Man's Revenge (1993)
* Maverick (1994)
* Riders in the Storm (1995)
Television
* COronado 9 - Jimmy Hoke in "The Widow of Kill Cove" (1960)
* Johnny Midnight - Rice in "Mother's Boy" (1960)
* Overland Trail - Frank Flippin (1960)
* Checkmate - Jed Stills (1960-1962)
* The Virginian - Trampas (1962-1971)
* The Longest Hundred Miles (1967)
* Barbary Coast - Cash Conover (1975)
* Satan's Triangle - Lt. J. Haig (1975)
* Search - C. R. Grover (1972-1973)
* Roots - Jimmy Brent (1977)
* Out of This World - Mayor Kyle Applegate (1987-1991)
* The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1994)
Any connection to Troy McClure?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/05/10 at 3:10 pm
Sports person of the day: Hank Aaron (born February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama)
Aaron is widely considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. In 1999, editors at The Sporting News ranked Hank Aaron fifth on their list of "Greatest Baseball Players.
He played 21 seasons with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves in the National League, and his last two years (1975–76) with the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League. His most notable achievement was setting the MLB record for most career home runs with 755, which he held for 33 years until being surpassed by San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds on August 7, 2007. Many still maintain Aaron holds the record since Barry has been linked with steroids.
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He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973, and is the only player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times. He is one of only four players to have at least seventeen seasons with 150 or more hits. Aaron made the All-Star team every year from 1955 until 1975 and won three Rawlings Gold Glove Awards. In 1957, he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award, while that same year, the Braves won the World Series, his one World Series victory during his career.
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Aaron's consistency helped him to establish a number of important hitting records during his 23-year career. Aaron holds the MLB records for the most career runs batted in (2,297), the most career extra base hits (1,477), and the most career total bases (6,856); he is also in the top five for career hits with 3,771 (third) and runs with 2,174, which is tied for fourth with Babe Ruth). He also is in second place in at-bats (12,364), and in third place in games played (3,298). Aaron's nicknames include "Hammer," "Hammerin' Hank"
http://urbansportstalk.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/hank-aaron.jpg
A name for me to remember for Baseball players A-Z
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/05/10 at 4:00 pm
Yes they are :)
the green ones are good instead of the pitted ones.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/05/10 at 4:02 pm
the green ones are good instead of the pitted ones.
I mostly eat the green grapes too. I haven't found too many pitted grapes of any color
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/05/10 at 4:04 pm
I mostly eat the green grapes too. I haven't found too many pitted grapes of any color
I think the red ones have pits.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/05/10 at 4:04 pm
I think the red ones have pits.
Some varieties of them probably do.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/05/10 at 4:22 pm
the green ones are good instead of the pitted ones.
I like drinking grapes
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/05/10 at 4:23 pm
I like drinking grapes
I like grape soda.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/05/10 at 4:24 pm
I like grape soda.
It is wine for me, red or white will do.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/05/10 at 4:25 pm
It is wine for me, red or white will do.
grape wine is good on an occasion.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/05/10 at 4:27 pm
grape wine is good on an occasion.
...or relaxing, like at the end of a long hard week at work.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/05/10 at 4:28 pm
...or relaxing, like at the end of a long hard week at work.
I drink coffee after a hard day.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/05/10 at 4:30 pm
I drink coffee after a hard day.
With caffine in it?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/05/10 at 5:08 pm
I like boats, and like to swim.
I'm an Aussie who never learned to swim. I have virtually no buoyancy at all....can't even float on my back. I never go out of my depth... :-\\
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/05/10 at 7:01 pm
I'm an Aussie who never learned to swim. I have virtually no buoyancy at all....can't even float on my back. I never go out of my depth... :-\\
I always thought that Australians were good swimmers.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/05/10 at 7:02 pm
I always thought that Australians were good swimmers.
Many are...excepting myself, of course!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/05/10 at 7:05 pm
Many are...excepting myself, of course!
Understandable, Australia has always had Olympic swimmer and the images of being on a beach next to sea.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/05/10 at 7:07 pm
Understandable, Australia has always had Olympic swimmer and the images of being on a beach next to sea.
I am about an hours drive from the nearest surfing beach. Due to me lack of water skill, I have never tried to surf. Just body surfing...
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: seamermar on 02/05/10 at 7:33 pm
The person who died on this day...Doug McClure
he is best known for his appearances as Trampas in the NBC western series The Virginian.
Hi ninny !! just my favour character in that serie which I watched when I was a child.
Trampas is a Spanish word meaning traps.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/05/10 at 9:42 pm
I'm an Aussie who never learned to swim. I have virtually no buoyancy at all....can't even float on my back. I never go out of my depth... :-\\
Am I the only one who swims here?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 10:12 pm
Any connection to Troy McClure?
Actually yes according to Wikipedia:
McClure was based on the typical "washed up" Hollywood actor. B movie actors Troy Donahue and Doug McClure served as inspiration for his name and certain character aspects. Writer Mike Reiss later met Doug McClure's daughter, who revealed that her father had found the homage funny. His children would call their father "Troy McClure" when his back was turned. According to show creator Matt Groening, Phil Hartman was cast in the role due to his ability to pull "the maximum amount of humor" out of any line he was given. McClure's visual appearance is similar to that of Hartman himself.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 10:13 pm
I like grape soda.
Me too :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 10:14 pm
I like drinking grapes
Wine gives me hot flashes and well we wont say what champagne does to me. :-[
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 10:15 pm
I like boats, and like to swim.
I wish I could
I'm an Aussie who never learned to swim. I have virtually no buoyancy at all....can't even float on my back. I never go out of my depth... :-\\
I do a mean doggy paddle ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/05/10 at 10:16 pm
Hi ninny !! just my favour character in that serie which I watched when I was a child.
Trampas is a Spanish word meaning traps.
Nice to hear from you old friend :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/06/10 at 1:02 am
Wine gives me hot flashes and well we wont say what champagne does to me. :-[
Never like champagne.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/06/10 at 5:10 am
The word of the day...Umbrella
An umbrella is an object which you use to protect yourself from the rain or hot sun. It consists of a long stick with a folding frame covered in cloth.
Umbrella is used to refer to a single group or description that includes a lot of different organizations or ideas.
Umbrella is used to refer to a system or agreement which protects a country or group of people.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/06/10 at 5:12 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvBfHwUxHIk
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/06/10 at 5:18 am
The person born on this day...Patrick Macnee
Patrick Macnee (born 6 February 1922) is an English actor, best known for his role as the secret agent John Steed in the series The Avengers. Macnee, the older of two sons (he has a younger brother, James), was born Daniel Patrick Macnee in Paddington, London, the son of Dorothea Mary (née Henry) and Daniel "Shrimp" Macnee, a race horse trainer. His maternal grandmother was Frances Alice Hastings, who descended from the Earls of Huntingdon - Macnee has long suggested that he may be a distant relation of Robin Hood, sometimes said to have been a black sheep of the Huntingdon family. Macnee's great-grandfather was Scottish portrait artist Sir Daniel Macnee.
His parents divorced after his mother declared her lesbianism and had a live-in partner (referred to in Macnee's memoirs as "Uncle Evelyn") who helped pay for young Patrick's schooling. He was educated at Eton College, was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and was awarded the Atlantic Star for his service during World War II. After nurturing his acting career in Canada, Macnee appeared in supporting roles in a number of films, notably in the Gene Kelly vehicle Les Girls (as an Old Bailey barrister) and opposite Anthony Quayle in the 1956 war movie The Battle of the River Plate. He had a small role in the 1951 version of Scrooge (A Christmas Carol in the US) as the young Jacob Marley (according to Macnee's official website).
“The Avengers”
Despite numerous roles in theatre, on television and in cinema, Macnee is still best known as John Steed in the series The Avengers (broadcast from 1961 to 1969). Initially, a secondary character — the series was conceived as a vehicle for Ian Hendry, who played an associate of Steed's — Steed (and Macnee) became the centre of the show after Hendry's departure at the end of the first season. He played opposite a succession of female partners who included Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, and finally Linda Thorson. Steed was also the central character of a revival, The New Avengers, in which he was teamed with Purdey, portrayed by Joanna Lumley, and Mike Gambit, played by Gareth Hunt.
Although Macnee evolved the role as the series progressed, the key elements of Steed's persona and appearance were there from very early on: the slightly mysterious demeanour, and increasingly, the light, suave, flirting tone with ladies (and always with his female assistants). Finally, from the episodes with Honor Blackman onwards, the trademark bowler hat and umbrella completed the image. Traditionally associated with London 'city gents', the suit, umbrella and bowler had developed in the post-war years as mufti for ex-servicemen attending Armistice Day ceremonies. Macnee, alongside designer Pierre Cardin, adapted the look into a style all his own, and he went on to design several outfits himself for Steed based on the same basic theme.
During the 1960s, Macnee co-wrote two original novels based upon “The Avengers”: “Dead Duck” and “Deadline”. In 1988, he wrote his autobiography entitled “Blind in One Ear”. In 1995, he hosted a documentary, “The Avengers: The Journey Back”, directed by Clyde Lucas.
When asked in June 1982 which “Avengers” female lead was his favourite, Macnee declined to give a specific answer. "Well, I'd rather not say. To do so would invite trouble," he told TV Week magazine. Macnee did provide his evaluation of the female leads. Of Honor Blackman he said "She was wonderful, presenting the concept of a strong-willed, independent and liberated woman just as that sort of woman was beginning to emerge in society." Diana Rigg was "One of the world's great actresses. A superb comedienne. I'm convinced that one day she'll be Dame Diana." (which actually came true) Linda Thorson was "one of the sexiest women alive" while Joanna Lumley was "superb in the role of Purdey. An actress who is only now realising her immense potential."
Other roles
Macnee's other notable roles have included playing Sir Godfrey Tibbett opposite Roger Moore in the James Bond movie A View to a Kill, as Major Crossley in "The Sea Wolves" (again with Moore), guest roles in "Alias Smith and Jones", "Hart to Hart", "Murder, She Wrote", "Battlestar Galactica" and "The Love Boat". Though Macnee found fame as the heroic Steed, the majority of his guest appearances have been in villainous roles. He also presented the American paranormal series, "Mysteries, Magic and Miracles". Macnee made his Broadway debut as the star of Anthony Shaffer's mystery "Sleuth" in 1972 and subsequently headlined the national tour of that play. .
In 1975, Macnee co-starred as the ship's captain with Peter Falk and Robert Vaughn in the Columbo episode Troubled Waters. He had recurring roles in the crime series Gavilan with Robert Urich and in the 1984 satire on big business, Empire, as the menacing M.D. 'Calvin Cromwell'. In 1984, Macnee appeared in Magnum, P.I. as a retired British agent who believes he is Sherlock Holmes (in a Season four episode entitled "Holmes is Where the Heart is"). He in fact had played Dr. Watson to Roger Moore's Sherlock Holmes in a 1976 TV movie, “Sherlock Holmes in New York” and went on to play Holmes in another TV movie, “The Hound of London” (1993). He played Watson in two TV movies with Christopher Lee (“Incident at Victoria Falls” and “Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady”).
He also appeared in several cult films: in The Howling as 'Dr George Waggner' (named whimsically after the director of 1941's The Wolf Man) and as 'Sir Denis Eton-Hogg' in the rockumentary comedy This Is Spinal Tap. He took over Leo G. Carroll's role as the head of U.N.C.L.E. in The Return of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in 1983. Patrick starred in the 1990s science fiction series Super Force as E.B. Hungerford (called "MR. H." by lab assistant F.X.) in the pilot and his computer counter-part; his character was killed. Macnee also appeared as a supporting character in the 1989 science fiction parody, Lobster Man From Mars, as Prof. Plocostomos and in Frasier (season 8, episode 11) .
Macnee serves as the narrator for several "behind-the-scenes" featurettes, featured on the James Bond series of DVDs. He lent his voice in a cameo as 'Invisible Jones' in the 1998 critically lambasted film version of The Avengers (in which Steed was played by Ralph Fiennes), and he also featured in two pop videos: in his Steed persona in The Pretenders' video “Don't Get Me Wrong”, and in the Oasis' video of their song “Don't Look Back in Anger” in 1996, with the familiar smart suit and umbrella, but minus the bowler hat. Macnee was the voice of the evil Imperious Leader of the Cylons in the original 1970's version of Battlestar Galactica, and appeared onscreen as Count Iblis - the Imperious Leader apparently based on him.
He has also recorded numerous audio books, most notably for the audio book releases of many novels by Jack Higgins.
Personal life
Macnee has two children, Rupert and Jenny, from his first marriage to Barbara Douglas (from 1942 to 1956). His second marriage (1965 – 1969) was to actress Katherine Woodville. He was married to third wife Baba Majos de Nagyzsenye from 1988 until her death in 2008.
Macnee became an American citizen in 1959.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/06/10 at 5:18 am
British Person of the Day: Rick Astley
Richard Paul "Rick" Astley (born 6 February 1966, Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known for his 1987 hit single in 16 countries, "Never Gonna Give You Up". Astley holds the record for being the only male solo artist to have his first 8 singles reach the Top 10 in the UK and has sold approximately 40 million records worldwide.
After fading into obscurity in the 1990s, Astley made a comeback in 2007 when he became an Internet phenomenon, as his video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" became part of a popular Internet meme known as "Rickrolling". Astley was voted by Internet users "Best Act Ever" at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008.
1980s
In 1985, Astley was playing the club circuit as a drummer with a soul band named FBI when he was noticed by the record producer Pete Waterman, who persuaded him to come to London to work at the PWL recording studio. Under the tutelage of the production team of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman, known as Stock Aitken Waterman, Astley was taught about the recording process and groomed for his future career, supposedly starting off as the recording studio 'tea boy'.
His first single was the little-known "When You Gonna", released as a collaboration with Lisa Carter, but his first solo offering was "Never Gonna Give You Up", released in 1987. It became an immediate success, spending five weeks at the top of the British charts and becoming the year's highest-selling single. It was the first of 13 (worldwide) top 30 hit singles for him.
The 1987 album Whenever You Need Somebody also reached number one in the UK, and the hit singles continued, including the title track and a cover of Nat King Cole's "When I Fall in Love".
On 12 March 1988, "Never Gonna Give You Up" also topped the U.S. singles chart and was followed by a second U.S. #1 on 18 June with his second U.S. single release, "Together Forever". In 1989 he was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, but lost to Tracy Chapman.
The group FBI, from left to right, Kevin Needham, Rick Astley, Will Hopper, Peter Dale, & Greg Smee, in 1984.
In late 1988, Astley released his second album, Hold Me In Your Arms. While the album sold well in Europe, with all its three singles becoming top 10 hits in the UK, his success in the US waned, with only the first single, "She Wants To Dance With Me", making an impact, peaking at #6.
1990s
By the end of the 1980s, Astley had parted company with Stock, Aitken, and Waterman. He achieved one more major success with the 1991 ballad "Cry for Help", which reached the top 10 in both the UK and the US. The song was taken from his third album, Free, which featured a move towards soul music, leaving his synth-pop days behind. The album was not as successful as his previous two.
In 1991 the RIAA certified that two million copies of Whenever You Need Somebody had been sold.
His next album, Body and Soul, was released in 1993. The album did not chart in the UK but managed to make the Billboard 200, peaking at #182. The two singles, "The Ones You Love" and "Hopelessly", performed very well on the adult contemporary chart, peaking at #19 and #4 respectively. "Hopelessly" also crossed over and peaked at #31 on the Top 40 Mainstream chart.
For much of the 1990s and early 2000s, Astley remained largely out of the spotlight.
2000s
Almost 10 years after Body and Soul, Astley finally returned to the music world and released Keep It Turned On in 2002. The album featured the single "Sleeping", which became a minor club hit, thanks to a set of remixes from U.S. house producer Todd Terry.
In March, 2005, Astley released the album Portrait in which he covered many classic standards such as "Vincent", "Nature Boy" and "Close to You".
In early 2006, Astley withdrew unexpectedly at the eleventh hour from appearing on the BBC TV celebrity/pro duets show Just the Two of Us after committing to do so. This led to criticism from those in the entertainment industry and media. His place was filled by singer Russell Watson, who eventually won the competition. The BBC failed to explain that Astley's withdrawal was due to his wife Lene Bausager being nominated for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for the Sean Ellis film Cashback, where she was the main producer. Astley would have missed a crucial part of the show by attending the awards ceremony and so withdrew before the show began.
Astley at a festival in Singapore.
Based on various music charts in the UK, US and Canada, Astley has charted a grand total of 14 different hit singles and 6 different hit albums, as of March 2006. In April 2008, the album "The Ultimate Collection: Rick Astley" was released by Sony BMG and by early May it had reached #17 on the UK Top 40 Albums Chart.
In September 2008, Rick was nominated for the 'Best Act Ever' award at the MTV Europe Music Awards The push to make Astley the winner of the award continued after the announcement, as well as efforts to encourage MTV to personally invite Astley to the awards ceremony. On 10 October, Astley's website confirmed that an invitation to the awards had been received. On 7 November, following a massive internet campaign by fans, Rick won the award in Liverpool, but was not there in person to receive it. Perez Hilton collected the prize on his behalf.
In 2008, Astley was a headlining act at the Northampton Balloon Festival. In April 2009, he wrote an article for Time Magazine about moot.
Rickroll Internet phenomenon
In 2007 Rick Astley became the subject of a viral Internet meme in which an estimated 25 million Internet users were tricked into watching Rick Astley's video "Never Gonna Give You Up" by posting it under the name of other popular video titles. The practice is now known as Rickrolling. The phenomenon became so popular that on 1 April 2008, YouTube pranked its users by making every single featured video on the front page a Rickroll.
http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Technology/images/rick-astley.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/06/10 at 5:18 am
The person born on this day...Patrick Macnee
Patrick Macnee (born 6 February 1922) is an English actor, best known for his role as the secret agent John Steed in the series The Avengers. Macnee, the older of two sons (he has a younger brother, James), was born Daniel Patrick Macnee in Paddington, London, the son of Dorothea Mary (née Henry) and Daniel "Shrimp" Macnee, a race horse trainer. His maternal grandmother was Frances Alice Hastings, who descended from the Earls of Huntingdon - Macnee has long suggested that he may be a distant relation of Robin Hood, sometimes said to have been a black sheep of the Huntingdon family. Macnee's great-grandfather was Scottish portrait artist Sir Daniel Macnee.
His parents divorced after his mother declared her lesbianism and had a live-in partner (referred to in Macnee's memoirs as "Uncle Evelyn") who helped pay for young Patrick's schooling. He was educated at Eton College, was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and was awarded the Atlantic Star for his service during World War II. After nurturing his acting career in Canada, Macnee appeared in supporting roles in a number of films, notably in the Gene Kelly vehicle Les Girls (as an Old Bailey barrister) and opposite Anthony Quayle in the 1956 war movie The Battle of the River Plate. He had a small role in the 1951 version of Scrooge (A Christmas Carol in the US) as the young Jacob Marley (according to Macnee's official website).
“The Avengers”
Despite numerous roles in theatre, on television and in cinema, Macnee is still best known as John Steed in the series The Avengers (broadcast from 1961 to 1969). Initially, a secondary character — the series was conceived as a vehicle for Ian Hendry, who played an associate of Steed's — Steed (and Macnee) became the centre of the show after Hendry's departure at the end of the first season. He played opposite a succession of female partners who included Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, and finally Linda Thorson. Steed was also the central character of a revival, The New Avengers, in which he was teamed with Purdey, portrayed by Joanna Lumley, and Mike Gambit, played by Gareth Hunt.
Although Macnee evolved the role as the series progressed, the key elements of Steed's persona and appearance were there from very early on: the slightly mysterious demeanour, and increasingly, the light, suave, flirting tone with ladies (and always with his female assistants). Finally, from the episodes with Honor Blackman onwards, the trademark bowler hat and umbrella completed the image. Traditionally associated with London 'city gents', the suit, umbrella and bowler had developed in the post-war years as mufti for ex-servicemen attending Armistice Day ceremonies. Macnee, alongside designer Pierre Cardin, adapted the look into a style all his own, and he went on to design several outfits himself for Steed based on the same basic theme.
During the 1960s, Macnee co-wrote two original novels based upon “The Avengers”: “Dead Duck” and “Deadline”. In 1988, he wrote his autobiography entitled “Blind in One Ear”. In 1995, he hosted a documentary, “The Avengers: The Journey Back”, directed by Clyde Lucas.
When asked in June 1982 which “Avengers” female lead was his favourite, Macnee declined to give a specific answer. "Well, I'd rather not say. To do so would invite trouble," he told TV Week magazine. Macnee did provide his evaluation of the female leads. Of Honor Blackman he said "She was wonderful, presenting the concept of a strong-willed, independent and liberated woman just as that sort of woman was beginning to emerge in society." Diana Rigg was "One of the world's great actresses. A superb comedienne. I'm convinced that one day she'll be Dame Diana." (which actually came true) Linda Thorson was "one of the sexiest women alive" while Joanna Lumley was "superb in the role of Purdey. An actress who is only now realising her immense potential."
Other roles
Macnee's other notable roles have included playing Sir Godfrey Tibbett opposite Roger Moore in the James Bond movie A View to a Kill, as Major Crossley in "The Sea Wolves" (again with Moore), guest roles in "Alias Smith and Jones", "Hart to Hart", "Murder, She Wrote", "Battlestar Galactica" and "The Love Boat". Though Macnee found fame as the heroic Steed, the majority of his guest appearances have been in villainous roles. He also presented the American paranormal series, "Mysteries, Magic and Miracles". Macnee made his Broadway debut as the star of Anthony Shaffer's mystery "Sleuth" in 1972 and subsequently headlined the national tour of that play. .
In 1975, Macnee co-starred as the ship's captain with Peter Falk and Robert Vaughn in the Columbo episode Troubled Waters. He had recurring roles in the crime series Gavilan with Robert Urich and in the 1984 satire on big business, Empire, as the menacing M.D. 'Calvin Cromwell'. In 1984, Macnee appeared in Magnum, P.I. as a retired British agent who believes he is Sherlock Holmes (in a Season four episode entitled "Holmes is Where the Heart is"). He in fact had played Dr. Watson to Roger Moore's Sherlock Holmes in a 1976 TV movie, “Sherlock Holmes in New York” and went on to play Holmes in another TV movie, “The Hound of London” (1993). He played Watson in two TV movies with Christopher Lee (“Incident at Victoria Falls” and “Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady”).
He also appeared in several cult films: in The Howling as 'Dr George Waggner' (named whimsically after the director of 1941's The Wolf Man) and as 'Sir Denis Eton-Hogg' in the rockumentary comedy This Is Spinal Tap. He took over Leo G. Carroll's role as the head of U.N.C.L.E. in The Return of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in 1983. Patrick starred in the 1990s science fiction series Super Force as E.B. Hungerford (called "MR. H." by lab assistant F.X.) in the pilot and his computer counter-part; his character was killed. Macnee also appeared as a supporting character in the 1989 science fiction parody, Lobster Man From Mars, as Prof. Plocostomos and in Frasier (season 8, episode 11) .
Macnee serves as the narrator for several "behind-the-scenes" featurettes, featured on the James Bond series of DVDs. He lent his voice in a cameo as 'Invisible Jones' in the 1998 critically lambasted film version of The Avengers (in which Steed was played by Ralph Fiennes), and he also featured in two pop videos: in his Steed persona in The Pretenders' video “Don't Get Me Wrong”, and in the Oasis' video of their song “Don't Look Back in Anger” in 1996, with the familiar smart suit and umbrella, but minus the bowler hat. Macnee was the voice of the evil Imperious Leader of the Cylons in the original 1970's version of Battlestar Galactica, and appeared onscreen as Count Iblis - the Imperious Leader apparently based on him.
He has also recorded numerous audio books, most notably for the audio book releases of many novels by Jack Higgins.
Personal life
Macnee has two children, Rupert and Jenny, from his first marriage to Barbara Douglas (from 1942 to 1956). His second marriage (1965 – 1969) was to actress Katherine Woodville. He was married to third wife Baba Majos de Nagyzsenye from 1988 until her death in 2008.
Macnee became an American citizen in 1959.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/LookinUp/patrickmacnee.jpg
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp85/JustBon/SteedEmma.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/XJPAUL/X%20Marks/Celeb/Movies%20and%20TV/Patrick%20Macnee/PatrickMacnee7.jpg
http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy63/HummiesPhotos/avengers_fog1.jpg
The Avengers, one tv program I can easily watch again with pleasure.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/06/10 at 5:23 am
The person who died on this day...Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas (January 6, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy, or The Danny Thomas Show. He is also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He is the father of Marlo Thomas, Terre Thomas and Tony Thomas.
Thomas was born Amos Alphonsus Muzyad Yakhoob in Deerfield, Michigan, to Charles and Margaret Yakhoob (Jacobs). His parents were immigrants from Lebanon. He first performed under his Anglicized birth name, Amos Jacobs, before settling on the stage name, Danny Thomas, which were the first names of two of his brothers. He was raised in Toledo, Ohio, attending St. Francis de Sales Church, Woodward High School and attending The University of Toledo. He married his beloved wife Rose Marie Cassaniti on January 15, 1936, a week after his 24th birthday.
Career
Thomas first reached large audiences on network radio in the 1940s, most notably playing shifty brother-in-law Amos in The Bickersons, which began as sketches on the half-hour music-comedy show Drene Time, co-hosted by Don Ameche and Frances Langford. Thomas also portrayed himself as a slightly scatterbrained Lothario on this show. His other network radio work included a stint as "Jerry Dingle" the postman on Fanny Brice's The Baby Snooks Show, and periodic appearances on the legendary NBC variety program, The Big Show, hosted by stage legend Tallulah Bankhead.
In films, he starred in The Jazz Singer, a 1952 remake of the 1927 original and played songwriter Gus Kahn opposite Doris Day in the 1951 film biography I'll See You in My Dreams. During his successful run on Make Room for Daddy, which was later known as The Danny Thomas Show, Thomas became a successful television producer (with Sheldon Leonard and Aaron Spelling among his partners), working on many popular shows including The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Mod Squad. Thomas also produced three series for Walter Brennan: The Real McCoys, The Tycoon and The Guns of Will Sonnett, all on ABC during the late 1950s and 1960s.
He often appeared in cameos on shows he produced, perhaps the most memorable being his portrayal of the tuxedoed, humourlessly droll alien Colac, lord of the planet Twylo, in the classic Dick Van Dyke Show science-fiction spoof, "It May Look Like a Walnut."
In the early seventies, he reunited most of his second Daddy cast (Marjorie Lord, Rusty Hamer, and Angela Cartwright) for a short-lived update of the show, Make Room for Granddaddy. Premised around Danny and Kathy Williams caring for their grandson by daughter Terry, who was away with her husband on a long business assignment, the show barely lasted a season.
A generous philanthropist, Thomas founded the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1962. The hospital has treated thousands of children for childhood cancers. In 1996, Peter Doherty, Ph.D., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, was corecipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work related to how the immune system kills virus-infected cells. As a "starving actor" Thomas made a vow: If he found success, he would open a hospital dedicated to St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes. A Third Degree Freemason, he was an active member of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (Shriners), especially in their hospital work for children.
Thomas was one of the original owners of the Miami Dolphins, along with Joe Robbie, although he sold his share soon after purchase. He was also an avid golfer. He claimed a ten golf handicap and once competed with Sam Snead in a charity event. Thomas developed a close relationship with the PGA Tour — two of their tournaments bore his name. The first was the Danny Thomas-Diplomat Classic which played in south Florida in 1969; then the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic which played from 1970–1984.
His children are also performers, the most famous being his daughter, Marlo, who is married to Phil Donahue. His son, Tony Thomas, is a television producer, and another daughter, Terre Thomas, is a former actress.
A devout Roman Catholic, Thomas was awarded a papal knighthood by Pope Paul VI. He was named a Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in recognition of his services to both the church and the community. President Ronald Reagan presented Thomas with a Congressional Gold Medal honouring him for his work with St Jude's Hospital.
Death
Thomas died on February 6, 1991, of a heart failure at age 79. He had completed filming a commercial for St. Jude Hospital a few days before his death and this final commercial aired as a tribute to him.
Danny Thomas and his beloved wife Rose Marie (who also died in 2000) are interred in a crypt in a mausoleum on the grounds of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. He was a posthumous recipient of the 2004 Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h20/jrb_photos/DannyThomas.jpg
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i186/leegordon/CharleyTJLeewithDannyThomas.gif
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b245/DannyPhoto/eb71bb09.jpg
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh230/jedgrn/dtanddc.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/06/10 at 5:26 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvBfHwUxHIk
I knew someone would post this :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/06/10 at 5:27 am
The Avengers, one tv program I can easily watch again with pleasure.
I enjoyed it myself :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/06/10 at 5:28 am
British Person of the Day: Rick Astley
Richard Paul "Rick" Astley (born 6 February 1966, Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known for his 1987 hit single in 16 countries, "Never Gonna Give You Up". Astley holds the record for being the only male solo artist to have his first 8 singles reach the Top 10 in the UK and has sold approximately 40 million records worldwide.
After fading into obscurity in the 1990s, Astley made a comeback in 2007 when he became an Internet phenomenon, as his video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" became part of a popular Internet meme known as "Rickrolling". Astley was voted by Internet users "Best Act Ever" at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008.
1980s
In 1985, Astley was playing the club circuit as a drummer with a soul band named FBI when he was noticed by the record producer Pete Waterman, who persuaded him to come to London to work at the PWL recording studio. Under the tutelage of the production team of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman, known as Stock Aitken Waterman, Astley was taught about the recording process and groomed for his future career, supposedly starting off as the recording studio 'tea boy'.
His first single was the little-known "When You Gonna", released as a collaboration with Lisa Carter, but his first solo offering was "Never Gonna Give You Up", released in 1987. It became an immediate success, spending five weeks at the top of the British charts and becoming the year's highest-selling single. It was the first of 13 (worldwide) top 30 hit singles for him.
The 1987 album Whenever You Need Somebody also reached number one in the UK, and the hit singles continued, including the title track and a cover of Nat King Cole's "When I Fall in Love".
On 12 March 1988, "Never Gonna Give You Up" also topped the U.S. singles chart and was followed by a second U.S. #1 on 18 June with his second U.S. single release, "Together Forever". In 1989 he was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, but lost to Tracy Chapman.
The group FBI, from left to right, Kevin Needham, Rick Astley, Will Hopper, Peter Dale, & Greg Smee, in 1984.
In late 1988, Astley released his second album, Hold Me In Your Arms. While the album sold well in Europe, with all its three singles becoming top 10 hits in the UK, his success in the US waned, with only the first single, "She Wants To Dance With Me", making an impact, peaking at #6.
1990s
By the end of the 1980s, Astley had parted company with Stock, Aitken, and Waterman. He achieved one more major success with the 1991 ballad "Cry for Help", which reached the top 10 in both the UK and the US. The song was taken from his third album, Free, which featured a move towards soul music, leaving his synth-pop days behind. The album was not as successful as his previous two.
In 1991 the RIAA certified that two million copies of Whenever You Need Somebody had been sold.
His next album, Body and Soul, was released in 1993. The album did not chart in the UK but managed to make the Billboard 200, peaking at #182. The two singles, "The Ones You Love" and "Hopelessly", performed very well on the adult contemporary chart, peaking at #19 and #4 respectively. "Hopelessly" also crossed over and peaked at #31 on the Top 40 Mainstream chart.
For much of the 1990s and early 2000s, Astley remained largely out of the spotlight.
2000s
Almost 10 years after Body and Soul, Astley finally returned to the music world and released Keep It Turned On in 2002. The album featured the single "Sleeping", which became a minor club hit, thanks to a set of remixes from U.S. house producer Todd Terry.
In March, 2005, Astley released the album Portrait in which he covered many classic standards such as "Vincent", "Nature Boy" and "Close to You".
In early 2006, Astley withdrew unexpectedly at the eleventh hour from appearing on the BBC TV celebrity/pro duets show Just the Two of Us after committing to do so. This led to criticism from those in the entertainment industry and media. His place was filled by singer Russell Watson, who eventually won the competition. The BBC failed to explain that Astley's withdrawal was due to his wife Lene Bausager being nominated for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for the Sean Ellis film Cashback, where she was the main producer. Astley would have missed a crucial part of the show by attending the awards ceremony and so withdrew before the show began.
Astley at a festival in Singapore.
Based on various music charts in the UK, US and Canada, Astley has charted a grand total of 14 different hit singles and 6 different hit albums, as of March 2006. In April 2008, the album "The Ultimate Collection: Rick Astley" was released by Sony BMG and by early May it had reached #17 on the UK Top 40 Albums Chart.
In September 2008, Rick was nominated for the 'Best Act Ever' award at the MTV Europe Music Awards The push to make Astley the winner of the award continued after the announcement, as well as efforts to encourage MTV to personally invite Astley to the awards ceremony. On 10 October, Astley's website confirmed that an invitation to the awards had been received. On 7 November, following a massive internet campaign by fans, Rick won the award in Liverpool, but was not there in person to receive it. Perez Hilton collected the prize on his behalf.
In 2008, Astley was a headlining act at the Northampton Balloon Festival. In April 2009, he wrote an article for Time Magazine about moot.
Rickroll Internet phenomenon
In 2007 Rick Astley became the subject of a viral Internet meme in which an estimated 25 million Internet users were tricked into watching Rick Astley's video "Never Gonna Give You Up" by posting it under the name of other popular video titles. The practice is now known as Rickrolling. The phenomenon became so popular that on 1 April 2008, YouTube pranked its users by making every single featured video on the front page a Rickroll.
http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Technology/images/rick-astley.jpg
Other than "Never Gonna Give You Up" I really don't know any of his songs.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/06/10 at 6:13 am
I enjoyed it myself :)
I remember watching The Avengers frist time round
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/06/10 at 7:47 am
With caffine in it?
and cream with sugar.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/06/10 at 7:50 am
Rick Astley,always like his videos. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/06/10 at 8:57 am
It is wine for me, red or white will do.
Spumonti for me.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/06/10 at 9:04 am
Spumonti for me.
Cat
I never got into wine even though I live in Wine Country NY.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/06/10 at 9:15 am
Spumonti for me.
Cat
http://www.luding.ru/media/catalog/drink/it_spumante_elit_big.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/06/10 at 9:32 am
http://www.luding.ru/media/catalog/drink/it_spumante_elit_big.jpg
Yup.
A little info about spumante. Spumante is the grape. Asti is a region in Italy. It is like Champagne. Sparkling wine HAS to be from that region in France to be called Champagne just like spumante HAS to be from the region in Italy for it to be called Asti.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/06/10 at 9:44 am
Yup.
A little info about spumante. Spumante is the grape. Asti is a region in Italy. It is like Champagne. Sparkling wine HAS to be from that region in France to be called Champagne just like spumante HAS to be from the region in Italy for it to be called Asti.
Cat
I forgot the glasses...
http://buycheapwineglasses.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/cheap-wine-glasses-2.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/06/10 at 9:53 am
I forgot the glasses...
http://buycheapwineglasses.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/cheap-wine-glasses-2.jpg
Is that enough for everyone? I think we will need more than 1 bottle for this crowd. I could drink a whole bottle by myself. :o :o :o
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/06/10 at 11:28 am
Is that enough for everyone? I think we will need more than 1 bottle for this crowd. I could drink a whole bottle by myself. :o :o :o
Cat
We need to find a good wine cellar.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/06/10 at 1:05 pm
The Avengers, one tv program I can easily watch again with pleasure.
Me too. We were fortunate to have that British TV show here in Canada.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/06/10 at 8:28 pm
he also had that Nat King Cole hit.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/07/10 at 2:47 am
The Avengers, one tv program I can easily watch again with pleasure.
I bought the DVD of the Diana Rigg series years. That show is a blast..... ;D .... and Diana Rigg is just so special I can't even tell you what that woman does for me...... ::)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/07/10 at 4:17 am
he also had that Nat King Cole hit.
When I Fall In Love
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/07/10 at 4:47 am
British Person of the Day: Hattie Jacques
Josephine Edwina Jaques (7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress, known by the stage name Hattie Jacques.
Starting her career in the 1940s, Jacques first gained attention through her radio appearances with Tommy Handley on ITMA and later with Tony Hancock on Hancock's Half Hour. From 1958 to 1974 she appeared in fourteen Carry On films, often playing the Matron. She had a long professional partnership with Eric Sykes, with whom she co-starred in his long running television series, Sykes. She also starred in two Norman Wisdom films, The Square Peg and Follow a Star.
Jacques was married to John Le Mesurier from 1949 until their divorce in 1965.
Her final appearance on television was an advertisement for Asda in 1980. She died later that year from a heart attack.
Early life
Hattie Jacques was born Josephine Edwina Jaques in Sandgate, Kent in 1922, the daughter of Robin and Mary Jacques. Her father was an RAF pilot who was killed in a plane crash just 18 months after her birth. Her mother was an amateur actress.
Educated at the Godolphin and Latymer School, she served as a nurse in the Red Cross during the Second World War, and worked as a welder in a factory in North London
At the age of 20, she made her theatrical début at the Players' Theatre in London. Almost immediately, she became a regular performer with the company, appearing in music hall revues and playing the Fairy Queen in their Victorian-style pantomimes. It has been reported she sometimes "sang Marie Lloyd songs and ended her act by leaping into the air and doing the splits".
After achieving success in radio, television and film, she returned to the Players' on a regular basis as a performer, writer and director. It was during her time at the Players' that she acquired the nickname 'Hattie' - appearing in a minstrel show called 'Coal Black Mammies for Dixie', she took to the stage blacked up and was likened to the American actress Hattie McDaniel (of Gone with the Wind fame). Thereafter the name stuck.
Radio
In 1947 she was seen at the Players' by Ted Kavanagh, the scriptwriter of It's That Man Again (ITMA), and was invited to join the cast of the radio comedy series (1948-1949) playing the greedy schoolgirl Sophie Tuckshop.
She also performed (1950-1954) in the radio show Educating Archie as Agatha Danglebody. It was on this show that she first worked with Eric Sykes, who was providing scripts for the series.
In 1956, she was asked to join the radio series Hancock's Half Hour, with regulars Tony Hancock, Sid James, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. She also appeared in several episodes of Hancock's television series.
Carry On films
She was also appearing in films by this time, and her early films included Scrooge (1951) and a couple of Norman Wisdom comedies, The Square Peg and Follow a Star. In 1958, she joined the Carry On team in Carry On Sergeant and achieved more widespread recognition.
She appeared in fourteen films in the long-running series and portrayed the no-nonsense Matron in five of the films - Carry On Nurse, Carry On Doctor, Carry On Camping, Carry On Again Doctor and Carry On Matron.
Her own personal favourite was Carry On Cabby, in which she was allowed to drop her 'battleaxe' persona and play the romantic lead opposite Sid James.
She was known by the team as a warm, kind-hearted and endearing lady and was close friends with many of her co-stars, including Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims, whom Hattie provided with a great deal of advice and practical help. In return, Sims regarded Hattie as her "greatest friend".
Eric Sykes
She first met Eric Sykes at the Players' Theatre in London. Dazzled by her performance, Sykes came backstage to be introduced. It was to be the beginning of a life-long friendship and partnership.
In 1960 she joined Eric Sykes on his long-running BBC comedy series Sykes, in which they played a brother and sister who got into all sorts of comic scrapes. The joke was that they were meant to be twins, but were physically very unalike, Jacques being short and plump, while Sykes was thin and gangly. The show ran from 1960 to 1965 and was revived from 1972 to 1979. In later years, they teamed up for national and international stage tours of the show, although this put something of a strain on their professional relationship.
Personal life
Hattie Jacques was married to the actor John Le Mesurier from 1949 to 1965. They had two sons. At the time of their divorce, the media were given the impression that the fault was on Le Mesurier's side. It was later revealed that Jacques had been having an affair with a younger man called John Schofield. The 2007 book Hattie: the Authorised Biography says he was a cockney used-car dealer and that Schofield moved into the master bedroom while Le Mesurier retreated to the attic. When Jacques was filming in Rome, Schofield came out to stay and ran off with an Italian heiress. Le Mesurier went along with the charade of it being his fault so as not to damage Jacques's career. She remained on good terms with Le Mesurier and encouraged him to marry his third wife, Joan.
Later years
In her later years, Jacques was plagued by continued ill-health, but she carried on working and supporting her favourite charities, as well as keeping up her busy social life. She died of a heart attack on 6 October 1980, at the age of 58. She was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium, where her ashes were also scattered.
Radio performances
* ITMA (1948 - 1949), Sophie Tuckshop
* Educating Archie (1950 - 1954), Agatha Danglebody
* Hancock's Half Hour (1956 - 1959), Griselda Pugh
Television
* Hancock's Half Hour (1956 - 1960), Griselda Pugh
* Sykes (TV series, 1960 - 1965, 1971 - 1979), Hattie
* Doctor at Large (1971) as Mrs Askey in 'Cynthia Darling'
Selected films
* Oliver Twist (1948) singer in the thieves' pub
* Trottie True (1948) music hall performer
* Carry On Sergeant (1958), Captain Clark
* The Square Peg (1958), Gretchen
* Carry on Nurse (1959), Matron
* The Navy Lark (1959), Fortune Teller
* The Night We Dropped a Clanger (1959), Ada
* Carry On Teacher (1959), Grace Short
* Follow a Star (1959), Dymphna Dobson
* Make Mine Mink (1960), Nanette Parry
* Carry On Constable (1960), Sergeant Laura Moon
* School for Scoundrels (1960), First Instructress
* In the Doghouse (1961), Gudgeon
* Carry On Regardless (1961), Sister
* She'll Have to Go (1962)
* Carry On Cabby (1963), Peggy
* Carry On Doctor (1967), Matron
* Carry On Again Doctor (1969), Matron
* Monte Carlo or Bust (1969), Lady Journalist
* The Magic Christian (1969), Ginger Horton
* Carry On Camping (1969), Miss Haggerd
* Carry On Loving (1970), Sophie Bliss
* Carry On At Your Convenience (1971), Beatrice Plummer
* Carry On Matron (1971), Matron
* Carry On Abroad (1972), Floella
* Carry On Dick (1974), Martha Hoggett
* Rhubarb Rhubarb (1980), Nanny
http://www.didtheydie.com/morgue/images/hattie_jacques.jpg
https://www.spotlight.com/hallfame/portraits/hattie_jacques.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/07/10 at 4:48 am
British Person of the Day: Hattie Jacques
Josephine Edwina Jaques (7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress, known by the stage name Hattie Jacques.
Starting her career in the 1940s, Jacques first gained attention through her radio appearances with Tommy Handley on ITMA and later with Tony Hancock on Hancock's Half Hour. From 1958 to 1974 she appeared in fourteen Carry On films, often playing the Matron. She had a long professional partnership with Eric Sykes, with whom she co-starred in his long running television series, Sykes. She also starred in two Norman Wisdom films, The Square Peg and Follow a Star.
Jacques was married to John Le Mesurier from 1949 until their divorce in 1965.
Her final appearance on television was an advertisement for Asda in 1980. She died later that year from a heart attack.
Early life
Hattie Jacques was born Josephine Edwina Jaques in Sandgate, Kent in 1922, the daughter of Robin and Mary Jacques. Her father was an RAF pilot who was killed in a plane crash just 18 months after her birth. Her mother was an amateur actress.
Educated at the Godolphin and Latymer School, she served as a nurse in the Red Cross during the Second World War, and worked as a welder in a factory in North London
At the age of 20, she made her theatrical début at the Players' Theatre in London. Almost immediately, she became a regular performer with the company, appearing in music hall revues and playing the Fairy Queen in their Victorian-style pantomimes. It has been reported she sometimes "sang Marie Lloyd songs and ended her act by leaping into the air and doing the splits".
After achieving success in radio, television and film, she returned to the Players' on a regular basis as a performer, writer and director. It was during her time at the Players' that she acquired the nickname 'Hattie' - appearing in a minstrel show called 'Coal Black Mammies for Dixie', she took to the stage blacked up and was likened to the American actress Hattie McDaniel (of Gone with the Wind fame). Thereafter the name stuck.
Radio
In 1947 she was seen at the Players' by Ted Kavanagh, the scriptwriter of It's That Man Again (ITMA), and was invited to join the cast of the radio comedy series (1948-1949) playing the greedy schoolgirl Sophie Tuckshop.
She also performed (1950-1954) in the radio show Educating Archie as Agatha Danglebody. It was on this show that she first worked with Eric Sykes, who was providing scripts for the series.
In 1956, she was asked to join the radio series Hancock's Half Hour, with regulars Tony Hancock, Sid James, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. She also appeared in several episodes of Hancock's television series.
Carry On films
She was also appearing in films by this time, and her early films included Scrooge (1951) and a couple of Norman Wisdom comedies, The Square Peg and Follow a Star. In 1958, she joined the Carry On team in Carry On Sergeant and achieved more widespread recognition.
She appeared in fourteen films in the long-running series and portrayed the no-nonsense Matron in five of the films - Carry On Nurse, Carry On Doctor, Carry On Camping, Carry On Again Doctor and Carry On Matron.
Her own personal favourite was Carry On Cabby, in which she was allowed to drop her 'battleaxe' persona and play the romantic lead opposite Sid James.
She was known by the team as a warm, kind-hearted and endearing lady and was close friends with many of her co-stars, including Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims, whom Hattie provided with a great deal of advice and practical help. In return, Sims regarded Hattie as her "greatest friend".
Eric Sykes
She first met Eric Sykes at the Players' Theatre in London. Dazzled by her performance, Sykes came backstage to be introduced. It was to be the beginning of a life-long friendship and partnership.
In 1960 she joined Eric Sykes on his long-running BBC comedy series Sykes, in which they played a brother and sister who got into all sorts of comic scrapes. The joke was that they were meant to be twins, but were physically very unalike, Jacques being short and plump, while Sykes was thin and gangly. The show ran from 1960 to 1965 and was revived from 1972 to 1979. In later years, they teamed up for national and international stage tours of the show, although this put something of a strain on their professional relationship.
Personal life
Hattie Jacques was married to the actor John Le Mesurier from 1949 to 1965. They had two sons. At the time of their divorce, the media were given the impression that the fault was on Le Mesurier's side. It was later revealed that Jacques had been having an affair with a younger man called John Schofield. The 2007 book Hattie: the Authorised Biography says he was a cockney used-car dealer and that Schofield moved into the master bedroom while Le Mesurier retreated to the attic. When Jacques was filming in Rome, Schofield came out to stay and ran off with an Italian heiress. Le Mesurier went along with the charade of it being his fault so as not to damage Jacques's career. She remained on good terms with Le Mesurier and encouraged him to marry his third wife, Joan.
Later years
In her later years, Jacques was plagued by continued ill-health, but she carried on working and supporting her favourite charities, as well as keeping up her busy social life. She died of a heart attack on 6 October 1980, at the age of 58. She was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium, where her ashes were also scattered.
Radio performances
* ITMA (1948 - 1949), Sophie Tuckshop
* Educating Archie (1950 - 1954), Agatha Danglebody
* Hancock's Half Hour (1956 - 1959), Griselda Pugh
Television
* Hancock's Half Hour (1956 - 1960), Griselda Pugh
* Sykes (TV series, 1960 - 1965, 1971 - 1979), Hattie
* Doctor at Large (1971) as Mrs Askey in 'Cynthia Darling'
Selected films
* Oliver Twist (1948) singer in the thieves' pub
* Trottie True (1948) music hall performer
* Carry On Sergeant (1958), Captain Clark
* The Square Peg (1958), Gretchen
* Carry on Nurse (1959), Matron
* The Navy Lark (1959), Fortune Teller
* The Night We Dropped a Clanger (1959), Ada
* Carry On Teacher (1959), Grace Short
* Follow a Star (1959), Dymphna Dobson
* Make Mine Mink (1960), Nanette Parry
* Carry On Constable (1960), Sergeant Laura Moon
* School for Scoundrels (1960), First Instructress
* In the Doghouse (1961), Gudgeon
* Carry On Regardless (1961), Sister
* She'll Have to Go (1962)
* Carry On Cabby (1963), Peggy
* Carry On Doctor (1967), Matron
* Carry On Again Doctor (1969), Matron
* Monte Carlo or Bust (1969), Lady Journalist
* The Magic Christian (1969), Ginger Horton
* Carry On Camping (1969), Miss Haggerd
* Carry On Loving (1970), Sophie Bliss
* Carry On At Your Convenience (1971), Beatrice Plummer
* Carry On Matron (1971), Matron
* Carry On Abroad (1972), Floella
* Carry On Dick (1974), Martha Hoggett
* Rhubarb Rhubarb (1980), Nanny
http://www.didtheydie.com/morgue/images/hattie_jacques.jpg
https://www.spotlight.com/hallfame/portraits/hattie_jacques.jpg
:\'(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/07/10 at 6:44 am
The word of the day...Champagne
Champagne is an expensive French white wine with bubbles in. It is often drunk to celebrate something
If you say that champagne corks are popping, you mean that people are celebrating something.
http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu339/22darkman/champagne.gif
http://i479.photobucket.com/albums/rr151/jwbn/Birthday_n_Gotcha_Club/MONTHLY%20PAWTIES/Jan2010/Champagne.jpg
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn49/MoreChampagneSir/IMG_7915.jpg
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee197/ladyt065_2007/BOBBYMURRAYFLYERINWHITE.jpg
http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/ab309/Korina22/thchampagnepng-1.png
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x115/jiminycricket46/HEARTS/ValentineFlute2.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r320/johng-018/100_1320.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/07/10 at 6:55 am
The word of the day...Champagne
Champagne is an expensive French white wine with bubbles in. It is often drunk to celebrate something
If you say that champagne corks are popping, you mean that people are celebrating something.
http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu339/22darkman/champagne.gif
http://i479.photobucket.com/albums/rr151/jwbn/Birthday_n_Gotcha_Club/MONTHLY%20PAWTIES/Jan2010/Champagne.jpg
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn49/MoreChampagneSir/IMG_7915.jpg
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee197/ladyt065_2007/BOBBYMURRAYFLYERINWHITE.jpg
http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/ab309/Korina22/thchampagnepng-1.png
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x115/jiminycricket46/HEARTS/ValentineFlute2.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r320/johng-018/100_1320.jpg
Champagne, I only drink it when I have to.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/07/10 at 7:11 am
The person born on this day...Chris Rock
Christopher Julius "Chris" Rock III (born February 7, 1965) is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer and director. He was voted as the fifth greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Comedy Central
Rock began doing stand-up comedy in 1985 in New York City's Catch a Rising Star. He slowly rose up the ranks of the comedy circuit in addition to earning bit roles in the film I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and the TV series Miami Vice. Upon seeing his act at a nightclub, Eddie Murphy befriended and mentored the aspiring comic. Murphy gave Rock his first film role in Beverly Hills Cop II.
Saturday Night Live
Rock became a cast member of the popular sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live in 1990. He and other new cast members Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and David Spade became known as the Bad Boys of SNL. In 1991, he released his first comedy album Born Suspect and won acclaim for his dramatic role as a crack addict in the film New Jack City. His tenure on SNL gave Rock national exposure.
Standup success
A frustrated Rock left Saturday Night Live in 1993, appearing instead as a "special guest" star on the predominately African-American sketch show In Living Color. The show, however, was canceled months later. Rock then decided to concentrate on a film career. He wrote and starred in the mockumentary CB4 but the film was not a success. Acting jobs became scarce, and Rock abandoned Hollywood to concentrate on stand-up comedy.
Rock starred in his first HBO comedy special in 1994 titled Big Ass Jokes. But it was his second stand-up special, 1996's Bring the Pain, that reinvented Rock as one of the best comedians in the industry. His routine, which featured commentaries on race in America, stirred up a great deal of controversy. Rock won two Emmy Awards for that special. Adding to his popularity was his much-publicized role as a commentator for Comedy Central's Politically Incorrect during the 1996 Presidential elections which earned him another Emmy nomination. Rock also was the voice for the "Lil Penny" puppet who was the alter ego to basketball star Penny Hardaway in a series of Nike shoe commercials from 1994-1998, and hosted the '97 MTV Video Music Awards.
Rock later had two more HBO comedy specials: Bigger & Blacker in 1999, and Never Scared in 2004. Articles relating to both specials called Rock "the funniest man in America" in Time and Entertainment Weekly. HBO also aired his talk show, The Chris Rock Show, which gained critical acclaim for Rock's interviews with celebrities and politicians. The show won an Emmy for writing. His television work has won him a total of three Emmy Awards and 15 nominations. By the end of the decade, Rock was established as one of the preeminent stand-up comedians and comic minds of his generation.
During this time, Rock also translated his comedy into print form in the book Rock This! and released the Grammy Award-winning comedy albums, Roll with the New, Bigger & Blacker and Never Scared.
Rock's fifth HBO special, Kill the Messenger, premiered on September 27, 2008, and won him another Emmy for outstanding writing for a variety or muic program.
Film and television
It was not until the success of his stand-up act in the late 1990s that Rock began receiving major parts in films. These include roles in Dogma, Beverly Hills Ninja, Lethal Weapon 4, Nurse Betty, The Longest Yard, Bad Company, and a starring role in Down to Earth. Rock has also increasingly worked behind the camera, both as a writer and director of Head of State and I Think I Love My Wife. In the fall of 2005, the UPN television network premiered a comedy series called Everybody Hates Chris, based on Rock's school days, of which he is the executive producer and narrator. The show has garnered both critical and ratings success. The series was nominated for a 2006 Golden Globe for Best TV Series (Musical or Comedy), a 2006 People's Choice Award for Favorite New Television Comedy, and two 2006 Emmy Awards for costuming and cinematography.
Academy Awards
In early 2005, Rock hosted the 77th Academy Awards ceremony. The decision to have Rock host the awards was seen by some as a chance to bring an "edge" to the ceremony, and to make it more relevant or appealing to younger audiences. Jokingly, Rock opened by saying "Welcome to the 77th and LAST Academy Awards!" During one segment Rock asked, "Who is this guy?" in reference to actor Jude Law seemingly appearing in every movie Rock had seen that year and implied Law was a low-rent Tom Cruise (he made a joke about filmmakers rushing production when unable to get the actors they want: "If you want Tom Cruise and all you can get is Jude Law, wait !"). Subsequently, a defensive Sean Penn took the stage to present and said, "In answer to our host's question, Jude Law is one of our finest young actors." (At the time, Penn and Law were shooting All the King's Men.) Law was not the only actor that Rock poked fun at that evening, however—he turned the joke on himself at one point, saying, "If you want Denzel and all you can get is me, wait!" Older Oscar officials were reportedly displeased with Rock's performance, which did not elevate ratings for the ceremony. Rock was also criticized for referring to the Oscars as "idiotic", and asserting that heterosexual men do not watch them, in an interview prior to Oscar night.
Music videos
Rock's first music video was for his song "Your Mother's Got a Big Head" from his album Born Suspect. Rock also made videos for his songs "Champagne" from Roll With the New and "No Sex (In the Champagne Room)" from Bigger & Blacker. Chris Rock also directed and appeared in the music video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Hump de Bump".
Rock appeared in the Big Daddy Kane music video "Smooth Operator" as a guy getting his hair cut.
He also appeared in Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down", one of the many celebrities seen lip-synching the song.
Comedic style and views
Rock's subject matter typically involves family, politics, romance, music, class relationships, and race relations in the United States. Though not strictly autobiographical, much of his comic standpoint seem rooted in his teenage experience; his strict parents, concerned about the inadequacies of the local school system, arranged to have the adolescent Rock bused to a nearly all-white high school in Bensonhurst (an Italian-ethnic neighborhood of Brooklyn known at the time for poor race relations). In his memoir Rock This, the comedian recalls, "My parents assumed I'd get a better education in a better neighborhood. What I actually got was a worse education in a worse neighborhood. And a whole bunch of ass-whippings."
The comedian has also expressed discomfort with the notion that success in standup comedy—or, indeed, in any aspect of the entertainment industry—should oblige him to serve as a role model. In this position, he finds himself directly at odds with one of his comic idols, Bill Cosby. Cosby has reprimanded Rock both explicitly—for his famous/notorious Niggas vs. Black People track —and implicitly, for heavy use of the word "******." Rock has not wavered from a position explored in his 1996 Roll With The New show, and reiterated in his 1997 memoir: "Why does the public expect entertainers to behave better than everybody else? It's ridiculous...Of course, this is just for black entertainers. You don't see anyone telling Jerry Seinfeld he's a good role model. Because everyone expects whites to behave themselves...Nowadays, you've got to be an entertainer and a leader. It's too much." Often the subject of tabloids, when asked about paparazzi and the other negative aspects of fame, Rock says he accepts the bad with the good: "You can't be happy that fire cooks your food and be mad it burns your fingertips."
At the London Live Earth concert on July 7, 2007, which was broadcast live on the BBC, before introducing the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rock called the crowd "motherfudgeers" and "sheesh" after a brief sigh when he said he was joking. Due to the broadcast being at 5:45pm Rock was immediately cut off, and the BBC made several apologies for his use of the word "motherfudgeer".
Personal life
Rock has been married to Malaak Compton-Rock since November 23, 1996. She is the founder and executive director of StyleWorks, a non-profit, full-service salon that provides free services for women leaving welfare and entering the workforce. They have 2 daughters together, Lola Simone (born June 28, 2002) and Zahra Savannah (born May 22, 2004).
In November 2006, the entertainment news website TMZ.com reported that Rock was filing for divorce after nearly ten years of marriage to Malaak. Two weeks later, however, TMZ reported that Rock had not filed divorce papers, and that it appeared that the couple had been able to work out their differences and stay together. In response to the reports, the Rocks released a statement to the press denouncing them as "untrue rumors and lies".
In 2007, freelance journalist and former actress Kali Bowyer filed a paternity suit against Chris Rock, claiming he was the father of her son, and in need of hospitalization. DNA testing proved that Rock was not the child's father.
Rock currently resides in Alpine, New Jersey.
In 2008, Rock's family history was profiled on the PBS series African American Lives 2. A DNA test showed that he is descended from the Udeme people of northern Cameroon and that he is 20% Caucasian.
Work
Filmography
Film
Year Title Role Notes
1987 Beverly Hills Cop II Playboy Mansion Valet
1988 Comedy's Dirtiest Dozen Himself Direct-to-video Concert film
I'm Gonna Git You Sucka Rib Joint Customer
1989 Who Is Chris Rock? Himself Documentary Short
1991 New Jack City Pookie
1992 Boomerang Bony T
1993 CB4 Albert Brown/M.C. Gusto Also wrote story, screenplay and was co-producer
1995 The Immortals Deke Anthony
Panther Yuck Mouth
1996 Sgt. Bilko 1st Lt. Oster
1997 Beverly Hills Ninja Joey Washington
1998 Dr. Dolittle Rodney Voice
Lethal Weapon 4 Detective Lee Butters
1999 Torrance Rises Himself Documentary short
Dogma Rufus
2000 Nurse Betty Wesley
2001 Down to Earth Lance Barton Also co-writer and executive producer
AI: Artificial Intelligence Mecha Comedian Voice/cameo
Pootie Tang JB/Radio DJ/Pootie's Father Also producer
Osmosis Jones Osmosis Jones Voice
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Chaka Luther King Cameo
2002 Bad Company Jake Hayes/Kevin Pope/Michael Turner
Comedian Himself Documentary
2003 Pauly Shore Is Dead Himself Cameo
Head of State Mays Gilliam Also director, producer and co-writer
2004 The N-Word Himself Documentary
Paparazzi Pizza Delivery Guy Cameo
2005 The Aristocrats Himself Documentary
Madagascar Marty voice
The Longest Yard Farrell Caretaker
2007 I Think I Love My Wife Richard Marcus Cooper Also director and co-writer
Bee Movie Mooseblood the Mosquito Voice
2008 You Don't Mess with the Zohan Taxi Driver Cameo
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Marty and other zebras Voice
2009 Good Hair Himself Documentary
2010 Death at a Funeral Aaron Also producer, Remake of the 2007 film of the same name
Grown Ups Kurt McKenzie
2012 Madagascar 3 Marty Voice
Discography
Year Album Peak positions Certifications
U.S. U.S.
R&B
1991 Born Suspect – –
* US: Gold
1997 Roll with the New 93 41
* US: Platinum
1999 Bigger & Blacker 44 26
* US: Platinum
2004 Never Scared – –
* US: Platinum
Television
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1987 Uptown Comedy Express Himself HBO special
Miami Vice Carson Episode: Missing Hours
1990-1993 Saturday Night Live Various Cast member
1993-1994 In Living Color Various Recurring
1994 Big Ass Jokes Himself HBO special
1995 The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Maurice/Jasmine Episode: Get a Job
1996-1998 The Moxy Show Flea Uncredited voice role
1996 Martin Valentino Episode: The Love Jones Connection
Homicide: Life on the Street Carver Episode: Requiem for Adena
Bring the Pain Himself HBO special
Politically Incorrect Himself Correspondent
1997 MTV Music Video Awards Himself Host
1997-2000 The Chris Rock Show Himself Cast member, writer
1998 King of the Hill Roger "Booda" Sack Episode: Traffic Jam
1999 MTV Music Video Awards Himself Host
Bigger & Blacker Himself HBO special
2003 MTV Music Video Awards Himself HBO special
2004 77th Academy Awards Himself Host
Never Scared Himself HBO special
2005-2009 Everybody Hates Chris Narrator Creator
2008 Kill the Messenger Himself HBO special
Books
* Rock This! (Hyperion Books, 1997) - ISBN 0786862890
Tours
* Bring the Pain (1996)
* Bigger & Blacker (1999)
* Black Ambition (2003-2004)
* No Apologies (2007-2008)
See also
* Niggas vs. Black People, one of Rock's most famous and controversial bits.
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr340/hjitj/Chris_Rock.jpg
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc1/mommadonna_photos/chris_rock.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/07/10 at 7:15 am
The person born on this day...Chris Rock
Christopher Julius "Chris" Rock III (born February 7, 1965) is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer and director. He was voted as the fifth greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Comedy Central
** My grandson has slobbed on my wireless mouse so at this time I cannot copy or paste anything :-[..I will try again later.
Naughty grandson!!!
You can still copy by using Alt + C and paste by Alt + V, but you still need to highlight for the copying.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/07/10 at 7:42 am
There's also Evelyn "Champagne" King.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/07/10 at 8:16 am
Naughty grandson!!!
You can still copy by using Alt + C and paste by Alt + V, but you still need to highlight for the copying.
Thanks Phil :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/07/10 at 8:24 am
British Person of the Day: Hattie Jacques
Josephine Edwina Jaques (7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress, known by the stage name Hattie Jacques.
Starting her career in the 1940s, Jacques first gained attention through her radio appearances with Tommy Handley on ITMA and later with Tony Hancock on Hancock's Half Hour. From 1958 to 1974 she appeared in fourteen Carry On films, often playing the Matron. She had a long professional partnership with Eric Sykes, with whom she co-starred in his long running television series, Sykes. She also starred in two Norman Wisdom films, The Square Peg and Follow a Star.
Jacques was married to John Le Mesurier from 1949 until their divorce in 1965.
Her final appearance on television was an advertisement for Asda in 1980. She died later that year from a heart attack.
Early life
Hattie Jacques was born Josephine Edwina Jaques in Sandgate, Kent in 1922, the daughter of Robin and Mary Jacques. Her father was an RAF pilot who was killed in a plane crash just 18 months after her birth. Her mother was an amateur actress.
Educated at the Godolphin and Latymer School, she served as a nurse in the Red Cross during the Second World War, and worked as a welder in a factory in North London
At the age of 20, she made her theatrical début at the Players' Theatre in London. Almost immediately, she became a regular performer with the company, appearing in music hall revues and playing the Fairy Queen in their Victorian-style pantomimes. It has been reported she sometimes "sang Marie Lloyd songs and ended her act by leaping into the air and doing the splits".
After achieving success in radio, television and film, she returned to the Players' on a regular basis as a performer, writer and director. It was during her time at the Players' that she acquired the nickname 'Hattie' - appearing in a minstrel show called 'Coal Black Mammies for Dixie', she took to the stage blacked up and was likened to the American actress Hattie McDaniel (of Gone with the Wind fame). Thereafter the name stuck.
Radio
In 1947 she was seen at the Players' by Ted Kavanagh, the scriptwriter of It's That Man Again (ITMA), and was invited to join the cast of the radio comedy series (1948-1949) playing the greedy schoolgirl Sophie Tuckshop.
She also performed (1950-1954) in the radio show Educating Archie as Agatha Danglebody. It was on this show that she first worked with Eric Sykes, who was providing scripts for the series.
In 1956, she was asked to join the radio series Hancock's Half Hour, with regulars Tony Hancock, Sid James, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. She also appeared in several episodes of Hancock's television series.
Carry On films
She was also appearing in films by this time, and her early films included Scrooge (1951) and a couple of Norman Wisdom comedies, The Square Peg and Follow a Star. In 1958, she joined the Carry On team in Carry On Sergeant and achieved more widespread recognition.
She appeared in fourteen films in the long-running series and portrayed the no-nonsense Matron in five of the films - Carry On Nurse, Carry On Doctor, Carry On Camping, Carry On Again Doctor and Carry On Matron.
Her own personal favourite was Carry On Cabby, in which she was allowed to drop her 'battleaxe' persona and play the romantic lead opposite Sid James.
She was known by the team as a warm, kind-hearted and endearing lady and was close friends with many of her co-stars, including Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims, whom Hattie provided with a great deal of advice and practical help. In return, Sims regarded Hattie as her "greatest friend".
Eric Sykes
She first met Eric Sykes at the Players' Theatre in London. Dazzled by her performance, Sykes came backstage to be introduced. It was to be the beginning of a life-long friendship and partnership.
In 1960 she joined Eric Sykes on his long-running BBC comedy series Sykes, in which they played a brother and sister who got into all sorts of comic scrapes. The joke was that they were meant to be twins, but were physically very unalike, Jacques being short and plump, while Sykes was thin and gangly. The show ran from 1960 to 1965 and was revived from 1972 to 1979. In later years, they teamed up for national and international stage tours of the show, although this put something of a strain on their professional relationship.
Personal life
Hattie Jacques was married to the actor John Le Mesurier from 1949 to 1965. They had two sons. At the time of their divorce, the media were given the impression that the fault was on Le Mesurier's side. It was later revealed that Jacques had been having an affair with a younger man called John Schofield. The 2007 book Hattie: the Authorised Biography says he was a cockney used-car dealer and that Schofield moved into the master bedroom while Le Mesurier retreated to the attic. When Jacques was filming in Rome, Schofield came out to stay and ran off with an Italian heiress. Le Mesurier went along with the charade of it being his fault so as not to damage Jacques's career. She remained on good terms with Le Mesurier and encouraged him to marry his third wife, Joan.
Later years
In her later years, Jacques was plagued by continued ill-health, but she carried on working and supporting her favourite charities, as well as keeping up her busy social life. She died of a heart attack on 6 October 1980, at the age of 58. She was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium, where her ashes were also scattered.
Radio performances
* ITMA (1948 - 1949), Sophie Tuckshop
* Educating Archie (1950 - 1954), Agatha Danglebody
* Hancock's Half Hour (1956 - 1959), Griselda Pugh
Television
* Hancock's Half Hour (1956 - 1960), Griselda Pugh
* Sykes (TV series, 1960 - 1965, 1971 - 1979), Hattie
* Doctor at Large (1971) as Mrs Askey in 'Cynthia Darling'
Selected films
* Oliver Twist (1948) singer in the thieves' pub
* Trottie True (1948) music hall performer
* Carry On Sergeant (1958), Captain Clark
* The Square Peg (1958), Gretchen
* Carry on Nurse (1959), Matron
* The Navy Lark (1959), Fortune Teller
* The Night We Dropped a Clanger (1959), Ada
* Carry On Teacher (1959), Grace Short
* Follow a Star (1959), Dymphna Dobson
* Make Mine Mink (1960), Nanette Parry
* Carry On Constable (1960), Sergeant Laura Moon
* School for Scoundrels (1960), First Instructress
* In the Doghouse (1961), Gudgeon
* Carry On Regardless (1961), Sister
* She'll Have to Go (1962)
* Carry On Cabby (1963), Peggy
* Carry On Doctor (1967), Matron
* Carry On Again Doctor (1969), Matron
* Monte Carlo or Bust (1969), Lady Journalist
* The Magic Christian (1969), Ginger Horton
* Carry On Camping (1969), Miss Haggerd
* Carry On Loving (1970), Sophie Bliss
* Carry On At Your Convenience (1971), Beatrice Plummer
* Carry On Matron (1971), Matron
* Carry On Abroad (1972), Floella
* Carry On Dick (1974), Martha Hoggett
* Rhubarb Rhubarb (1980), Nanny
http://www.didtheydie.com/morgue/images/hattie_jacques.jpg
https://www.spotlight.com/hallfame/portraits/hattie_jacques.jpg
Thanks Phil. I can honestly say I never heard of her. Were the Carry On movies only popular in the U.K.?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/07/10 at 8:29 am
The person who died on this day...Nick Adams
Nick Adams (July 10, 1931 – February 7, 1968) was an Academy Award nominated American film and television actor. He has been noted for his supporting roles in successful Hollywood films during the 1950s and 1960s along with his starring role in the ABC television series The Rebel (1959). Decades after Adams' death from a prescription drug overdose at the age of 36 his widely publicized friendships with James Dean and Elvis Presley would stir speculation about both his private life and the circumstances of his death. In an Allmovie synopsis for Adams' last film, reviewer Dan Pavlides wrote, "Plagued by personal excesses, he will be remembered just as much for what he could have done in cinema as what he left behind.
dams was an avid reader of fan magazines and came to believe he could meet agents and directors by being seen at the Warners Theater in Beverly Hills. He got a job there as doorman, usher and maintenance man, which included changing the notices on the theater marquee. He was fired after he put his own name up as a publicity stunt.
Adams' earliest reported paid acting job in Los Angeles was a stage role at the Las Palmas Theater in a comedy called Mr. Big Shot. Although he was paid about $60 a week Adams had to pay $175 for membership in Actors Equity. He also earned $25 one night at the Mocambo nightclub, filling in for Pearl Bailey who had fallen ill. Eight years later Hedda Hopper told Adams she recalled writing about him at the time and he replied by reciting back to her, "Nick Adams, gas station attendant from New Jersey, did an impersonation of Jimmy Cagney and a scene from Glass Menagerie."
After three years of struggle and optimistic self-promotion, his first film role came in 1951, an uncredited one-liner as a Western Union delivery boy in George Seaton's Somebody Loves Me (1952). This allowed him to join the Screen Actors Guild, but he was unable to find steady acting work, even when "creatively" claiming he had appeared with Palance in The Silver Tassie in New York. Undaunted, Adams joined a theater workshop run by Arthur Kennedy. In January 1952 Adams was drafted into the United States Coast Guard.
Supporting actor
Two and a half years later, in June 1954 his ship docked in Long Beach harbor and after a brash audition for director John Ford during which Adams did impressions of James Cagney and other celebrities while dressed in his Coast Guard uniform, he took his accumulated leave and appeared as Seaman Reber in the 1955 film version of Mister Roberts. Adams then completed his military service, returned to Los Angeles and at the age of 23, based on his work in the hit film Mr Roberts, was able to secure a powerful agent and signed with Warner Brothers.
Adams had a small role (as Chick) in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Also that year Adams played the role of "Bomber" the paper boy in the widely popular film adaptation of Picnic (1955) which was mostly filmed on location in Kansas and starred William Holden, Kim Novak and Susan Strasberg. He was not perceived by casting directors as tall or handsome enough for leading roles but during the late 1950s Adams had supporting roles in several successful television productions and films such as Our Miss Brooks (1956), No Time for Sergeants (1958), Steve Canyon (1958) and Pillow Talk (1959).
James Dean
Adams may have first met James Dean in December 1950 while jitterbugging for a soft drink commercial filmed at Griffith Park. Adams spent three years in the US Coast Guard between the time this commercial was shot in late 1950 and the start of filming for Rebel Without a Cause in March 1955. Actor Jack Grinnage, who played Moose, recalled, "Off the set, Nick, Dennis, and the others would go out together--almost like the gang we portrayed--but Jimmy and Corey Allen... were not a part of that." They became friends during filming. During breaks, Dean and Adams entertained cast and crew with impersonations of Marlon Brando and Elia Kazan (who had directed Dean in East of Eden). A 1955 Warner Brothers press release quoted Dean as saying, "I shall be busy for the rest of 1955, and Nick will be doing film work for the next six months. Come 1956, however, I wouldn't be surprised to find myself with Adams doing a two-a-night nightclub routine--or acting in a comedy by William Shakespeare." When production was wrapped, Dean said in another press release, "I now regard Natalie, Nick and Sal as co-workers; I regard them as friends... about the only friends I have in this town. And I hope we all work together again soon." Following Dean's 1955 death in an automobile accident, Adams overdubbed some of James Dean's lines for the film Giant (these are in Jett Rink's speech at the hotel) and dated co-star Natalie Wood. Adams tried to capitalize on Dean's fame through various publicity stunts, including a claim he was being stalked by a crazed female Dean fan, allowing himself to be photographed at Dean's grave in a contemplative pose, holding flowers and surrounded by mourning, teenaged female fans along with writing articles and doing interviews about Dean for fan magazines. He also claimed to have developed Dean's affection for fast cars, later telling a reporter, "I became a highway delinquent. I was arrested nine times in one year. They put me on probation, but I kept on racing... nowhere."
Elvis Presley
Nick Adams' widely publicized friendship with Elvis Presley began in 1956 on the set of Presley's film Love Me Tender during the second day of shooting. Presley had admired James Dean and when the singer arrived in Hollywood he was encouraged by studio executives to be seen with some of the "hip" new young actors there. Meanwhile his manager Colonel Tom Parker was worried Elvis' new Hollywood acquaintances might influence Presley and even tell him what they were paying their managers and agents (usually a fraction of what Parker was getting). Elaine Dundy called Parker a "master manipulator" who used Nick Adams and others in the entourage (including Parker's own brother-in-law Bitsy Mott) to counter possible subversion against him and control Elvis' movements. She later wrote a scathing characterization of Adams:
...brash struggling young actor whose main scheme to further his career was to hitch his wagon to a star, the first being James Dean, about whose friendship he was noisily boastful... this made it easy for Parker to suggest that Nick be invited to join Elvis' growing entourage of paid companions, and for Nick to accept... following Adams' hiring, there appeared a newspaper item stating that Nick and Parker were writing a book on Elvis together.
Dundy also wrote, "Of all Elvis' new friends, Nick Adams, by background and temperament the most insecure, was also his closest." Adams was Dennis Hopper's roommate during this period and the three reportedly socialized together, with Presley "...hanging out more and more with Nick and his friends" and glad his manager "liked Nick." Decades later, Kathleen Tracy recalled Adams often met Presley backstage or at Graceland, where Elvis often asked Adams "to stay over on nights": "He and Elvis would go motorcycle riding late at night and stay up until all hours talking about the pain of celebrity" and enjoying prescription drugs.
Almost forty years later, writer Peter Guaralnick wrote that Presley found it "good running around with Nick ... – there was always something happening, and the hotel suite was like a private clubhouse where you needed to know the secret password to get in and he got to change the password every day." Presley's girlfriend June Juanico complained the singer was always talking about his friend Adams and James Dean. As with Dean, Adams capitalized on his association with Presley, publishing an account of their friendship in May 1957. In August 1958 after Elvis' mother Gladys died, Parker wrote in a letter, "Nicky Admas came out to be with Elvis last Week wich was so very kind of him to be there with his friend."
The Rebel
In 1959 Adams starred in the ABC television series The Rebel playing the character Johnny Yuma, a wandering, ex-Confederate, journal-keeping, sawed-off shotgun toting "trouble-shooter" in the old American west. He is credited as a co-creator of The Rebel but had no role in writing the pilot or any of the series' episodes. Adams had asked his friend Andrew J. Fenady to write the pilot as a starring vehicle for him. The series' only recurring character, publicized as a "Reconstruction beatnik", was played by Adams. He reportedly consulted with John Wayne for tips on how to play the role. Adams wanted Presley to sing the theme song for The Rebel but the show's producer wanted Johnny Cash, who made it a hit. Guest stars appearing on the series during its two year run included Dan Blocker, Johnny Cash, Leonard Nimoy, Tex Ritter and Robert Vaughn. 76 half-hour episodes were filmed before the series was cancelled in 1961. Reruns were syndicated for several years. Adams went back to TV and film work, along with a role in the short-lived but critically successful television series Saints and Sinners.
Twilight of Honor
Adams was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as an unlikeable murder suspect in the film Twilight of Honor (1963) which featured the film debuts of both Linda Evans and Joey Heatherton. He campaigned heavily for the award, spending over $8,000 on ads in trade magazines but many of his strongest scenes had been cut from the movie and he lost to Melvyn Douglas.
Toho Studios
In 1964, Adams had a leading role in an episode (Fun and Games) of The Outer Limits television series. A review of this episode written over three decades later would characterize him as an "underrated actor." By this time Adams' career was stalling. He had high hopes his co-starring performance with Robert Conrad in Young Dillinger (1964) would be critically acclaimed but the project had low production values and both critics and audiences rejected the film. Also that year Adams guest starred in an episode of the short-lived CBS drama The Reporter.
In 1965, after publicly insisting he would never work in films produced outside the US, Adams began accepting parts in Japanese science fiction monster movies (kaiju). He landed major roles in two science fiction epics from Toho Studios in Chiyoda, Tokyo. His first Japanese movie was Frankenstein Conquers the World, in which he played Dr. James Bowen, a radiologist working in Hiroshima who encounters a new incarnation of the Frankenstein monster. Adams next starred in the sixth Godzilla film, Invasion of Astro-Monster (known in the U.S. as Monster Zero), in which he played Astronaut Glenn, journeying to the newly discovered Planet X. In both film plots his character had a love interest with characters portrayed by actress Kumi Mizuno. Actors at Toho Studios later fondly remembered Adams as a "team player". On the set of Monster Zero Adams and co-star Yoshio Tsuchiya (who played the villainous Controller of Planet X) reportedly got along well and played jokes on each other. Adams made four films in Japan during 1965 and 1966. During this time he also co-starred with Boris Karloff in Die, Monster, Die! (1965), a gothic horror–sci fi movie filmed in England.
1967: TV episodes and low budget films
Nick Adams wears an off-the-shelf motorcycle helmet in Mission Mars (1968) shortly before his death.
In early 1967 Disney released Mosby's Marauders, a now mostly forgotten but successful Civil War drama told from a southern perspective with Adams in the role of a cruel Union army sergeant. Adams guest-starred in five episodes of four TV series that year, including an installment of his friend Robert Conrad's The Wild Wild West, an appearance in Combat! and two episodes of Hondo (a short-lived western which also had an ex-Confederate theme). Throughout 1967 and early 1968 he also worked in three low budget films. One of these was Mission Mars (1968) which, having been released the same year as Stanley Kubrick's widely praised 2001: A Space Odyssey, has been described as "rarely seen, and utterly dreadful." Adams' costume for this movie included an off-the-shelf motorcycle helmet. Reacting to Mission Mars over 30 years later, SciFi reviewer Gary Westfahl wrote, "The only quality that Adams could persuasively project on film was a desperate desire to be popular, to be liked.... which helps to explain why Adams got his foot in many doors..." Adams' last US production was a more solid B picture, a stock car movie filmed in Iowa called Fever Heat. His last film appearance was in the little seen Spanish-language western Los Asesinos filmed in Mexico City, Mexico.
Marriage and children
Nick Adams (with props from his TV series The Rebel) and Carol Nugent pose for a publicity photo taken shortly after their marriage
Adams married former child actor Carol Nugent in 1959. Nugent had appeared in an episode of The Rebel. They had two children, Allyson Lee Adams (1960) and Jeb Stuart Adams (1961) who both later pursued careers in the film industry.
Sometimes acrimonious marital problems reportedly interfered with his ability to get lucrative acting parts after 1963. While promoting Young Dillinger during a television appearance on The Les Crane Show in early 1965, Adams "shocked" the viewing audience with an announcement he was leaving his wife—seemingly without telling her first. The couple publicly announced a reconciliation a week later but his career and personal life following this episode have been characterized as a "tragic freefall".
Adams and actress Kumi Mizuno may have had a short affair while he was working in Japan. "That's one of the reasons my parents were divorced", his daughter, playwright Allyson Lee Adams later said. "My dad had a penchant for becoming infatuated with his leading ladies. It was a way for him to take on the role he was playing at the time."
By July 1965 they were legally separated and Carol filed for divorce in September. The following month, while Adams was in Japan, Carol was granted a divorce and custody of the children. In January 1966 Nick and Carol announced another reconciliation on a local television show, Bill John's Hollywood Star Notebook. However in November 1966 Carol resumed the divorce proceedings and obtained a restraining order against him, alleging Adams was "prone to fits of temper" and in an affidavit charged he had "choked her, struck her and threatened to kill her during the past few weeks." On January 20, 1967 Adams was waiting for a court hearing to start when he was served with an $110,000 defamation suit by Carol's boyfriend. Nevertheless, nine days later he was granted temporary custody of the children. His son Jeb Adams later recalled, "He saw it as a competition, basically, more than anything of getting custody of us. But, a matter of a week or two later, he gave us back to my mom" and Carol later regained legal custody of the children.
Death
Adams death certificate
After finishing Los Asesinos (1968) in Mexico Adams bought a plane ticket with his own money and flew to Rome to co-star with Aldo Ray in a SciFi horror movie called Murder in the Third Dimension, but when he got there found the project had been dropped. Susan Strasberg, who had worked with him 13 years earlier on the hit film Picnic and was living in Italy, encountered a thoroughly demoralized Adams in a Rome bar. On the night of February 7, 1968 his lawyer and friend, ex-LAPD officer Erwin Roeder, drove to the actor's house at 2126 El Roble Lane in Beverly Hills to check on him after a missed dinner appointment. Seeing a light on and his car in the garage, Roeder broke through a window and discovered Adams in his upstairs bedroom, slumped dead against a wall.
During the autopsy Dr. Thomas Noguchi found enough paraldehyde, sedatives and other drugs in the body "to cause instant unconsciousness." The death certificate lists "paraldehyde and promazine intoxication" as the immediate cause of death along with the notation accident; suicide; undetermined. During the 1960s drug interaction warnings were not so prominent as they later would be and the American Medical Association has subsequently warned these two types of drugs should never be taken together.
The death of Nick Adams has been cited in articles and books about Hollywood's unsolved mysteries along with speculation by a few of Adams' acquaintances he was murdered (but apparently with no motive ever offered) and claims no trace of paraldehyde (a liquid sedative often given to alcoholics at the time and one of two drugs attributed to his death) was ever found in his home. However, Adams' brother Andrew had become a medical doctor and prescribed the sedative to him. Moreover, a story in The Los Angeles Times reported stoppered bottles with prescription labels were found in the medicine cabinet near the upstairs bedroom where Adams' body was discovered. Through the years Adams' children offered speculation ranging from murder to accidental death, the latter perhaps caused by Raeder while trying to calm the actor's nerves with an unintentionally lethal combination of alcohol and prescription drugs (although the autopsy found no alcohol in Adams' blood). Adams' best friend, actor Robert Conrad, has consistently maintained the death was accidental.
Carol Adams is listed as Adams' spouse on his death certificate, evidence the divorce had not become final when the actor died. She and the children were living only a few blocks from Adams' recently-rented house on Roble Lane.
Nick Adams' remains were buried in Berwick, Pennsylvania. He appeared in over 150 television series episodes and feature films throughout a 20 year career. Half of these were episodes of The Rebel. The back of his gravestone bears a silhouette of Adams in the civil-war era cap from his TV series and reads Nick Adams - the rebel - actor of hollywood screens.
Later published speculation
Adams's sexuality
Decades later, Adams' highly publicized life and death at a young age and his friendships with cultural icons such as James Dean and Elvis Presley along with his reported drug consumption made his private life the subject of many reports and assertions by some writers who have claimed Adams may have been gay or bisexual and may have had intimate relationships with both Dean and Presley. One of the earliest published mentions on this overall topic was made by gossip columnist Rona Barrett in her 1974 autobiography, in which she made no assertion Adams was homosexual or bisexual but claimed Adams had told her, along with a "whole roomful of people -- that he wasn't making it because no one in Hollywood's upper stratosphere would accept his wife." Barret wrote, "This was untrue. She was one of the most refreshing wives in the entire community", and went on to say Adams "had become the companion to a group of salacious homosexuals" who flattered the actor, which affected his judgement and caused him to blame Carol. Hollywood biographer Lawrence J. Quirk claimed Mike Connolly (a gay gossip columnist for the Hollywood Reporter from 1951 to 1966) "would put the make on the most prominent young actors, including Robert Francis, Guy Madison, Anthony Perkins, Nick Adams, and James Dean." According to American Film (1986), "Nick Adams, who was ... gay, was the butt of anti-gay humor in Pillow Talk.
Some writers later called Adams a "Hollywood hustler" or a "street hustler" but one journalist also refers to Adams as a pool hustler who made money in pool halls when he was a teenager in New Jersey and later while struggling to make ends meet during his early years in Hollywood .
Friendship with Dean and Presley
It is uncertain whether James Dean and Adams met before his service in the US Coast Guard (1952-1955) and subsequent role in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). In his 1986 gossip book about gay Hollywood, Conversations With My Elders, Boze Hadleigh claimed actor Sal Mineo told him in 1972, "I didn't hear it from Jimmy (James Dean), who was sort of awesome to me when we did Rebel. But Nick told me they had a big affair." Journalist, screenwriter and author of books about Hollywood, John Gregory Dunne wrote that "James Dean was bisexual, as were Nick Adams and Sal Mineo." In his book Elvis (1981) Albert Goldman wrote, "Nick Adams ingratiated himself with James Dean precisely as he would do a year or so later with Elvis. He offered himself to the shy, emotionally contorted and rebellious Dean, as a friend, a guide, a boon companion, a homosexual lover -- whatever role or service Dean required." According to Eric Braun, "Elvis was attracted by Adams' outgoing personality and the young actors caused quite a stir, cruising round Los Angeles with Natalie Wood, Russ Tamblyn and others on their Hondas." In 2005 Byron Raphael and Presley biographer Alanna Nash claimed Adams may have "swung both ways" like "Adams' good pal (and Elvis' idol) James Dean. Tongues wagged that Elvis and Adams were getting it on." Earl Greenwood, author and biographer David Bret and Adams' former fan mail secretary Bill Dakota made similar statements. For Adams's friendships with both Dean and Presley, see also Eric Braun, Frightening the Horses: Gay Icons of the Cinema (2002). However, in 2006 Kathleen Tracy noted, "It has since been speculated in Hollywood gossip that Presley and Adams may have shared some sort of intimate encounter. But there's no definitive evidence one way or another."
Studio-arranged dates
Adams regularly dated actresses with whom he made movies. During the mid-1950s photographs of him with actress Natalie Wood were widely publicized in fan magazines. Modern Screen wrote at the time "their relationship has been mostly for fun" and they shared "a tendency toward moodiness and unpredictability." The magazine also reported they had given joint interviews "in which they admitted they adored each other" and "they even came terribly close to getting married" in Las Vegas. The same article also remarked that on one of their trips they "posed for innumerable publicity photographs - that was the real reason for the trip - " and "Right now, both Nick and Natalie are inclined to deny the whole Las Vegas episode." In his 2004 biography Natalie Wood: A Life biographer and screenwriter Gavin Lambert wrote in passing, Wood's "first studio-arranged date with a gay or bisexual actor had been with Nick Adams." In his biography of gay Hollywood agent Henry Willson, Robert Hofler deals with the rise of the studio star system, in which several actors spent time on the homosexual casting couch and dated girls or even entered into sham marriages in order to cover their homosexuality. "In the Henry Willson date pool", the author says, "Nick Adams was one client, among many, who glommed on to Natalie Wood to get his picture taken." Suzanne Finstad cites actor Jack Grinnage, one of the gang members in Rebel Without a Cause, about Nick Adams's and Dennis Hopper's reasons "for getting close to Natalie. 'I remember being in Dennis' dressing room with Nick and Natalie ... I don't know which one of them said this - it was Nick or Dennis - but he said, "We're gonna hang on to her bra straps." Meaning up the career ladder.' Natalie's tutor, who knew Hopper and Adams off set, said, 'Both of those two guys were all over her ... because they could see that this movie was going to be a big thing for Natalie ... they were game for anything in order to be noticed and to get ahead in the business.' "
Actress Olive Sturgess relates: "When Nick and I went out, it was a casual thing – no great love or anything like that. ... I thought he was very troubled ... You could feel he was troubled. It was the manner he had – that was the way he was in real life, always brooding. ... When we went out, it was never on his motorcycle! That's one trick he couldn't pull on me. We always went in a car!"
Lack of confirmation
Because of morality clauses in studio contracts along with practical marketing concerns, most gay and lesbian actors during the 1950s and 1960s were discreet about their sexuality. However, Adams was known in Hollywood for embellishing and inventing stories about his show business experiences and long tried to capitalize on his associations with James Dean and Elvis Presley. In a brief biographical article journalist Bill Kelly wrote Adams "became James Dean's closest pal, although Nick was straight and Dean was bisexual." Moreover there are neither any court documents (such as from the long and drawn out divorce and child custody proceedings between him and his wife), personal letters from Adams nor directly attributable statements by any alleged male lovers to support the assertions.
Quotes
“ I dreamed all my life of being a movie star. Movies were my life.
You had to have an escape when you were raised in a basement.
I saw all the James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and John Garfield
pictures. Odds against the world... that was my meat. ”
“ I will never make a picture abroad.
— 1963, two years before Adams went to Japan and co-starred in Invasion of Astro-Monster, the sixth Godzilla movie produced by Toho Studios.
”
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1952 Somebody Loves Me Western Union boy Uncredited
1955 Strange Lady in Town Billy the Kid
Mister Roberts Reber
Rebel Without a Cause Chick
I Died a Thousand Times Bell Boy Uncredited
Picnic Bomber
1956 Our Miss Brooks Gary Nolan
A Strange Adventure Phil Davis Alternative title: White Nightmare
The Last Wagon Ridge
Giant Jett Rink (Voice) Uncredited
1957 Fury at Showdown Tracy Mitchell
Sweet Smell of Success Hot-Dog Stand Customer Uncredited
Playhouse 90 Sandy TV, 1 episode
1958 Sing Boy Sing C.K. Judd
Richard Diamond, Private Detective Mickey Houseman TV, 1 episode
Teacher's Pet Barney Kovac
No Time for Sergeants Pvt. Benjamin B. Whitledge
Wanted: Dead or Alive Andy Martin TV, 1 episode
Cimarron City John Hartman, Jr. TV, 1 episode
Letter to Loretta Chip Davidson TV, 1 episode
Steve Canyon Sgt. Korman TV, 1 episode
1958-1959 Zane Grey Theater George Pelletti TV, 2 episodes
Trackdown Deal Jackford TV, 3 episodes
1958-1961 Wagon Train Sam Upton TV, 2 episodes
1959 Yancy Derringer Duke Alexis TV, 1 episode
Tales of Wells Fargo Ira Watkins TV, 1 episode
The David Niven Show TV, 1 episode
Pillow Talk Tony Walters
The FBI Story John Gilbert "Jack" Graham
1959-1961 The Rebel Johnny Yuma TV, 59 episodes, wrote 38 episodes, credited as creator
1961-1962 The Dick Powell Show Nick Phillips/George Townsend TV, 2 episodes
General Electric Theater Paul Madsen TV, 2 episodes
1962 Checkmate Weiler aka "Kid" TV, 1 episode
Hell is for Heroes Homer
The Interns Dr. Sid Lackland
A Girl Named Tamiko
1962-1963 Saints and Sinners Nick Alexander TV, 3 episodes
1963 The Hook Pvt. V.R. Hackett
Twilight of Honor Ben Brown Alternative title: The Charge is Murder, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
77 Sunset Strip Max Dent TV, 1 episode
1963-1965 Burke's Law Various roles TV, 5 episodes
1963-1967 Combat! Pvt. Mick Hellar/Cpl. Marty Roberts TV, 2 episodes
1964 Arrest and Trial Ronnie Blake TV, 1 episode
The Outer Limits Mike Benson TV, 1 episode
The Reporter Roger TV, 1 episode
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Jason Kemp TV, 1 episode
The Young Lovers Tarragoo
Rawhide Corporal Dasovik TV, 1 episode
1965 Ben Casey Orin Reid TV, 1 episode
Young Dillinger John Dillinger
Frankenstein Conquers the World Dr. James Bowen
Die, Monster, Die! Stephen Reinhart Alternative titles: Monster of Terror & The House at the End of the World
Invasion of Astro-Monster Astronaut Glenn Alternative titles: Godzilla vs. Monster Zero & Invasion of the Astros
1966 Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title KEB agent Uncredited
1966-1968 The Wild Wild West Prince/Sheriff Dave Cord TV, 2 episodes
1967 The Wonderful World of Disney Sergeant Gregg TV, 2 episodes
The Monroes Dave TV, 1 episode
The Killing Bottle John Carter Alternative titles: International Secret Police: Driven to the Wall & Zettai zatsumi
Hondo Apache Kid TV, 2 episodes
1968 Fever Heat Ace Jones
Mission Mars Nick Grant
Los Asesinos Shannon
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http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll56/Joesmyhero_album/Michael%20Landon/img189.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/07/10 at 9:01 am
The word of the day...Champagne
Champagne is an expensive French white wine with bubbles in. It is often drunk to celebrate something
If you say that champagne corks are popping, you mean that people are celebrating something.
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http://i479.photobucket.com/albums/rr151/jwbn/Birthday_n_Gotcha_Club/MONTHLY%20PAWTIES/Jan2010/Champagne.jpg
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I thought we already have a discussion about champagne. :D ;D ;D ;D
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/07/10 at 9:12 am
I thought we already have a discussion about champagne. :D ;D ;D ;D
Cat
I know I feel like an alcoholic ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/07/10 at 10:30 am
Thanks Phil. I can honestly say I never heard of her. Were the Carry On movies only popular in the U.K.?
The Carry On films are popular in the UK for the bawdy humour, but are now outdated due to PC standards etc.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/07/10 at 11:30 am
I thought we already have a discussion about champagne. :D ;D ;D ;D
Cat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6me5MAHTWo
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/07/10 at 11:46 am
Another British Person of the Day (Died This Day): Matt Monro
Matt Monro (1 December 1930 – 7 February 1985) was an English singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s. Throughout his 30-year career, he filled cabarets, nightclubs, music halls, and stadiums in Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong to Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas. He sold more than 100 million records during his lifetime.
Early career
He was born Terence Edward Parsons in Shoreditch, London and attended Duncombe School in Islington. Affectionately nicknamed "the singing bus driver" (because one of his many occupations prior to achieving fame was driving the Number 27 bus from Highgate to Teddington), he got his first break in 1956 when he became a featured vocalist with the BBC Show Band. An important influence on his early career was the pianist Winifred Atwell, who became his mentor, provided him with his stage name, and helped him sign with Decca Records.
In 1957 Monro released Blue and Sentimental, a collection of standards. Despite the album's critical acclaim, Monro languished among the young male singers trying to break through at the end of the 1950s, many of them emulating Frankie Vaughan by recording cover versions of American hits. (Monro even recorded a version of Vaughan's "Garden of Eden" during this period.) A short recording contract with Fontana Records followed.
By the end of the 1950s, Monro's mid-decade fame had evaporated, and he returned to relative obscurity. He and his wife Mickie lived from her wages as a song plugger and his royalties from a TV advertising jingle for Camay soap. In 1959 he recorded a country pastiche song, "Bound for Texas", for The Chaplin Revue, a feature-length compilation of Charlie Chaplin shorts. It would be the first of many Monro soundtrack themes.
International success
Prior to producing the Peter Sellers album Songs For Swinging Sellers in 1960, George Martin asked Monro to record a satirical ditty to help the comedian imitate the song with a Frank Sinatra-type styling. When Sellers heard the recording he decided to use it to open the record rather than record his own version. However, Sellers billed Monro as "Fred Flange," and though it was a demoralizing experience at the time, the incident developed into a lifelong friendship with Martin, who subsequently asked Monro to begin recording with him for EMI's Parlophone record label. Their second single, "Portrait of My Love," reached number three in the UK Singles Chart.
By the following year, he had been named Top International Act by Billboard magazine, and his follow-up hits included "My Kind of Girl" (1961), "Softly as I Leave You" (1962) and the song from the James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963). For the latter, his vocals were not used in the opening titles, as became the standard for the series; they were heard on a radio during the film and over the final credits. At the 1964 Eurovision Song Contest, singing "I Love the Little Things," he finished second behind Italy's 16-year-old Gigliola Cinquetti, despite an "excellent performance of the only English language song of the night." The Austrian entry "Warum Nur Warum?", sung by Udo Jürgens, caught Monro's ear, despite its sixth-place finish, and he recorded an English version titled "Walk Away" (with lyrics by Monro's manager Don Black), earning him another hit single late in 1964. He also had a hit with the The Beatles' "Yesterday" in 1965, releasing the first single of the most recorded song of all time, predating even the Beatles' own. The following year, Monro sang the Oscar winning title song for the film, Born Free, which became his signature tune. The opening scene for the film The Italian Job featured Monro singing "On Days Like These." These two movie themes featured lyrics also written by Don Black, who started his career as a renowned songwriter when Monro challenged him to pen the English lyric that became "Walk Away." On December 31, 1976, Monro performed Walk Away on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver jubilee.
Monro achieved fame in the United States when "My Kind of Girl" (1961) and "Walk Away" (1964) hit the Top 40. In 1966, following the death of Nat King Cole, EMI moved Monro from Parlophone to Capitol. After relocating to California and recording several albums with American arrangers, Monro returned to the UK and began appearing on EMI's Columbia label, his final U.S. album release being Close To You in 1970. This LP contained the uncharted (in the US) but widely played "We're Gonna Change The World", a semi-satirical song about women's liberation.
He continued touring and recording until just before his death, releasing a single and promoting it throughout the UK and Australia in 1984. In one of his final appearances he praised Boy George, noting the importance of quality recordings in all musical genres.
Death and legacy
Monro died from liver cancer in 1985 at the Cromwell Hospital, Kensington, London, leaving a widow, Mickie, and three children: Mitchell, Michele, and Matthew. Mitchell, a professional pilot, also died of cancer in 2004. A Memorial was held in Harrow.
The twentieth anniversary of Monro's passing spotlighted the continuing interest in his music, with a Top 10 tribute compilation CD (UK), a No. 1 concert DVD (UK), a BBC TV documentary, and an official website all appearing in 2005. A 2007 compilation CD entitled From Matt With Love reached the Top 40 of the UK Albums Chart during its first week of release.
In Autumn 2005 Matt Monro Jr. toured the United Kingdom with a tribute concert commemorating the anniversary. Also, EMI re-released Matt Sings Monro, a 1995 duet album that combined his voice with the senior Monro's. Another posthumous Matt Monro duet, with Cliff Richard, appeared on Richard's duets CD, Two's Company, in 2007.
Monro never recorded a "live" concert album, preferring the technical purity of the recording studio and wanting his public performances to retain an element of uniqueness. However, in the past few years, commercially-released concert albums have emerged following meticulous remastering of radio and television shows, private recordings he commissioned. These include an intimate 1967 cabaret performance from his first tour of Australia; a 1967 BBC concert with Nelson Riddle; a 1966 arena concert before 24,000 fans in Manila; and one of his final concerts, recorded on the last night of his fourteenth and final Australian tour in 1984.
In recent years, many singers riding the resurging wave of retro-pop have cited Matt Monro as a strong influence, including Michael Bublé, Monica Mancini, and Rick Astley. Musicians' biographies regularly note his stylistic influence on their subjects, including Cass Elliot and Karen Carpenter. He continues to feature prominently on radio stations and CD compilations featuring popular easy-listening vocalists.
His music
Most of Monro's recordings were produced or overseen by George Martin. Unlike his contemporaries, Monro recorded very few Tin Pan Alley standards during his career. (The exception was Matt Monro sings Hoagy Carmichael, one of his most highly-regarded albums.) Instead, he and Martin searched for material written by promising newcomers and commissioned English lyrics for dramatic melodies written by European composers. He also covered many of the most popular stage and screen songs of the 1950s and 1960s. Over the years, his recordings featured arrangements by Johnnie Spence, Sid Feller, Billy May, John Barry, Buddy Bregman, Kenny Clayton, Colin Keyes, and Martin himself. Monro also teamed up with Nelson Riddle and Billy May for concerts broadcast by the BBC.
In 1973 Monro released a vocal version of the popular Van der Valk TV-series theme titled "And You Smiled". It was his final hit. In 1977 he recorded "If I Never Sing Another Song", which became a latter-day standard among his contemporaries, its lyrics referring to the "heyday" of fan mail, awards, and other trappings of celebrity that had faded for them.
http://www.gmmy.com/crooners/MATT-3.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/07/10 at 11:46 am
Another British Person of the Day (Died This Day): Matt Monro
Matt Monro (1 December 1930 – 7 February 1985) was an English singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s. Throughout his 30-year career, he filled cabarets, nightclubs, music halls, and stadiums in Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong to Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas. He sold more than 100 million records during his lifetime.
Early career
He was born Terence Edward Parsons in Shoreditch, London and attended Duncombe School in Islington. Affectionately nicknamed "the singing bus driver" (because one of his many occupations prior to achieving fame was driving the Number 27 bus from Highgate to Teddington), he got his first break in 1956 when he became a featured vocalist with the BBC Show Band. An important influence on his early career was the pianist Winifred Atwell, who became his mentor, provided him with his stage name, and helped him sign with Decca Records.
In 1957 Monro released Blue and Sentimental, a collection of standards. Despite the album's critical acclaim, Monro languished among the young male singers trying to break through at the end of the 1950s, many of them emulating Frankie Vaughan by recording cover versions of American hits. (Monro even recorded a version of Vaughan's "Garden of Eden" during this period.) A short recording contract with Fontana Records followed.
By the end of the 1950s, Monro's mid-decade fame had evaporated, and he returned to relative obscurity. He and his wife Mickie lived from her wages as a song plugger and his royalties from a TV advertising jingle for Camay soap. In 1959 he recorded a country pastiche song, "Bound for Texas", for The Chaplin Revue, a feature-length compilation of Charlie Chaplin shorts. It would be the first of many Monro soundtrack themes.
International success
Prior to producing the Peter Sellers album Songs For Swinging Sellers in 1960, George Martin asked Monro to record a satirical ditty to help the comedian imitate the song with a Frank Sinatra-type styling. When Sellers heard the recording he decided to use it to open the record rather than record his own version. However, Sellers billed Monro as "Fred Flange," and though it was a demoralizing experience at the time, the incident developed into a lifelong friendship with Martin, who subsequently asked Monro to begin recording with him for EMI's Parlophone record label. Their second single, "Portrait of My Love," reached number three in the UK Singles Chart.
By the following year, he had been named Top International Act by Billboard magazine, and his follow-up hits included "My Kind of Girl" (1961), "Softly as I Leave You" (1962) and the song from the James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963). For the latter, his vocals were not used in the opening titles, as became the standard for the series; they were heard on a radio during the film and over the final credits. At the 1964 Eurovision Song Contest, singing "I Love the Little Things," he finished second behind Italy's 16-year-old Gigliola Cinquetti, despite an "excellent performance of the only English language song of the night." The Austrian entry "Warum Nur Warum?", sung by Udo Jürgens, caught Monro's ear, despite its sixth-place finish, and he recorded an English version titled "Walk Away" (with lyrics by Monro's manager Don Black), earning him another hit single late in 1964. He also had a hit with the The Beatles' "Yesterday" in 1965, releasing the first single of the most recorded song of all time, predating even the Beatles' own. The following year, Monro sang the Oscar winning title song for the film, Born Free, which became his signature tune. The opening scene for the film The Italian Job featured Monro singing "On Days Like These." These two movie themes featured lyrics also written by Don Black, who started his career as a renowned songwriter when Monro challenged him to pen the English lyric that became "Walk Away." On December 31, 1976, Monro performed Walk Away on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver jubilee.
Monro achieved fame in the United States when "My Kind of Girl" (1961) and "Walk Away" (1964) hit the Top 40. In 1966, following the death of Nat King Cole, EMI moved Monro from Parlophone to Capitol. After relocating to California and recording several albums with American arrangers, Monro returned to the UK and began appearing on EMI's Columbia label, his final U.S. album release being Close To You in 1970. This LP contained the uncharted (in the US) but widely played "We're Gonna Change The World", a semi-satirical song about women's liberation.
He continued touring and recording until just before his death, releasing a single and promoting it throughout the UK and Australia in 1984. In one of his final appearances he praised Boy George, noting the importance of quality recordings in all musical genres.
Death and legacy
Monro died from liver cancer in 1985 at the Cromwell Hospital, Kensington, London, leaving a widow, Mickie, and three children: Mitchell, Michele, and Matthew. Mitchell, a professional pilot, also died of cancer in 2004. A Memorial was held in Harrow.
The twentieth anniversary of Monro's passing spotlighted the continuing interest in his music, with a Top 10 tribute compilation CD (UK), a No. 1 concert DVD (UK), a BBC TV documentary, and an official website all appearing in 2005. A 2007 compilation CD entitled From Matt With Love reached the Top 40 of the UK Albums Chart during its first week of release.
In Autumn 2005 Matt Monro Jr. toured the United Kingdom with a tribute concert commemorating the anniversary. Also, EMI re-released Matt Sings Monro, a 1995 duet album that combined his voice with the senior Monro's. Another posthumous Matt Monro duet, with Cliff Richard, appeared on Richard's duets CD, Two's Company, in 2007.
Monro never recorded a "live" concert album, preferring the technical purity of the recording studio and wanting his public performances to retain an element of uniqueness. However, in the past few years, commercially-released concert albums have emerged following meticulous remastering of radio and television shows, private recordings he commissioned. These include an intimate 1967 cabaret performance from his first tour of Australia; a 1967 BBC concert with Nelson Riddle; a 1966 arena concert before 24,000 fans in Manila; and one of his final concerts, recorded on the last night of his fourteenth and final Australian tour in 1984.
In recent years, many singers riding the resurging wave of retro-pop have cited Matt Monro as a strong influence, including Michael Bublé, Monica Mancini, and Rick Astley. Musicians' biographies regularly note his stylistic influence on their subjects, including Cass Elliot and Karen Carpenter. He continues to feature prominently on radio stations and CD compilations featuring popular easy-listening vocalists.
His music
Most of Monro's recordings were produced or overseen by George Martin. Unlike his contemporaries, Monro recorded very few Tin Pan Alley standards during his career. (The exception was Matt Monro sings Hoagy Carmichael, one of his most highly-regarded albums.) Instead, he and Martin searched for material written by promising newcomers and commissioned English lyrics for dramatic melodies written by European composers. He also covered many of the most popular stage and screen songs of the 1950s and 1960s. Over the years, his recordings featured arrangements by Johnnie Spence, Sid Feller, Billy May, John Barry, Buddy Bregman, Kenny Clayton, Colin Keyes, and Martin himself. Monro also teamed up with Nelson Riddle and Billy May for concerts broadcast by the BBC.
In 1973 Monro released a vocal version of the popular Van der Valk TV-series theme titled "And You Smiled". It was his final hit. In 1977 he recorded "If I Never Sing Another Song", which became a latter-day standard among his contemporaries, its lyrics referring to the "heyday" of fan mail, awards, and other trappings of celebrity that had faded for them.
http://www.gmmy.com/crooners/MATT-3.jpg
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/07/10 at 11:47 am
Introduced by Jimmy Saville...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbS_-biZ_P4
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Womble on 02/07/10 at 7:47 pm
Very nice bio on Nick Adams. He was a talented, but unfortunately an underated actor. Thanks for sharing, Ninny.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/07/10 at 8:07 pm
I drink champagne on occasions.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/08/10 at 1:34 am
I drink champagne on occasions.
I only drink champagne on occasions.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/08/10 at 1:44 am
I only drink champagne on occasions.
I have never had a desire to drink champagne, or try any alcoholic beverages for that matter. Just my personal preference, that's all.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/08/10 at 5:23 am
I have never had a desire to drink champagne, or try any alcoholic beverages for that matter. Just my personal preference, that's all.
It's a good one to have.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/08/10 at 5:28 am
The word of the day...House
A house is a building in which people live, usually the people belonging to one family.
You can refer to all the people who live together in a house as the house.
#
House is used in the names of types of places where people go to eat and drink. N-COUNT n N
*
...a steak house.
*
...an old Salzburg coffee house.
#
House is used in the names of types of companies, especially ones which publish books, lend money, or design clothes. N-COUNT n N
*
Many of the clothes come from the world's top fashion houses.
*
Eventually she was fired from her job at a publishing house.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/08/10 at 5:33 am
The person who was born on this day...John Grisham
John Ray Grisham (born February 8, 1955) is an American author, best known for his popular legal thrillers. Before becoming a writer, he was a successful lawyer and politician. As of 2008, his books have sold over 250 million copies worldwide
John Grisham, the second oldest of five siblings, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Southern Baptist parents of modest means. His father worked as a construction worker and a cotton farmer while his mother was a homemaker. After relocating frequently, the family settled in 1967 in the town of Southaven in DeSoto County, Mississippi, where Grisham graduated from Southaven High School. He played as a quarterback for the school football team. Encouraged by his mother, the young Grisham was an avid reader, and was especially influenced by the work of John Steinbeck, whose clarity he admired. His brother Vaughn is one of the main experts on Community Development in the United States, and is a professor of Public Administration at the University of Mississippi.
Education
During 1977, Grisham received a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Mississippi State University. Grisham tried for the baseball team at Delta State University, but was dismissed by the coach, who was former Boston Red Sox pitcher Dave "Boo" Ferriss. Grisham and Ferris have since teamed to host a fundraiser for Delta State Baseball, at which the two discussed how and why Ferris dismissed Grisham, telling him he should "stick to the books" after Grisham failed miserably in his attempts to hit a college level curve ball. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. During law school Grisham switched interests from tax law to criminal and general civil litigation. Upon graduation he entered a small-town general law practice for nearly a decade in Southaven, where he focused on criminal law and civil law representing a broad spectrum of clients. As a young attorney he spent much of his time in court proceedings.
Political life
During 1983 he was elected as a democrat to the Mississippi House of Representatives, where he served until 1990. During his time as a legislator, he continued his private law practice in Southaven. He has donated over $100,000 to Democratic Party candidates. During September, 2007 Grisham appeared with Hillary Rodham Clinton, his stated choice for U.S. President in 2008, and former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, whom Grisham supported for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Republican John Warner (no relation). Grisham himself had considered challenging former GOP U.S. Senator George Allen, Jr. in the 2006 Virginia Senatorial Election.
Inspiration for first novel
In 1984 at the DeSoto County courthouse in Hernando, Grisham witnessed the harrowing testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim. According to Grisham's official website, Grisham used his spare time to begin work on his first novel, which "explored what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants." He "spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, the manuscript was eventually bought by Wynwood Press, who gave it a modest 5,000-copy printing and published it in June 1988."
The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on another novel, the story of a young attorney "lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared." That second book, The Firm, became the 7th bestselling novel of 1991. Grisham then produced at least one work a year, most of them very popular bestsellers. He authored seven number-one bestselling novels of the year (1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2005).
Beginning with A Painted House in 2001, the author broadened his focus from law to the more general rural south, while continuing to pen his legal thrillers.
Publishers Weekly declared Grisham "the bestselling novelist of the 90s," selling a total of 60,742,289 copies. He is also one of only a few authors to sell two million copies on a first printing; others include Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling. Grisham's 1992 novel The Pelican Brief sold 11,232,480 copies in the United States alone.
Courtroom re-appearance
Grisham returned briefly to practice law during 1996 after a five-year hiatus. According to his official website, he "was honoring a commitment he made before he had retired from the law...representing the family of a railroad brakeman killed when he was pinned between two cars...Grisham successfully argued his clients' case, earning them a jury award of $683,500." Another tie to the legal community that he continues to hold is his seat on the Board of Directors for the Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to exonerating the innocent through DNA testing after they have been convicted.
Named in libel suit
On September 28, 2007, Grisham was named in a civil suit in a US District Court, claiming Grisham libeled former Pontotoc County, Oklahoma District Attorney Bill Peterson, former Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Gary Rogers, and criminalist Melvin Hett. The suit claimed that Grisham, along with two other authors critical of Peterson and his prosecution of murder cases, conspired to commit libel, generate publicity for themselves by placing the plaintiffs in a false light and intentionally inflict emotional distress. Grisham was named as a result of his non-fiction book, The Innocent Man, about the investigation of the murder of a cocktail waitress in Ada, Oklahoma, and the exoneration by DNA evidence of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz more than 12 years later. The case was dismissed on September 18, 2008, with the judge saying, "The wrongful convictions of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz must be discussed openly and with great vigor."
John Grisham Room
The Mississippi State University Libraries, Manuscript Division, maintains the John Grisham Room, an archive containing materials generated during the author's tenure as Mississippi State Representative and relating to his writings.
Grisham's lifelong passion for baseball is evident in his novel A Painted House and in his support of Little League activities in both Oxford, Mississippi, and Charlottesville, Virginia. He wrote the original screenplay for and produced the baseball movie Mickey, starring Harry Connick, Jr.. The movie was released on DVD in April 2004. He remains a fan of Mississippi State University's baseball team and wrote about his ties to the university and the Left Field Lounge in the introduction for the book Dudy Noble Field: A Celebration of MSU Baseball.
Grisham is also well known within the literary community for his efforts to support the continuing literary tradition of his native south. He has endowed scholarships and writer's residencies in the University of Mississippi's English Department and Graduate Creative Writing Program and was the founding publisher of the Oxford American, a magazine devoted to literary writing. The magazine is famous for its annual music issue, copies of which include a compilation CD featuring contemporary and classic Southern musicians in genres ranging from blues and gospel to country-western and alternative rock.
In an October 2006 interview on the Charlie Rose Show, Grisham stated that he usually takes only six months to write a book and that his favorite author was John le Carré.
Family life
Grisham describes himself as a "moderate Baptist," and has performed mission service for his church in Brazil; that country provides the setting for two of his novels: The Testament, which has a strong religious theme; and The Partner. He lives with his wife Renée Jones and their two children, Ty and Shea. Grisham's website states that the "family splits their time between their Victorian home on a farm" outside Oxford, Mississippi, "and a home near Charlottesville, Virginia." In 2008, he and Renee bought a condo in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Books
Legal fiction
Complete Collection of John Grisham Novels
* A Time to Kill (1989)
* The Firm (1991)
* The Pelican Brief (1992)
* The Client (1993)
* The Chamber (1994)
* The Rainmaker (1995)
* The Runaway Jury (1996)
* The Partner (1997)
* The Street Lawyer (1998)
* The Testament (1999)
* The Brethren (2000)
* The Summons (2002)
* The King of Torts (2003)
* The Last Juror (2004)
* The Broker (2005)
* The Appeal (2008)
* The Associate (2009)
Non-legal fiction
* A Painted House (2001)
* Skipping Christmas (2001)
* Bleachers (2003)
* Playing for Pizza (2007)
* Ford County (2009)
Non-fiction
* The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (2006)
Film adaptations
* The Firm (1993)
* The Pelican Brief (1993)
* The Client (1994)
* A Time to Kill (1996)
* The Chamber (1996)
* The Rainmaker (1997)
* The Gingerbread Man (1998) Based on an unpublished short story
* A Painted House (2003)
* Runaway Jury (2003)
* Christmas with the Kranks (2004) Based on the novel 'Skipping Christmas'
* The Partner (2010)
* The Associate (2012)
* The Testament (2012)
Quotes
* "My success was not planned, but it could only happen in America."
* "Everything I'm thinking about writing now is about politics or social issues wrapped around a novel."
* "I'm a famous writer in a country where nobody reads."
* "You guys have forgotten about my favorite story, Marc Dreier. I haven’t seen a Dreier story in weeks. But it’s incredible. Pretending to be someone else? Taking over a conference room? I knew something was wrong when I read about his 120-foot yacht. When you’ve got a yacht that big you’re living like a billionaire. And you can’t do that as a New York lawyer. I don’t care how big your firm is... And I couldn’t make it any better. I couldn’t improve on it. The sushi restaurant (Dreier) owned? All the cars? The secretaries making $200,000 a year? It’s too much. When I see stuff like that my imagination just goes into overdrive"
* "You live your life today, not tomorrow, and certainly not yesterday."
See also
* The Innocence Project
* List of bestselling novels in the United States
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/08/10 at 5:39 am
The person who died on this day...Del Shannon
Del Shannon (December 30, 1934 — February 8, 1990) was an American rock and roll singer-songwriter who had a No. 1 hit, "Runaway", in 1961. Del Shannon was born Charles Weedon Westover in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He grew up in Coopersville, a small town near Grand Rapids. There he learned ukulele and guitar and listened to country and western music, including Hank Williams, Hank Snow, and Lefty Frizzell. In 1954, he was drafted into the Army, and while in Germany played guitar in a band called the Cool Flames.
When his service ended, he returned to Battle Creek, Michigan, and worked in a furniture factory as a truck driver and selling carpets. He also found part-time work as a rhythm guitarist in singer Doug DeMott's group, working at the Hi-Lo Club. When DeMott was fired in 1958, Westover took over as leader and singer, giving himself the name Charlie Johnson, and renaming his band the Big Little Show Band.
In early 1959 he added keyboardist Max Crook, who played the Musitron (his own invention of an early synthesizer). Crook had made recordings and persuaded Ann Arbor disc jockey Ollie McLaughlin to hear the band. In turn, McLaughlin took the group's demos to Harry Balk and Irving Micahnik of Talent Artists in Detroit. In July 1960, Westover and Crook signed to become recording artists and composers, recording for Big Top. Balk suggested Westover use a new name, and they came up with Del Shannon, combining a friend's assumed surname with Del from his favorite car, the Cadillac Coupe de Ville.
He flew to New York City, but his first sessions did not produce results. McLaughlin persuaded Shannon and Crook to rewrite and re-record one of their earlier songs, originally called "Little Runaway", using the Musitron as lead instrument. On January 21, 1961, they recorded "Runaway", released as a single in February 1961. It reached #1 in the Billboard chart in April.
Shannon followed with "Hats Off to Larry", which peaked at #5 (Billboard) and #2 on Cashbox in 1961, and the less popular "So Long, Baby," another song of breakup bitterness. "Runaway" and "Hats Off to Larry" were recorded in a day. "Little Town Flirt", in 1962 (with Bob Babbitt), reached #12 in 1963, as did the album of the same name. After these hits, Shannon was unable to keep his momentum in the U.S., but continued his success in England, where he had always been more popular. In 1963, he became the first American to record a cover version of a Beatles song. "From Me to You" charted in the US before the Beatles.
By late 1963, Shannon's relationship with his managers and Big Top had soured and he formed his own label, Berlee, distributed by Diamond Records. Two singles were issued: the apparently Four Seasons-inspired "Sue's Gotta Be Mine" charted moderately, the second didn't. He patched up his relationship with his managers and was placed on Amy in early 1964.
Shannon returned to the charts in 1964, with "Handy Man" (a 1960 hit by Jimmy Jones), "Do You Wanna Dance" (a 1958 hit by Bobby Freeman), and two originals, "Keep Searchin'" (#3 in the UK; #9 in the US), and "Stranger in Town" (1965).
In the latter part of 1964, Shannon produced a demo recording session for a young fellow Michigander named Bob Seger, who would go onto his own stardom much later. Del gave acetates of the session to Dick Clark (Del was on one of Clark's tours in 1965) and by 1966 Bob Seger was recording for Philadelphia's famed Cameo Records label, resulting in some regional hits which would eventually lead to a major-label deal with Capitol Records.
Also in late '64, Del paid tribute to one of his own musical idols, with "Del Shannon sings Hank Williams", Amy Records 8004, released in the closing days of 1964. This was a true concept album, waxed in Detroit with steel player Buddy Gibson and members of The Royaltones, who also backed Del on his Amy Records R 'n' R hits. The album was recorded in hardcore country honky-tonk style and no singles were released (this was two and a half years before "Sgt. Pepper", often erroneously identified as rock's first "concept album").
Shannon opened with Ike and Tina Turner at Dave Hull's Hullabaloo, in Los Angeles, California, on December 22, 1965.
Shannon signed with Liberty in 1966 and covered "The Big Hurt" and the Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb". Peter and Gordon released his "I Go To Pieces" in 1965. Shannon also discovered country singer Johnny Carver, who was then working in the Los Angeles area. Del got Carver a contract with Liberty Records subsidiary Imperial Records, writing, producing and arranging both sides of Carver's debut single "One Way Or The Other"/"Think About Her All The Time". Carver went on to have nearly twenty Country-chart hits during the late 60s and 70s. The liner notes to his debut Imperial album acknowledge Del's role in his being brought to the label.
In the late 1960s, not having charted for several years, he turned to production. In 1969, he discovered Smith and arranged their hit "Baby, It's You," which had been a hit for the Shirelles in 1963. In 1970, he produced Brian Hyland's million-seller "Gypsy Woman", a cover of Curtis Mayfield.
During Shannon's Liberty Records tenure, success on a national scale eluded him, but he scored several solid "regional" U.S. chart hits with "The Big Hurt", "Under My Thumb", "She" "Led Along" and "Runaway" (1967 version). The 1967 version of "Runaway" (recorded in England and produced by Andrew Loog Oldham) also did well on Canadian and Australian pop charts. In early '67, Shannon recorded one of Rock's greatest "lost albums" in England, with Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham at the helm. Intended by Oldham as the British answer to "Pet Sounds", "Home And Away" was shelved by Liberty Records, although a handful of singles were issued. It was not until 1978 that all of the tracks were eventually issued (with three non-related tracks) on a British album titled "And The Music Plays On". In 1991, all of the tracks were released, in the U.S.A. as part of the "Del Shannon-The Liberty Years" CD. In 2006, thirty-nine years after it was recorded, "Home And Away" was finally released as a stand-alone collection by EMI Records, in the U.K. This CD collected the eleven original tracks in stereo and the five single releases US, UK and Philippines) in their original monaural mixes.
In September 1967, Del began laying down the tracks for "The Further Adventures Of Charles Westover", which would be highly regarded by fans and critics alike, despite disappointing sales. Shannon's "Pop-Psych" masterpiece yielded two 1968 singles..."Thinkin' It Over" and the haunting "Gemini" (recently the subject of a Pilooski remix). In October 1968, Liberty Records released the 10th (in the USA) and their final Del Shannon single...a cover of Dee Clark's 1961 smash, "Raindrops". This brought to a close a commercially disappointing period in Del's career.
In 1972 he recorded Live In England, released in June 1973. Reviewer Chris Martin critiqued the album favourably, saying that Shannon never improvised, was always true to the original sounds of his music, and that only Lou Christie rivaled his falsetto. In April 1975 Shannon signed with Island Records.
After he and his manager jointly sought back royalties for Shannon, Bug Music was founded in 1975 to administer his songs.
A 1976 article on Shannon's concert at The Roxy Theatre described the singer as "personal, pure and simple rock 'n' roll, dated but gratifyingly undiluted." Shannon sang some of his new rock songs along with classics like "Endless Sleep" and "The Big Hurt." Writer Richard Cromelin said "Shannon's haunting vignettes of heartbreak and restlessness contain something of a cosmic undercurrent which has the protagonist tragically doomed to a bleak, shadowy struggle."
Shannon's career slowed greatly in the 1970s, in part due to alcoholism. English rock singer, Dave Edmunds, produced the Shannon single, "And the Music Plays On", in 1974. In 1978 he stopped drinking, and began work on "Sea of Love", released in the early 1980s. This song came from Shannon's album Drop Down and Get Me, produced by Tom Petty. The album took two years to record and featured Petty's Heartbreakers backing Shannon. RSO Records, which recorded Shannon, folded. The LP was recorded by Network Records and distributed by Elektra Records. Seven songs are Shannon originals with covers of the Everly Brothers, Rolling Stones, Frankie Ford, and "Sea of Love" by Phil Phillips. It was Shannon's first album in eight years.
In February 1982 Shannon appeared at the Bottom Line. He performed pop-rock tunes and old hits. New York Times reviewer, Stephen Holden, described an "easygoing pop-country" manner. He was not an "anachronism," yet there seemed no comparison with the newer songs and the best of his vintage material. On "Runaway" and "Keep Searchin," Shannon and his band rediscovered the sound "in which his keen falsetto played off against airy organ obbligatos." In the 1980s Shannon performed "competent but mundane country-rock".
Shannon enjoyed a resurgence after re-recording "Runaway" with new lyrics as the theme for the NBC-TV television program Crime Story. Producer Michael Mann felt this was definitive of the era in which the program was set. The new lyrics replaced "wishin' you were here by me... to end this misery" with “watchin’ all the things go by... some live, while others die,” reflecting the violent, mob-related show.
In 1988, Shannon sang on "The World We Know" with The Smithereens on their album Green Thoughts. Shortly after, in 1990, he recorded with Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra, and there were rumors he would join The Traveling Wilburys after Roy Orbison's death. Previously, in 1975, Shannon had recorded tracks with Lynne, along with "In My Arms Again," a self-penned country song recorded by Warner Brothers, which had signed Shannon in 1984.
Suffering from depression, Shannon committed suicide on February 8, 1990, with a 22 caliber rifle. Following his death, the four surviving Wilburys honored him by recording a version of "Runaway." Lynne also co-produced Shannon's posthumous album, Rock On, released on Silvertone in 1991.
Shannon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, and his contribution has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
In 2005, Del Shannon was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. In 2007, Shannon's recording of "Runaway" was voted the #1 Legendary Michigan Song. Del has had two other recordings recognized as Legendary Michigan songs: "Keep Searchin' (We'll Follow The Sun)" in 2008 and "Hats Off to Larry" in 2009.
Legacy
In 1990, the country band Southern Pacific covered Shannon's hit "I Go To Pieces" (also a hit in 1965 for Peter & Gordon), with the video dedicated in Shannon's memory.
Tom Petty referenced Shannon and his song "Runaway" on Petty's song "Runnin' Down A Dream" on Full Moon Fever, which was co-produced by Jeff Lynne. Both were members of the Traveling Wilburys, who recorded a cover of "Runaway" during the sessions for Volume 3. Although the track didn't make it onto the final album, two versions have circulated on the bootleg circuit for years, one with Max Crook's famous eight-bar keyboard solo played note-for-note by Jeff Lynne and another, earlier version which features Bob Dylan playing harmonica in place of the keyboard solo.
In 2009, "Runaway" was used in the 21st episode of the 3rd season of the TV series Heroes.
Film and television
Filmography
* It's Trad, Dad! (aka Ring A Ding Rhythm) (1962)
* "Daytona Beach Weekend" (1965)
* The Best of Del Shannon, Rock 'N' Roll's Greatest Hits in Concert, (Live from the Rock & Roll Love Palace, Kissimmee, Florida, 1988). a television program hosted by Wolfman Jack.
Television
* "American Bandstand" (1961)
* "The Buddy Deane Show" (1962)
* Shindig! (1965)
* "Hulaballoo" (1965)
* "The Lloyd Thaxton Show" (1965)
* "Shivaree" (1965)
* "The Merv Griffin Show" (1965)
* Hollywood A Go-Go (1965)
* "Where The Action Is" (1966)
* Late Night with David Letterman (1986)
Hit singles
Release date Title Chart positions
US UK
3/61 "Runaway" 1 1
6/61 "Hats Off to Larry" 5 6
9/61 "So Long Baby" 28 10
11/61 "Hey! Little Girl" 38 2
3/62 "I Won't Be There" 113 -
3/62 "Ginny In The Mirror" 117 -
6/62 "Cry Myself to Sleep" 99 29
9/62 "The Swiss Maid" 64 2
12/62 "Little Town Flirt" 12 4
4/63 "Two Kinds of Teardrops" 50 5
6/63 "From Me to You" 77 -
8/63 "Two Silhouettes" - 23
11/63 "Sue's Gotta Be Mine" 71 21
3/64 "That's The Way Love Is" 133 -
3/64 "Mary Jane" - 35
7/64 "Handy Man" 22 36
9/64 "Do You Want To Dance" 43 -
11/64 "Keep Searchin' (We'll Follow the Sun)" 9 3
2/65 "Stranger in Town" 30 40
5/65 "Break Up" 95 -
8/65 "Move It On Over" 129 -
5/66 "The Big Hurt" 94 -
9/66 "Under My Thumb" 128 -
2/67 "She" 131 -
9/67 "Runaway" (remake) 112 -
6/69 "Comin' Back To Me" 127 -
12/81 "Sea of Love" 33 -
3/85 "In My Arms Again"A - -
* APeaked at #56 on Hot Country Songs.
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z104/darko47darko/Del_Shannon_-58.jpg
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/08/10 at 6:40 am
Our House By Madness.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/08/10 at 7:22 am
Our House By Madness.
Good song :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/08/10 at 1:16 pm
Our House By Madness.
Good song :)
Indeed it is. Their biggest hit in the US.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/08/10 at 3:48 pm
Our House By Madness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p4RWBCEFRo
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/08/10 at 3:49 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QnBccG_ChI
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/08/10 at 4:56 pm
I have never had a desire to drink champagne, or try any alcoholic beverages for that matter. Just my personal preference, that's all.
I also don't drink anymore, not for..hmm...almost 15 years. My personal choice as well.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/08/10 at 4:58 pm
I also don't drink anymore, not for..hmm...almost 15 years. My personal choice as well.
Even though I have been legally old enough to drink for the past 8 1/2 years, I have never had any desire to. I feel that if I were to get drunk, I would become incoherent, and not pleasant to be around.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/08/10 at 5:31 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p4RWBCEFRo
Great video. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/09/10 at 5:27 am
The word of the day...tapestry
A tapestry is a large piece of heavy cloth with a picture sewn on it using coloured threads.
You can refer to something as a tapestry when it is made up of many varied types of people or things. http://i588.photobucket.com/albums/ss326/kcswonderland/Tapestry%20Round/R008lan201001B.jpg
http://i588.photobucket.com/albums/ss326/kcswonderland/Tapestry%20Round/R013BchengL.jpg
http://i1018.photobucket.com/albums/af307/GraniaDudley/Known%20World%20Tapestry/Tapestry-Leopard.png
http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu147/Schlobben/Tangled%20Web%20Tapestries/tapestry_the_hunt.gif
http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx281/jbear2506/rome/vatican%20museum/VaticanMuseum171.jpg
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http://i1018.photobucket.com/albums/af307/GraniaDudley/Known%20World%20Tapestry/Tapestry-Butterfly.png
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/09/10 at 5:31 am
The person born on this day...Carole King
Carole King (born February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. As a songwriter, she and songwriting partner and husband Gerry Goffin penned over two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have since become standards and reaching number one; as a singer and performer, her iconic album Tapestry topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971, and remained on the charts for over six years.
Carole King's success as a performer was highest in the first half of the 1970s, although she was a successful songwriter long before and long after. She wrote her first #1 hit at the age of 17 in 1959 with Gerry Goffin, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow." In 1997 she wrote "The Reason" for Celine Dion.
In 2000 Carole King was named the most successful female songwriter of the 1955-99 pop music era by Joel Whitburn, a Billboard Magazine pop music researcher as she wrote or co-wrote 118 pop hits that appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 during that time. This was featured in the Los Angeles Times.
Carole King has released 25 solo albums, her most successful being Tapestry. Her most recent album is The Living Room Tour, which experienced great success on the charts in its first week alone. This was thanks to marketing through Starbucks and television advertisements.
She has won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her songwriting, along with long-time partner Gerry Goffin.
Carole King holds the record for the longest time for an album by a female to remain on the charts and the longest time for an album by a female to stay at #1 on the charts for Tapestry.
Goffin and King soon formed a songwriting partnership. Working for Aldon Music in the Brill Building, where chart-topping hits were churned out during the 1960s, the Goffin-King partnership first hit it big with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow". Recorded by The Shirelles, the song topped the charts in 1961, becoming the first number-one hit by a girl group; it was later recorded by Ben E King, Dusty Springfield, Laura Branigan, Little Eva, Roberta Flack, The Four Seasons, Bryan Ferry and King herself. In 1987 Elton John performed a live version of the song. As with many of King's compositions, the song has been recorded by too many artists to enumerate and continues to be recorded to this day by even newer musical acts, for example, Amy Winehouse.
Goffin and King married in September 1960 and had two daughters, Louise Goffin and Sherry Goffin Kondor, both of whom also became musicians.
In 1965, Goffin and King wrote a theme song for Sidney Sheldon's new television series, I Dream of Jeannie, but the song was not used. Instead, an instrumental theme by Hugo Montenegro was used.
Their 1967 song "Pleasant Valley Sunday", a #3 hit for The Monkees, was inspired by their move to suburban West Orange, New Jersey. Goffin and King also wrote several songs for Head, the Monkees' feature film.
Goffin and King divorced in 1968. Even after their divorce, Goffin and King remained in touch. At times Carole would consult Goffin on some of the music and songs she was writing and composing. After time, King lost touch with Goffin because of his declining mental health and the effect it had on their children. However, the two remain friends.
Major Hits by Goffin and King
Year Song Original artist U.S. Hot 100 Cover versions
1960 "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" Shirelles 1 Carole King (in 1971), The Four Seasons, Roberta Flack, Amy Winehouse, Melanie, Jackie DeShannon, Len Barry, Bunny Sigler, Cissy Houston, The Platters, Neil Diamond (in 1993), Linda Ronstadt, Angus Tung (in Mandarin), Shirley Kwan and Alan Tam (in Cantonese), Dave Mason and Debbie Gibson (both under the title "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"), The Rocky Fellers, Lorrie Morgan(( Minnie Driver for the film "Beautiful")).
1961 "Take Good Care of My Baby" Bobby Vee 1 Dion and the Belmonts (later in 1961), Bobby Vinton (in 1968), Smokie (in 1981), Bobby Vee, Stephen Collins, Dick Brave
"Some Kind of Wonderful" The Drifters 32 Marvin Gaye (in 1968), Carole King (in 1971); not the same song as the Grand Funk Railroad hit
"Halfway to Paradise" Tony Orlando 39 Billy Fury (1962), Bobby Vinton(1968), Tina Charles(1977)
"Every Breath I Take" Gene Pitney 42 no relation to The Police's "Every Breath You Take"
"Walkin' with My Angel" Bobby Vee 53 Herman's Hermits
1962 "Chains" The Cookies 17 The Beatles (in 1963), Carole King (in 1980)
"Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" Little Eva 12 The Beatles (in 1964, unreleased until 1994)
"The Loco-Motion" Little Eva 1 The Chiffons (in 1963), Emerson Lake & Powell (instrumental), Grand Funk Railroad (in 1974, #1), Carole King (in 1980), Kylie Minogue (in 1988, #3), Tina Turner, Dwight Yoakam
"He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" The Crystals The Motels (in 1982), Hole (in 1994), Grizzly Bear (in 2007)
"Go Away Little Girl" Steve Lawrence 1 Mark Wynter, The Tams, Donny Osmond (in 1971, #1), The Happenings (in 1966, #12)
"Point Of No Return" Gene McDaniels 21
"Crying in the Rain" The Everly Brothers 6 A-ha (in 1990, #1 in Norway), Dave Edmunds
1963 "Don't Say Nothin' Bad (About My Baby)" The Cookies 7
"I Can't Stay Mad At You" Skeeter Davis 7
"Hey Girl" Freddie Scott 10 Donny Osmond (in 1972, #9), George Benson ("Livin' Inside Your Love" in 1977), Carole King (in 1980), Billy Joel (Greatest Hits Volume III in 1997), Bob James & David Sanborn, Bobby Vee (as part of a medley with The Temptations' hit My Girl in 1968, #35)
"One Fine Day" The Chiffons 5 Rita Coolidge (in 1979, #66), Carole King (in 1980, #12), Aaron Neville (in 1993), Natalie Merchant (in 1996)
"Up on the Roof" The Drifters 5 Kenny Lynch (1964),King (in 1970), Laura Nyro (in 1970), James Taylor (in 1979, #28), Neil Diamond (in 1993), Billy Joe Royal, Peter Cincotti
1964 "I Can't Hear You No More" Betty Everett 66 Dusty Springfield (in 1965), King (in 1970), Helen Reddy (in 1976, #29)
"I'm into Something Good" "Earl-Jean" McCrea 38 Herman's Hermits (later in 1964, #13)
"Oh No Not My Baby" Maxine Brown 24 Manfred Mann (in 1965), Dusty Springfield (in 1965), Aretha Franklin (in 1970), Rod Stewart (in 1973, #59), The Partridge Family (Bulletin Board in 1973), King (in 1980 and 2001), Cher (in 1992), Linda Ronstadt (in 1994)
1965 "Don't Forget About Me" Barbara Lewis - Dusty Springfield
1966 "Don't Bring Me Down" The Animals 12 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (in 1986)
"Goin' Back" Dusty Springfield - The Byrds (in 1968, #86), King (in 1980), Larry Lurex (1973) Nils Lofgren,Elkie Brooks Johnny Logan, Diana Ross, Glen Shorrock & Renee Geyer (Aust. 1983)
"I Can't Make It Alone" P.J. Proby - Dusty Springfield, Maria McKee (in 1993)
1967 "Pleasant Valley Sunday" The Monkees 3 The Weisstronauts (in 2008)
"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" Aretha Franklin 8 King (in 1971), Laura Nyro (in 1971), Rod Stewart (in 1974), Mary J. Blige (in 1995, #95), Celine Dion (in 1995)
1968 "Porpoise Song" The Monkees 62
"Wasn't Born to Follow" The Byrds King (in 1980)
1970 "Hi-De-Ho (That Old Sweet Roll)" Blood, Sweat & Tears 14 Dusty Springfield (non-LP B-Side in 1969), King (in 1980)
Recording artist
In 1966 artist Peter Max introduced King to guru Sri Swami Satchidananda, who became a friend and adviser to King. In 1967 King also had a hit "Windy Day" with The Executives. In 1968, King was hired to co-write two songs for Strawberry Alarm Clock with Toni Stern, "Lady of the Lake" and "Blues for a Young Girl Gone," which appeared on the album, The World in a Seashell.
King began to focus on her own singing career. She sang backup vocals on the demo of Little Eva's hit "The Loco-Motion". She had had a modest hit in 1962 singing one of her own songs, "It Might As Well Rain Until September" (#22 in the US and a top 10 success in the UK, later a hit in Canada for Gary and Dave), but after "He's a Bad Boy" made #94 in 1963, it would take King eight years to reach the Hot 100 singles chart again as a performer.
As the '60s waned, King helped pioneer a record label, Tomorrow Records, divorced Goffin and married Charles Larkey (of the Myddle Class).
Moving to the West Coast, Larkey, King and Danny Kortchmar formed a group called The City, which released one album, Now That Everything's Been Said, but the album was a commercial failure. King then released Writer (1970), a critically acclaimed record, but another commercial failure.
Tapestry and beyond
King followed up Writer in 1971 with Tapestry, featuring new folk-flavored compositions, as well as reinterpretations of two of her early pop hits as a songwriter, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman."
Tapestry was an instant success and was soon recognized as one of the landmark albums of the singer-songwriter genre of the early 1970s. With numerous hit singles, including a #1 hit, Tapestry would remain on the charts for nearly six years and sell over 10 million copies in the United States and over 25 million worldwide. The album garnered four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female; Record of the Year ("It's Too Late", lyrics by Toni Stern); and Song of the Year ("You've Got a Friend"). The album signalled the era of platinum albums, though it was issued prior to the invention of the platinum certification by the RIAA. It would eventually be certified diamond.
Tapestry became the top-selling solo album ever, a position it held until the release of Michael Jackson's Thriller in 1982. The album was later placed at #36 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. In addition, "It's Too Late" was placed at #469 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Music (1971), Rhymes and Reasons (1972), and Fantasy (1973) followed, each earning either a gold or platinum RIAA certification. Music would produce a top ten hit, "Sweet Seasons" (US #9 and AC #2), Rhymes and Reasons produced another hit, "Been to Canaan" (US #24 and AC #1), and Fantasy produced two hits, "Believe in Humanity" (US #28) and "Corazon" (US #37 and AC #5), as well as another song that charted on the Hot 100, "You Light Up My Life" (US #68 and AC #6).
In 1973, King performed a free concert in New York City's Central Park and broke all previous records for such a concert with over 100,000 people attending.
King also enjoyed major success with her 1974 album Wrap Around Joy and the subsequent tour to promote the album. The album reached number #1 on the Billboard charts and, for only the second time in her career, she had a song reach as high as #2 on the singles chart with "Jazzman." The album also produced her fourth top ten hit, "Nightingale".
In 1975, King scored a number of songs for the animated TV production of Maurice Sendak's work Really Rosie, which was also released as an album by the same name, with lyrics by Sendak.
Thoroughbred (1976) was the last studio album she released under the Ode label. In addition to enlisting her long-time friends such as David Crosby, Graham Nash, James Taylor and Waddy Wachtel, King reunited with Gerry Goffin to write four songs for the album. The songwriting partnership between King and her former husband continued intermittently in later years. King also did a promotional tour for the album in 1976.
In 1977, King collaborated with another songwriting partner Rick Evers on Simple Things, the first release under her contract with a new label distributed by Capitol Records. King married Evers shortly thereafter; he died of a heroin overdose one year later. Simple Things became her first album which failed to reach the top 10 on the Billboard since Tapestry, and it would be her last Gold-certified record by the RIAA, except a compilation entitled Her Greatest Hits released in the following year. Neither Welcome Home (1978), which marked her debut as a co-producer on an album, nor Touch the Sky (1979), reached the top 100.
Pearls - The Songs of Goffin and King (1980) was moderately successful and yielded a hit single, an updated version of "One Fine Day". Pearls marked the end of King's career as a hitmaker and a performer, as no subsequent single release would reach the top 40.
An all-star roster of artists paid tribute to King on the 1995 album Tapestry Revisited: A Tribute to Carole King. From the album, Rod Stewart's version of "So Far Away" and Celine Dion's cover of "A Natural Woman" were both Adult Contemporary chart hits. Other artists who appeared on the album included Amy Grant ("It's Too Late"), Richard Marx ("Beautiful"), Aretha Franklin ("You've Got a Friend"), Faith Hill ("Where You Lead"), and the Bee Gees ("Will You Love Me Tomorrow?").
In addition to the numerous hit versions of her songs with Gerry Goffin and Tapestry Revisited, many other cover versions of King's work have appeared over the years. Most notably, "You've Got a Friend" was a smash #1 hit for James Taylor in 1971 and a top 40 hit for Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway that same year. Barbra Streisand had a top 40 hit in 1972 with "Where You Lead" twice — by itself and as part of a live medley with "Sweet Inspiration." Barbra also covered "No Easy Way Down" in 1971, "Beautiful" and "You've Got A Friend" in 1972, and "Being At War With Each Other" in 1974. The Carpenters recorded King's "It's Going to Take Some Time" in 1972 and reached number 12 on the Billboard charts. Richard Carpenter produced a version of "You've Got A Friend" with then teen singer/actor Scott Grimes in 1989. Martika had a number 25 hit in 1989 with her version of I Feel the Earth Move, and "It's Too Late" reappeared on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1995 by Gloria Estefan. Linda Ronstadt recorded a new version of "Oh No Not My Baby" in 1993. Celine Dion also recorded King's song "The Reason" on her 1997 album Let's Talk About Love with Carole King singing backup and it became a million-seller and was certified Diamond in France. Jonathan Rayson recorded a new version of "Beautiful" in his 2006 release "Shiny And New". "Where You Lead" (lyrics by Toni Stern) became the title song of TV show Gilmore Girls.
In 1996 a film very loosely based on her life, Grace of My Heart, was released. In the film an aspiring singer sacrifices her own singing career to write hit songs that launch the careers of other singers. Mirroring King's life, the film follows her from her first break, through the pain of rejection from the recording industry and a bad marriage, to her final triumph in realizing her dream to record her own hit album.
Awards and recognition
* In 1987, Goffin and King were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
* In 1988, Goffin and King received the National Academy of Songwriters Lifetime Achievement Award.
* In 1990, King was inducted, along with Goffin, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the non-performer category for her songwriting achievements.
* In 2002, King was given the "Johnny Mercer Award" by the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
* In 2004, Goffin and King were awarded the Grammy Trustees Award.
* King was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
Discography
Main article: Carole King discography
See also
* List of songwriter tandems
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http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc314/joeverosmusic/CaroleKing.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/09/10 at 5:35 am
The person who died on this day...Princess Margaret
The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II.
Margaret spent much of her early life in the company of her elder sister and parents, The Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI) and Elizabeth, Duchess of York (later the Queen Mother). Her life changed dramatically in 1936, when her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry the divorced American Wallis Simpson. Margaret's father became King in Edward's place, and after her elder sister, Elizabeth, Margaret became second in line to the throne.
During World War II, Margaret and Elizabeth stayed at Windsor Castle, despite government pressure to evacuate to Canada. During the war years, Margaret was not expected to perform any public or official duties, and instead continued her education. After the war, she fell in love with a divorced older man, Group Captain Peter Townsend, her father's equerry. Her father died at around the same time, and her sister Elizabeth became Queen. Many in the government felt that Townsend was an unsuitable husband for the Queen's sister, and the Church of England refused to countenance the marriage. Under pressure, Margaret chose to abandon her plans, and instead accepted the proposal of the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, who was created Earl of Snowdon by the Queen. The marriage, despite an auspicious start, soon became unhappy; the couple divorced in 1978.
Margaret was often viewed as a controversial member of the Royal Family. Her divorce earned her negative publicity, and she was romantically linked with several men. Her health gradually deteriorated; a heavy smoker all her adult life, she had a lung operation in 1985, a bout of pneumonia in 1993, and at least three strokes between 1998 and 2001. Margaret died at King Edward VII Hospital, London, on 9 February 2002. After a private funeral, her body was cremated. Two months later, after the death of her mother, Margaret's ashes were interred beside the bodies of her parents in the George VI Memorial Chapel at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Margaret was born Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret Rose of York on 21 August 1930 at Glamis Castle in Angus, Scotland, her mother's ancestral home. At the time of her birth, she was fourth in the line of succession to the British throne. Her father was Prince Albert, Duke of York (later George VI), the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. As a grandchild of the Sovereign in the male line, Margaret Rose was styled Her Royal Highness from birth. Her mother was Elizabeth, Duchess of York, the youngest daughter of the 14th Earl and Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne. The Duchess of York originally wanted the names Ann Margaret, as she explained to Queen Mary in a letter: "I am very anxious to call her Ann Margaret, as I think Ann of York sounds pretty, & Elizabeth and Ann go so well together." King George V disliked the name Ann, but approved of the alternative "Margaret Rose". She was baptised in the Private Chapel of Buckingham Palace on 30 October 1930 by Cosmo Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and her godparents were her uncle the Prince of Wales (for whom his brother, Prince George, stood proxy); her father's cousin Princess Ingrid of Sweden (for whom Lady Patricia Ramsay stood proxy); her great-aunt Princess Victoria; her maternal aunt Lady Rose Leveson-Gower; and her maternal uncle The Hon David Bowes-Lyon.
Princess Margaret (front) with her sister Elizabeth (right) and grandmother Queen Mary (left)
Margaret's early life was spent primarily at the Yorks' residences at 145 Piccadilly (their town house in London) or Royal Lodge in Windsor. The Yorks were perceived by the public as an ideal family: father, mother and children, but unfounded rumours that Margaret was deaf and dumb were not completely dispelled until Margaret's first main public appearance at her uncle Prince George's wedding in 1934. She was educated alongside her sister, Princess Elizabeth, by their Scottish governess Marion Crawford. Her education was mainly supervised by her mother, who in the words of Randolph Churchill "never aimed at bringing her daughters up to be more than nicely behaved young ladies". When Queen Mary insisted upon the importance of education, the Duchess of York commented, "I don't know what she meant. After all I and my sisters only had governesses and we all married well—one of us very well". Margaret was resentful about her limited education, especially in later years, aiming criticism at her mother. However, Margaret's mother told a friend that she "regretted" that her own daughters did not go to school like other children, and the employment of a governess rather than sending the girls to school may have been done only at the insistence of King George V.
George V died when Margaret was five, and her uncle succeeded as King Edward VIII. Less than a year later, on 11 December 1936, Edward abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American, who neither the Church of England nor the Commonwealth governments would accept as Queen. The Church would not recognise the marriage of a divorced woman with a living ex-husband as valid. Edward's abdication for love left a reluctant Duke of York in his place as King George VI, and Margaret unexpectedly became second in line to the throne. The family moved into Buckingham Palace; Margaret's room overlooked The Mall.
Margaret was a Brownie in the 1st Buckingham Palace Brownie Pack, formed in 1937. She was also a Girl Guide and later a Sea Ranger. She served as President of Girlguiding UK from 1965 until her death in 2002.
At the outbreak of World War II, Margaret and her sister were at Birkhall, on the Balmoral Castle estate, where they stayed until Christmas 1939 enduring nights so cold that drinking water in carafes by their bedside froze. They spent Christmas at Sandringham House, before moving to Windsor Castle just outside London for much of the remainder of the war. Lord Hailsham wrote to Prime Minister Winston Churchill to advise the evacuation of the princesses to the greater safety of Canada, to which their mother famously replied "The children won't go without me. I won't leave without the King. And the King will never leave." When Margaret was twelve in 1942 her uncle and godfather, Prince George, was killed in an air crash. Unlike other members of the royal family, Margaret was not expected to undertake any public or official duties during the war. She developed her skills at singing and playing the piano. Her contemporaries thought she was spoilt by her parents, especially her father, who allowed her to take liberties not usually permissible, such as being allowed to stay up to dinner at the age of 13. Marion Crawford despaired at the attention Margaret was getting, writing to friends "Could you this year only ask Princess Elizabeth to your party? ... Princess Margaret does draw all the attention and Princess Elizabeth lets her do that." Elizabeth, however, did not mind this, commenting, "oh, it's so much easier when Margaret's there—everybody laughs at what Margaret says". King George described Elizabeth as his pride and Margaret as his joy.
Post-war years
Margaret (right) and her sister Elizabeth (left) depicted on a stamp celebrating the royal tour of Southern Africa in 1947
Following the end of the war in 1945, Margaret appeared on the balcony at Buckingham Palace with her family and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Afterwards, both Elizabeth and Margaret joined the crowds outside the palace incognito chanting, "we want the King, we want the Queen!". On 1 February 1947, Margaret, Elizabeth and her parents embarked on a state tour of Southern Africa. The three-month long visit was Margaret's first visit abroad, and she later claimed that she remembered "every minute of it". Margaret was chaperoned by Peter Townsend, the King's equerry. Later that year, Margaret was a bridesmaid at Elizabeth's wedding. Elizabeth had two children, Charles and Anne, in the next two years, which moved Margaret further down the line of succession.
In 1950, the former royal governess, Marion Crawford, published a biography of Elizabeth and Margaret's childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in which she described Margaret's "light-hearted fun and frolics" and her "amusing and outrageous ... antics". The royal family were appalled at what they saw as Crawford's invasion of their privacy and breach of trust, as a result of which Crawford was ostracised from royal circles.
As a beautiful young woman, with an 18-inch waist and "vivid blue eyes", Margaret enjoyed socialising with high society and the young, aristocratic set, including Sharman Douglas, the daughter of the American ambassador, Lewis W. Douglas. She was often featured in the press at balls, parties, and night-clubs. The number of her official engagements increased, which included a tour of Italy, Switzerland and France, and she joined a growing number of charitable organisations as President or Patron.
Her twenty-first birthday party was held at Balmoral in August 1951. The following month her father underwent surgery for lung cancer, and Margaret was appointed one of the Counsellors of State who undertook the King's official duties while he was incapacitated. Within six months, her father was dead and her sister was Queen.
Marriage
Margaret was grief-stricken by her father's death, and was prescribed sedatives to help her sleep. She wrote, "He was such a wonderful person, the very heart and centre of our happy family." She was consoled by her deeply-held Christian beliefs. With her widowed mother, Margaret moved out of Buckingham Palace and into Clarence House, while her sister and her family moved out of Clarence House and into Buckingham Palace. Peter Townsend was appointed Comptroller of her mother's household.
By 1953, Townsend was divorced from his first wife; he proposed marriage to Margaret. He was sixteen years older than her, and had two children from his previous marriage. Margaret accepted, and informed the Queen of her desire to marry Townsend. As in 1936, the Church of England refused to countenance the remarriage of the divorced. Queen Mary had recently died, and the Queen was about to be crowned in the Coronation service. After the Coronation, she planned to tour the Commonwealth for six months. The Queen told Margaret, "Under the circumstances, it isn't unreasonable for me to ask you to wait a year." The Queen was counselled by her private secretary to post Townsend abroad, but she refused, instead transferring him from the Queen Mother's household to her own. The British Cabinet refused to approve the marriage, and newspapers reported that the marriage was "unthinkable" and "would fly in the face of Royal and Christian tradition". Prime Minister Churchill informed the Queen that the Commonwealth prime ministers were unanimously against the marriage, and that Parliament would not approve a marriage that would be unrecognised by the Church of England unless Margaret renounced her right of succession. Churchill arranged for Townsend to be posted to Brussels. Polls run by popular newspapers appeared to show that the public supported Margaret's personal choice, regardless of Church teaching or the government's opinion. For two years, press speculation continued. Margaret was told by clerics, incorrectly, that she would be unable to take communion if she married a divorced man. Finally, Margaret issued a statement:
"I would like it to be known that I have decided not to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend. I have been aware that, subject to my renouncing my rights of succession, it might have been possible for me to contract a civil marriage. But mindful of the Church's teachings that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these considerations before others. I have reached this decision entirely alone, and in doing so I have been strengthened by the unfailing support and devotion of Group Captain Townsend."
Following some other romantic interests, on 6 May 1960 Margaret married the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey. She reportedly accepted his proposal a day after learning from Peter Townsend that he intended to marry a young Belgian woman, Marie-Luce Jamagne, who was half his age and bore a striking resemblance to Margaret. The announcement of the engagement, on 26 February 1960, took the press by surprise. Margaret had taken care to conceal the romance from reporters. The ceremony was the first royal wedding to be broadcast on television, and attracted viewing figures of 300 million worldwide. Margaret's corsage was designed by Norman Hartnell, and the honeymoon was spent aboard the royal yacht Britannia on a six-week Caribbean cruise. As a wedding present, Colin Tennant gave her a plot of land on his private Caribbean island, Mustique. The newly-weds moved into rooms in Kensington Palace. In 1961, the Princess's husband was created Earl of Snowdon, whereupon she became formally styled HRH The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. They had two children, both born by Caesarean section at Margaret's request: David, Viscount Linley in 1961 and Lady Sarah in 1964.
The marriage widened Princess Margaret's social circle beyond the Court and aristocracy to include show business celebrities and bohemians, and was seen at the time as reflecting the breakdown of class barriers. The Snowdons experimented with the styles and fashions of the 1960s.
Royal duties
Princess Margaret began her royal duties at an early age. She attended the silver jubilee of her grandparents, George V and Queen Mary, aged five in 1935. She later attended her parents' coronation in 1937. Her first major royal tour occurred when she joined her parents and sister for a tour of South Africa in 1947. Her tour aboard Britannia to the British colonies in the Caribbean in 1955 created a sensation throughout the West Indies, and calypsos were dedicated to her. As colonies of the British Commonwealth of Nations sought nationhood, Princess Margaret represented the Crown at independence ceremonies in Jamaica in 1962 and Tuvalu and Dominica in 1978. Her visit to Tuvalu was cut short after an illness, which may have been viral pneumonia, and she was flown to Australia to recuperate. Other Overseas tours included the United States in 1963, Japan in 1969 and 1979, the United States and Canada in 1974, Australia in 1975, the Philippines in 1980, Swaziland in 1981, and China in 1987.
The Princess's main interests were welfare charities, music and ballet. She was President of the National Society and of the Royal Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and Invalid Children's Aid Nationwide (also called 'I CAN'). She was Grand President of the St. John Ambulance Brigade and Colonel-in-Chief of Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps. She was also the president or patron of numerous organisations, such as the Northern Ballet Theatre, West Indies Olympic Association, the Girl Guides and the London Lighthouse (an AIDS charity that has since merged with the Terrence Higgins Trust).
Private life
House of Windsor
Badge of the House of Windsor.svg
George VI
Elizabeth II
Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
Reportedly, her first extramarital affair took place in 1966, with her daughter's godfather, Bordeaux wine producer Anthony Barton, and a year later she had a one-month liaison with Robin Douglas-Home, a nephew of a former British Prime Minister. Margaret claimed that her relationship with Douglas-Home was platonic, but her letters to him (which were later sold) were intimate. Douglas-Home committed suicide 18 months after the split with Margaret. Claims that she was romantically involved with musician Mick Jagger, actor Peter Sellers, and Australian cricketer Keith Miller are unproven. A 2009 biography of actor David Niven asserted based on information from his widow and a good friend of Niven's that he too had had an affair with the princess. Another association was supposed to be with John Bindon, a cockney actor who had spent time in prison. His story, sold to the Daily Mirror, boasted of a close relationship with Margaret and, while it was debatable, the publicity that followed further damaged her reputation.
By the early 1970s, the Snowdons had drifted apart. In September 1973, Colin Tennant introduced Margaret to Roddy Llewellyn. Llewellyn was seventeen years her junior. In 1974, he was a guest at the holiday home she had built on Mustique. It was the first of several visits. Margaret described their relationship as "a loving friendship". Once, when Llewellyn left on an impulsive trip to Turkey, Margaret became emotionally distraught and took an overdose of sleeping tablets. "I was so exhausted because of everything", she later said, "that all I wanted to do was sleep." As she recovered, her ladies-in-waiting kept Lord Snowdon away from her, afraid that seeing him would distress her further.
In February 1976, a picture of Margaret and Llewellyn in swimsuits on Mustique was published on the front page of the tabloid News of the World. The press portrayed Margaret and Llewellyn as a predatory older woman and her toyboy lover. The following month, the Snowdons publicly acknowledged that their marriage was over. There were calls to remove her from the Civil list. Labour MPs denounced her as "a royal parasite", and a "floosie". On 11 July 1978, the Snowdons' divorce was finalised. It was the first divorce of a senior Royal since Princess Victoria of Edinburgh in 1901. In December Snowdon married Lucy Lindsay-Hogg.
Later life
While on a fund-raising tour of the United States in October 1979 on behalf of the Royal Opera House, Margaret became embroiled in the controversy over the assassination of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma. Mountbatten and members of his family were killed by a bomb planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Seated at a dinner reception in Chicago with columnist Abra Anderson and mayor Jane Byrne, Margaret told them that the royal family had been moved by the many letters of condolence from Ireland. The following day, a single press report, written by Anderson's rival Irv Kupcinet, claimed that Margaret had referred to the Irish as "pigs". Margaret, Anderson and Byrne all issued immediate denials, but the damage was already done. The rest of the tour drew demonstrations, and Margaret's security was doubled in the face of physical threats.
In 1981, Llewellyn married Tatiana Soskin, whom he had known for ten years. Margaret remained close friends with them both.
The Princess's later life was marred by illness and disability. She had smoked since at least the age of 15. On 5 January 1985, she had part of her left lung removed; the operation drew parallels with that of her father 30 years earlier. In 1991, she quit smoking, but continued to drink heavily. In January 1993 she was admitted to hospital for pneumonia. She experienced a mild stroke in 1998 at her holiday home in Mustique. Early in the following year, the Princess suffered severe scalds to her feet in a bathroom accident, which affected her mobility to the extent she required support when walking and sometimes used a wheelchair. In January and March 2001, further strokes were diagnosed, which left her with partial vision and paralysis on the left side. Margaret's last public appearances were at the 101st birthday celebrations of her mother in August 2001, and the 100th birthday celebration of her aunt, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, that December.
Legacy
We thank thee Lord who by thy spirit doth our faith restore
When we with wordly things commune & prayerless close our door
We lose our precious gift divine to worship and adore
Then thou our Saviour, fill our hearts to love thee evermore
—Princess Margaret's epitaph, written by herself is carved on a memorial stone in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
Princess Margaret died in the King Edward VII Hospital on 9 February 2002 at the age of 71, after suffering another stroke. Her funeral was held on 15 February 2002—the 50th anniversary of her father's funeral. In line with the Princess's wishes, the ceremony was a private service for family and friends. It was the last time the Queen Mother was seen in public before her own death six weeks later; she was advised by many not to attend but she insisted on doing so. Unlike most other members of the Royal Family, Princess Margaret was cremated, at Slough Crematorium. Her ashes were placed in the tomb of her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, in the King George VI Memorial Chapel in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, two months later. A state memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey on 19 April 2002.
Princess Margaret's nephew, Charles, Prince of Wales, talked about her after her death:
"My aunt was one of those remarkable people who, apart from being incredibly vital and attractive, and of course when she was young so many people remember her for that vitality and attractiveness and indeed her incredible beauty, but she also, and I think many people do not realise this, but she had such incredible talent."
Observers often characterised her as a spoiled snob capable of cutting remarks or hauteur. She even apparently looked down on her own grandmother, Mary of Teck, because Mary was royal only by marriage, whereas Margaret was royal by birth. Their letters, however, provide no indication of friction between them. She could also, however, be charming and informal. People who came into contact with her could be perplexed by her capricious swings between frivolity and formality. Marion Crawford explained, "Impulsive and bright remarks she made became headlines and, taken out of their context, began to produce in the public eye an oddly distorted personality that bore little resemblance to the Margaret we knew." Margaret's acquaintance Gore Vidal wrote, "She was far too intelligent for her station in life." He recalled a conversation with Margaret, in which she discussed her public notoriety, saying, "It was inevitable: when there are two sisters and one is the Queen, who must be the source of honour and all that is good, while the other must be the focus of the most creative malice, the evil sister."
In June 2006, much of her estate was auctioned by Christie's to meet inheritance tax, though some of the items were sold in aid of charities such as the Stroke Association. A world record price of £1.24 million was set by a Fabergé clock, and the Poltimore tiara, worn for her wedding in 1960, sold for £926,400. The sale of her effects totalled £13,658,000. In April 2007, an exhibition entitled Princess Line - The Fashion Legacy of Princess Margaret opened at Kensington Palace, showcasing contemporary fashion from British designers such as Vivienne Westwood inspired by Princess Margaret's 'legacy' of style. Christopher Bailey's Spring 2006 collection for Burberry was inspired by Margaret's look from the 1960s.
Princess Margaret's private life was for many years the subject of intense speculation by media and royal-watchers. Her house on Mustique, designed by her husband's uncle the stage designer Oliver Messel, was her favorite holiday destination. Allegations of wild parties and drug taking were made in a documentary broadcast after the Princess's death. Her supposed Mustique indiscretions form an important part of the background of the quasi-historical 2008 film The Bank Job. Princess Margaret was portrayed by Lucy Cohu in the Channel 4 TV drama The Queen's Sister (2005), by Trulie MacLeod in the TV drama The Women of Windsor (1992), and by Hannah Wiltshire in the TV drama Bertie and Elizabeth; she is portrayed silently in the second series première of Ashes to Ashes (2009, set in 1982) and subsequently complains off-camera about one of the principal characters. Her affair with Peter Townsend and the Queen's dealing with this was the subject of the first episode of the Channel 4 Docudrama The Queen in which she was portrayed by Katie McGrath
It is argued that Margaret's most enduring legacy is an accidental one. Perhaps unwittingly, Margaret paved the way for public acceptance of royal divorce. Her life, if not her actions, made the decisions and choices of her sister's children, three of whom divorced, easier than they otherwise would have been.
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles and styles
Royal styles of
The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
Countess of Snowdon Arms.svg
Reference style Her Royal Highness
Spoken style Your Royal Highness
Alternative style Ma'am
* 21 August 1930 – 11 December 1936: Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret of York
* 11 December 1936 – 3 October 1961: Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret
* 3 October 1961 – 9 February 2002: Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
Honours
* CI: Companion of the Crown of India, 12 June 1947
* GCVO: Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, 1953
* GCStJ: Dame Grand Cross of St John of Jerusalem, 1956
* Royal Victorian Chain, 1990
* Royal Family Order of King George V
* Royal Family Order of King George VI
* Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II
Foreign Honours
* Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion, 1948
* Order of the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar, First Class, 1956
* Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (Belgium), 1960
* Order of the Crown, Lion and Spear of Toro Kingdom (Uganda), 1965
* Order of the Precious Crown, First Class (Japan), 1971
Honorary military appointments
Australia Australia
* Colonel-in-Chief, Women's Royal Australian Army Corps
Bermuda Bermuda
* Colonel-in-Chief, Bermuda Regiment
Canada Canada
* Colonel-in-Chief, the Highland Fusiliers of Canada
* Colonel-in-Chief, Princess Louise Fusiliers
* Colonel-in-Chief, The Royal Newfoundland Regiment
* Colonel-in-Chief, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI)
United Kingdom United Kingdom
* Colonel-in-Chief, 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars
* Colonel-in-Chief, Light Dragoons
* Colonel-in-Chief, Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret's Own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment)
* Colonel-in-Chief, Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps
* Deputy Colonel-in-Chief, Royal Anglian Regiment
* Honorary Air Commodore, Royal Air Force Coningsby
Arms
Arms of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
Notes
The Princess' personalized coat of arms were those of the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom with a label for difference.
Countess of Snowdon Arms.svg
Escutcheon
Quarterly 1st and 4th gules three lions passant guardant or 2nd or a lion rampant gules within a double tressure flory counterflory gules 3rd azure a harp or stringed argent
Other elements
The whole differenced by a label of three points Argent, first and third charged with a Tudor rose the second with a thistle proper
Banner
The princess' personal Royal Standard was that of the Sovereign, labelled for difference as in her arms.
Symbolism
As with the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom. The first and fourth quarters are the arms of England, the second of Scotland, the third of Ireland.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/09/10 at 6:38 am
The word of the day...tapestry
A tapestry is a large piece of heavy cloth with a picture sewn on it using coloured threads.
You can refer to something as a tapestry when it is made up of many varied types of people or things. http://i588.photobucket.com/albums/ss326/kcswonderland/Tapestry%20Round/R008lan201001B.jpg
http://i588.photobucket.com/albums/ss326/kcswonderland/Tapestry%20Round/R013BchengL.jpg
http://i1018.photobucket.com/albums/af307/GraniaDudley/Known%20World%20Tapestry/Tapestry-Leopard.png
http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu147/Schlobben/Tangled%20Web%20Tapestries/tapestry_the_hunt.gif
http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx281/jbear2506/rome/vatican%20museum/VaticanMuseum171.jpg
http://i1018.photobucket.com/albums/af307/GraniaDudley/Known%20World%20Tapestry/Tapestry-Outlands.png
http://i1018.photobucket.com/albums/af307/GraniaDudley/Known%20World%20Tapestry/Tapestry-Butterfly.png
those are really gorgeous. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/09/10 at 7:37 am
those are really gorgeous. :)
I'm glad you like them :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/09/10 at 8:45 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p4RWBCEFRo
I used that song in the video I made with some photos I took of the kids.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Womble on 02/09/10 at 8:52 pm
Nice bio on Carol King, Ninny. I grew up listening to her music. Lots of good memories. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/09/10 at 8:59 pm
Tapestry was one of the finest albums of the 70's. Most people had it in their collection...along with 'Best of Bread', 'Eagles Greatest Hits' and America's 'History'
Absolutely loved that album and bought the CD a couple of years ago...(the album quality isn't so hot anymore).
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/10/10 at 2:05 am
Nice bio on Carol King, Ninny. I grew up listening to her music. Lots of good memories. :)
Great singer!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/10/10 at 5:17 am
Nice bio on Carol King, Ninny. I grew up listening to her music. Lots of good memories. :)
Thanks :)
Tapestry was one of the finest albums of the 70's. Most people had it in their collection...along with 'Best of Bread', 'Eagles Greatest Hits' and America's 'History'
Absolutely loved that album and bought the CD a couple of years ago...(the album quality isn't so hot anymore).
You got good taste Peter. :)
Great singer!
Yes she is :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/10/10 at 5:39 am
Interesting you chose the food "Grapes" today, because that's the nickname of Canada's most famous hockey personality, Don Cherry, and it's his birthday today (born Feb 5, 1934)
I just saw this post Don Cherry use to coach the Rochester Americans.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/10/10 at 5:46 am
The word of the day...Feather
A bird's feathers are the soft covering on its body. Each feather consists of a lot of smooth hairs on each side of a thin stiff centre
If you describe two people as birds of a feather, you mean that they have very similar characteristics, interests, or beliefs.
If you describe something that someone has achieved as a feather in their cap, you mean that they can be proud of it or that it might bring them some advantage.
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk263/CND_Emi/feather34l.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k194/craig_x13/feather4.jpg
http://i1011.photobucket.com/albums/af236/iluizgollo/P1030486a.jpg
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l187/x3die_romanticx3/Misc/Picture103.jpg
http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu80/streetwisepup/jiva/New%20Ebay%20pics/peacock-feather-tickler2.gif
http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv244/uttamdirect/FEATHERSKIRT.jpg
http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/ae96/enigmastery/Sensual/feather-tickle-1.jpg
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr48/uneedaluv2/MY%20BACKYARD/265.jpg
http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac312/mochamist/DSC03273.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/10/10 at 5:50 am
The person born on this day...Robert Wagner
Robert John Wagner (born February 10, 1930) is an American film and television actor of stage and screen, who starred in movies, soap operas and television.
Wagner starred in three American television series that spanned three decades: as playboy-thief-turned-secret-agent, Alexander Mundy, in It Takes a Thief (1968–1970), as Eddie Albert's ex-con man turned crime-fighting partner, Det. Pete T. Ryan, in the con-artist-oriented drama Switch (1975–1978), and as Stefanie Powers's super-rich husband and private-eye partner, Jonathan Hart, in the lighthearted crime drama Hart to Hart (1979–1984). In movies, Wagner is known for his role as Number Two in the Austin Powers films of the late 1990s and early 2000s. He also had a recurring role as Teddy Leopold on the TV sitcom Two and a Half Men.
Wagner's autobiography, Pieces of My Heart: A Life, written with author Scott Eyman, was published on September 23, 2008.
When he was dining with his family at a Beverly Hills restaurant he was "discovered" by talent agent Henry Willson. Making his debut in The Happy Years (1950), he would play minor characters in several military themed films until his performance in With a Song in My Heart (1952) starring Susan Hayward, which would lead to a contract with 20th Century Fox.
His signing on with Fox would lead to a series of films in starring roles including Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) and Prince Valiant (1954) as well as smaller, although impressive performances, in A Kiss Before Dying (1956) and Between Heaven and Hell (1956).
Wagner (right), with Jean Peters in the 1954 film Broken Lance
He starred in White Feather (1955) with Debra Paget and Jeffrey Hunter.
It was during his early career that he became the protégé of veteran actor Clifton Webb, appearing with him in Stars and Stripes Forever (1952) and Titanic (1953). His performance earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer in motion pictures. Wagner starred opposite Steve McQueen in The War Lover (1962). Roles soon followed in The Longest Day (1962), The Condemned of Altona and the The Pink Panther. He reunited with McQueen, along with Paul Newman and Faye Dunaway, in the 1974 blockbuster disaster film The Towering Inferno. He reprised his role in the sequel Curse of the Pink Panther (1983).
Career rises
Wagner was convinced by Lew Wasserman in 1968 to make his television series debut starring in It Takes a Thief, after signing with Universal Studios in 1967. While the success of The Pink Panther and Harper began Wagner's comeback, the successful two and a half seasons of his first TV series completed his comeback. In this series he acted with Fred Astaire, who played his father. Astaire was a long-time friend of Wagner's, who had gone to school with Astaire's eldest son, Peter.
In 1972 he produced and cast himself opposite Bette Davis in the television movie Madame Sin, which was released in foreign markets as a feature film.
By the mid-1970s, Wagner's television career was at its peak with the television series Switch opposite Eddie Albert, after re-signing a contract with Universal Studios in 1974. Before Switch, Albert was a childhood television hero of Wagner's, after watching the movie Brother Rat along with a few others. The friendship started in the early 1960s, where he also co-starred in a couple of Albert's movies. After the series' end, the two remained friends until Albert's death on May 26, 2005. Wagner spoke at his funeral, and gave a testimonial about his longtime friendship with him.
In part payment for starring together in the Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg production of the TV movie The Affair Wagner and Wood were given a share in three TV series that the producers were developing for ABC. Only one reached the screen, the very successful TV series Charlie's Angels for which Wagner and Wood had a 50% share, though Wagner was to spend many years in court arguing with Spelling and Goldberg over what was defined as profit.
Wagner and Wood acted together with Laurence Olivier in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (as part of the UK television series Laurence Olivier Presents). Wood also made a small cameo appearance in the pilot episode of Wagner's own television series, Hart to Hart.
His third successful series was Hart to Hart that co-starred Stefanie Powers. Before those roles, Wagner also made guest appearances in the pilot episode of The Streets of San Francisco and as a regular in the UK World War II drama Colditz. He would later be nominated for an Emmy Award for Best TV Actor for his performance in It Takes a Thief and for four Golden Globe awards for his role as Jonathan Hart in Hart to Hart.
Robert Wagner's radio and television career was recognized by the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters on January 30, 2009 when they presented him with their Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award.
Return to film and TV
Robert Wagner as Number Two in New Line's Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)
Wagner's film career received a revival after his role in the Austin Powers series of spy spoofs starring Mike Myers. Wagner played Dr. Evil's henchman Number 2 in all three films: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).
He also became the host of Fox Movie Channel's Hour of Stars, featuring original television episodes of The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955), a series which Wagner had appeared on in his early days with the studio.
In 2007, Wagner had a role in the BBC/AMC series Hustle. In its fourth season premiere, Wagner played a crooked Texan being taken for half a million dollars. As Wagner is considered "a suave icon of American caper television, including It Takes a Thief and Hart to Hart", Robert Glenister (Hustle's fixer, Ash Morgan) commented that "to have one of the icons of that period involved is a great bonus for all of us".
Recently, Wagner played the pivotal role of President James Garfield in the comedy/horror film Netherbeast Incorporated (2007). The role was written with Wagner in mind.
Wagner had a recurring role of a rich suitor to the main characters' mother on the sitcom Two and a Half Men. His most recent appearances on the show were in May 2008.
On November 2, 2009, it was announced that Wagner will guest-star as Tony's father in the 150th episode of NCIS, TVGuide.com has confirmed. Tony and his dad will reunite in the episode, which is slated for January.
Personal life
Marriages and relationships
Wagner had a 4 year romantic relationship with Barbara Stanwyck after they acted together in the movie Titanic. Because of the age difference - he was 22, she was 45 - they kept the affair secret to avoid damage to their careers. When the relationship ended, he graduated to young actresses including Joan Collins and Debbie Reynolds, eventually becoming lasting friends with both.
Wagner became involved with teen actress Natalie Wood and married her on December 28, 1957. The couple soon became involved in financial troubles. At Fox, Wagner's career was slowly being overtaken by newer actors such as Marlon Brando and Paul Newman. The two separated in September 1961 and divorced on April 27, 1962. Wagner, with his career stalled due to a lack of studio support, broke his studio contract with 20th Century Fox. and moved to Europe in search of better film roles.
While in Europe he met an old friend, actress Marion Marshall. After a brief courtship, Wagner, Marshall, and her two children from her marriage to Stanley Donen, in the spring of 1963 moved back to America. Wagner and Marshall married on July 22, 1963 in the Bronx Courthouse. Soon after, they had a daughter, Katie Wagner (born May 11, 1964). The two were together for nearly nine years before they separated in late 1970. They were divorced on April 26, 1971. He then had a relationship with Tina Sinatra.
Wagner kept in contact with Natalie Wood, whose short-lived marriage to Richard Gregson ended in early 1972. Wagner remarried her on July 16, 1972 in a ceremony on a friend's yacht The Ramblin' Rose. On March 9, 1974, the couple had their only child, daughter Courtney. On November 29, 1981, Natalie Wood drowned near their yacht Splendour while moored near Catalina Island with Wagner and Christopher Walken, who was co-starring with her in the motion picture Brainstorm. Wagner was devastated by her death and later stated in his autobiography Pieces of My Heart and in several interviews that he went through a daze between the tragedy and her funeral then spent eight days in bed. He subsequently became the legal guardian of Wood's daughter Natasha Gregson.
In early 1982, Wagner began a relationship with actress Jill St. John, who coincidentally was a childhood friend of Natalie Wood and Wagner's Hart to Hart co-star Stefanie Powers. After an eight-year courtship, they were married on May 26, 1990. In the spring of 2000, St. John herself would become involved in an altercation with Lana Wood during a cover shoot for Vanity Fair featuring the actresses of the long running James Bond series. The two women co-starred in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds are Forever.
On September 21, 2006, he became a first time grandfather when his daughter, Katie, gave birth to a son, Riley Wagner-Lewis.
Wagner maintains residences in Los Angeles, California and Aspen, Colorado.
Wagner is currently pitching for a reverse mortgage company, the Senior Lending Network.
Aaron Spelling lawsuit
In June 2000, Wagner sued Aaron Spelling Productions for $20 million for breach of contract and fraud, claiming he had been cheated out of profits from the Fox television series Beverly Hills, 90210. The dispute centered on an agreement between Wagner and the show's creator-producer Aaron Spelling.
In 1988, Wagner agreed to become involved in Spelling's television series Angels 88, then in development, in which Spelling had agreed Wagner would receive a 7.5% gross profit for his participation, regardless of services rendered. However, when the series was initially picked up by Fox and later dropped in favor of Beverly Hills, 90210, Wagner claimed he was entitled to the rights previously agreed upon in their 1988 agreement.
Filmography
Wagner's career as a supporting player in movies was solid in the 1950s, but declined in the 1960s, and he turned to television with great success. His notable roles include:
* Pvt. Coffman in Halls of Montezuma (1951)
* Willie Little in Stars and Stripes Forever (1952)
* Tony Petrakis in Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953)
* Gifford "Giff" Rogers in Titanic (1953)
* Joe Devereaux in Broken Lance (1954)
* Prince Valiant in Prince Valiant (1954)
* Josh Tanner in White Feather (1955)
* Bud Corliss in A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
* Sam Gifford in Between Heaven and Hell (1956)
* Christopher Teller in The Mountain (1956)
* Jesse James in The True Story of Jesse James, directed by Nicholas Ray (1957)
* Lt. Pell in The Hunters (1958)
* Chad Bixby, based on Chet Baker in All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960)
* Lt Ed Boland in The War Lover (1962)
* George Lytton in The Pink Panther (1963) and Curse of the Pink Panther (1983)
* Allan Taggert in Harper (1966)
* Mike Banning in Banning (1967)
* Luther Erding in Winning (1969)
* Alexander Mundy in It Takes a Thief (1968–70)
* David Corey in The Name of the Game (1970–1971)
* Dan Bigelow in The Towering Inferno (1974)
* Brick Pollitt in Laurence Olivier Presents: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976) (with then wife Natalie Wood and Laurence Olivier)
* Pete T. Ryan in Switch (1975–1978)
* Kevin Harrison in The Concorde ... Airport '79 (1979)
* Jonathan Hart in Hart to Hart (1979–1984)
* Mike Slade in Windmills of the Gods (1988)
* Bill Krieger in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)
* Number Two in the Austin Powers movies (1997, 1999, 2002)
* Tom Baxter in Wild Things (1998)
* Digicron President in Fatal Error (1999)
* Amos in Man of Faith (2005)
* President James Garfield in Netherbeast Incorporated (2007)
* Mr. Wilson in A Dennis the Menace Christmas (2007)
Other roles
* Kenny Walsh in the episode "And God Created Vanity" in the NBC medical drama about psychiatry, The Eleventh Hour (1963)
* Flight Lieutenant/Major Phil Carrington in the BBC series Colditz (1972–1974)
* Jack Gates in Delirious (1991) (uncredited)
* Guest starred as Mickey's father in the Seinfeld episode "The Yada Yada" (1997)
* Guest starred as Jack Fairfield in Hope & Faith (2003)
* Guest starred in Hollywood Homicide (2003)
* Alex Avery in the tv series Las Vegas episode Cash Springs Eternal (2006)
* Guest starred as Teddy, the boyfriend of Alan's and Charlie's mother in Two and a Half Men (2007-2008)
* Guest starred as Anthony DiNozzo Sr. in "NCIS" (2010)
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/10/10 at 5:56 am
The person who died on this day...Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born February 7, 1867, near the village of Pepin, in the "Big Woods" of Wisconsin, to Charles Phillip Ingalls and Caroline Lake (Quiner) Ingalls. She was the second of five children; her siblings were Mary Amelia, who went blind; Carrie Celestia, Charles Frederick, who died when nine months old, and Grace Pearl. Her birth site is commemorated by a period log cabin, the Little House Wayside.
Her paternal immigrant ancestor was Edmund Ingalls born 27 June 1586 in Skirbeck, Lincolnshire, England, and died 16 September 1648 in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts.
In Laura's early childhood, her father settled on land not yet open for homesteading in what was then Indian Territory near Independence, Kansas--an experience that formed the basis of Ingalls' novel Little House on the Prairie. Within a few years, her father's restless spirit led them on various moves to a preemption claim in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, living with relatives near South Troy, Minnesota, and helping to run a hotel in Burr Oak, Iowa. After a move from Burr Oak back to Walnut Grove, where Charles Ingalls served as the town butcher and Justice of the Peace, Charles accepted a railroad job in the spring of 1879 which led him to eastern Dakota Territory, where he was joined by the family in the fall of 1879. Over the winter of 1879-1880, Charles landed a homestead, and called DeSmet, South Dakota, home for the rest of his, Caroline, and Mary's lives. After staying the cold winter of 1879–1880 in the Surveyor's House, the Ingalls family watched the town of DeSmet rise up from the prairie in 1880. The following winter, 1880–1881, one of the most severe on record in the Dakotas, was later described by Wilder in her book, The Long Winter. Once the family was settled in DeSmet, she attended school, made many friends, and met homesteader Almanzo Wilder (1857–1949). This time in her life is well documented in the Little House Books.
At the age of 15, Laura accepted her first teaching position, teaching three terms in one-room schools, when not attending school herself in DeSmet. She later admitted that she did not particularly enjoy teaching, but felt the responsibility from a young age to help her family financially, and wage earning opportunities for females were limited. Laura stopped teaching when she married Almanzo Wilder on August 25, 1885. Wilder had achieved a degree of prosperity on his homestead claim, owing to favorable weather in the early 1880s, and the couple's prospects seemed bright. She joined Almanzo in a new home on his claim north of DeSmet and agreed to help him make the claim succeed. On December 5, 1886, she gave birth to Rose Wilder (1886–1968) and later, an unnamed son, who died shortly after birth in 1889.
The first few years of marriage held many trials. Complications from a life-threatening bout of diphtheria left Almanzo partially paralyzed. While he eventually regained nearly full use of his legs, he needed a cane to walk for the remainder of his life. This setback, among many others, began a series of disastrous events that included the death of their unnamed newborn son, the destruction of their home and barn by fire, and several years of severe drought that left them in debt, physically ill, and unable to earn a living from their 320 acres (1.3 km2) of prairie land. The tales of their trials at farming can be found in The First Four Years, a manuscript that was discovered after Rose Wilder Lane's death. Published in 1971, it detailed the hard-fought first four years of marriage on the Dakota prairies.
About 1890, the Wilders left South Dakota and spent about a year resting at Wilder's parents' prosperous Spring Valley Minnesota farm before moving briefly to Westville, Florida. They sought Florida's climate to improve Wilder's health, but being used to living on the dry plains, he wilted in the heat and Southern humidity. In 1892, they returned to DeSmet and bought a small house (although later accounts by Lane mistakenly indicated it was rented). The Wilders received special permission to start their precocious daughter in school early and took jobs (Almanzo as a day laborer, Laura as a seamstress at a dressmaker's shop) to save enough money to once again start a farm.
Rocky Ridge Farm
In 1894, the hard-pressed young couple moved a final time to Mansfield, Missouri, using their savings to make a down payment on a piece of undeveloped property just outside of town. They named the place Rocky Ridge Farm. What began as about 40 acres (0.2 km2) of thickly wooded, stone-covered hillside with a windowless log cabin, over the next 20 years evolved into a 200-acre (0.8 km2), relatively prosperous poultry, dairy, and fruit farm. The ramshackle log cabin was eventually replaced with an impressive 10-room farmhouse and outbuildings.
The couple's climb to financial security was a slow process. Initially, the only income the farm produced was from wagonloads of firewood Almanzo sold for 50 cents in town, the result of the backbreaking work of clearing the trees and stones from land that slowly evolved into fertile fields and pastures. The apple trees did not begin to bear fruit for seven years. Barely able to eke out more than a subsistence living on the new farm, the Wilders decided to move into nearby Mansfield in the late 1890s and rent a small house. Almanzo found work as an oil salesman and general delivery man, while Laura took in boarders and served meals to local railroad workers. Recipes that she used are included in the biography, I Remember Laura, by Stephen W. Hines. Any spare time was spent improving the farm and planning for a better future.
Wilder's parents visited around this time, and presented to the couple, as a gift, the deed to the house they had been renting in Mansfield. This was the economic jump start they needed; they eventually sold the house in town and using the proceeds from the sale, were able to move back to the farm permanently, and to complete Rocky Ridge.
Almanzo died in 1949 at the age of ninety-two, Laura died at the age of ninety on February 10, 1957, both on their Rocky Ridge Farm at Mansfield, Missouri.
Farm diversification
Laura and Almanzo Wilder, 1885
By 1910, Rocky Ridge Farm was established to the point where the Wilders returned there to focus their efforts on increasing the farm's productivity and output. The impressive 10-room farmhouse completed in 1912 stands as a testament to their labors and determination to carve a comfortable and attractive home from the land.
Having learned a hard lesson from focusing solely on wheat farming in South Dakota, the Wilders' Rocky Ridge Farm became a diversified poultry and dairy farm, with an abundant apple orchard. Wilder, always active in various clubs and an advocate for several regional farm associations, was recognized as an authority in poultry farming and rural living, which led to invitations to talk to groups around the region.
Following Rose Wilder Lane's developing writing career also inspired Wilder to do some writing of her own. An invitation to submit an article to the Missouri Ruralist in 1911 led to a permanent position as a columnist and editor with that publication — a position she held until the mid-1920s. She also took a paid position with a Farm Loan Association, dispensing small loans to local farmers from her office in the farmhouse.
Her column in the Ruralist, "As a Farm Woman Thinks," introduced Mrs. A.J. Wilder to a loyal audience of rural Ozarkians, who enjoyed her regular columns, whose topics ranged from home and family to World War I and other world events, to the fascinating world travels of her daughter and her own thoughts on the increasing options offered to women during this era.
While the Wilders were never wealthy until the "Little House" series of books began to achieve popularity, the farming operation and Wilder's income from writing and the Farm Loan Association provided a stable enough living for the Wilders to finally place themselves in Mansfield middle-class society.
Wilder's fellow clubwomen were mostly the wives of business owners, doctors and lawyers, and her club activities took up much of the time that Lane encouraged her to use to develop a writing career for national magazines, as Lane had done. Wilder seemed unable or unwilling to make the leap from writing for the Missouri Ruralist to these higher-paying national markets. The few articles she was able to sell to national magazines were heavily edited by her daughter and placed solely through Lane's established publishing connections.
Retirement
For much of the 1920s and 1930s, between long stints living abroad (including in her beloved adopted country of Albania), Lane lived with the Wilders at Rocky Ridge Farm. As her free-lance writing career flourished, she successfully invested in the booming stock market.
Her newfound financial freedom led her to increasingly assume responsibility for her aging parents' support, as well as providing for the college educations of several young people she "adopted," both in Albania and Mansfield. Lane also took over the farmhouse her parents had built and had a beautiful, modern stone cottage constructed for them as a gift. However, when Lane left the farm for good a few years later, the Wilders, homesick for the house they had built with their own hands, moved back to it, and finished their lives there.
By the late 1920s, they had scaled back the farming operation considerably and Wilder had resigned from her positions with the Missouri Ruralist and the Farm Loan Association. Hired help was installed in the caretaker's house Lane had built on the property, to take care of the remaining farm work that Almanzo, now in his 70s, could no longer easily manage.
A comfortable and worry-free retirement seemed possible for the Wilders until the Stock Market Crash of 1929 wiped out the family's investments. The couple still owned the 200 acres (0.8 km2) farm, but they had invested most of their hard-won savings with Lane's broker. Lane was faced with the grim prospect of selling enough of her writing in a depressed market to maintain the financial responsibilities she had assumed, and the Wilders became dependent on her as their primary source of support.
In 1930, Wilder asked her daughter's opinion about a biographical manuscript she had written about her pioneering childhood. The Great Depression, coupled with the death of her mother in 1924 and her sister Mary in 1928, seem to have prompted her to preserve her memories in a "life story" called "Pioneer Girl." She had also renewed her interest in writing in the hope of generating some income. The first idea for the title of the first of the books was When Grandma was a Little Girl (later Little House in the Big Woods). After its success, Laura continued writing, given mental support and help in the form of sharing her own memories, by her sister Carrie.
Book series collaboration
Controversy surrounds Lane's exact role in what became her mother's famous "Little House" series of books. Some argue that Laura was an "untutored genius," relying on her daughter mainly for some early encouragement and her connections with publishers and literary agents. Others contend that Lane took each of her mother's unpolished rough drafts in hand and completely (and silently) transformed them into the series of books we know today. The truth most likely lies somewhere between these two positions — Wilder's writing career as a rural journalist and credible essayist began more than two decades before the "Little House" series, and Lane's formidable skills as an editor and ghostwriter are well-documented . But Lane's New York literary agent, George T. Bye, turned away the initial drafts, commenting that they lacked drama.
The existing evidence (including ongoing correspondence between the women concerning the development of the series, Lane's extensive personal diaries and Wilder's first person draft manuscripts) tends to reveal an ongoing joint collaboration. The conclusion can be drawn that Wilder's strengths as a compelling storyteller and Lane's considerable skills in dramatic pacing and literary structure contributed to an occasionally tense, but fruitful, collaboration between two talented and headstrong women. In fact, the collaboration seems to have worked both ways: two of Lane's most successful novels, Let the Hurricane Roar (1932) and Free Land (1938), were written at the same time as the "Little House" series and basically re-told Ingalls and Wilder family tales in an adult format. The collaboration also brought the two writers at Rocky Ridge Farm the money they needed to recoup the loss of their investments in the stock market. Simply stated: If Wilder had not written the books, they would not exist — Lane had no interest in writing what she called "juveniles" — but had Lane not edited the books, they might well have never been accepted for publication let alone become famous. Since the initial publication of "Little House in the Big Woods" in 1931, the books have been continually in print and have been translated into 40 different languages.
Whatever the collaboration personally represented to the mother and daughter was never publicly discussed, however. Wilder's first — and smallest — royalty check from Harper was for $500 — the equivalent of $7,300 in 2007 dollars. By the mid-1930s the royalties from the "Little House" books brought a steady and increasingly substantial income to the Wilders for the first time in their 50 years of marriage. Various honors, huge amounts of fan mail and other accolades were granted to Laura Ingalls Wilder. The novels and short stories of Rose Wilder Lane during the 1930s also represented her creative and literary peak. Her name received top billing on the magazine covers where her fiction and articles appeared. The Saturday Evening Post paid her $30,000 (approximately $400,000 in 2007 dollars) to serialize her best-selling novel Free Land, while Let the Hurricane Roar saw an increasing and steady sale, augmented by a radio dramatization starring Helen Hayes. The book remains in print today as Young Pioneers.
Celebrated author
Lane left Rocky Ridge Farm in the late 1930s, establishing homes in Harlingen, Texas, and Danbury, Connecticut. She eventually ceased fiction writing and spent the remainder of her life writing about and promoting her philosophies of personal freedom and liberty. She became one of the more influential American libertarians of the mid-twentieth century.
During these years, Wilder and her husband were frequently alone at Rocky Ridge Farm. Most of the surrounding area (including the property with the stone cottage Lane had built for them) had been sold off, but they still kept some farm animals, and tended their flower beds and vegetable gardens. Almost daily, carloads of fans would stop by, eager to meet "Laura" of the Little House books. The Wilders lived independently and without financial worries until Almanzo's death in 1949, at the age of 92. Wilder was grieved, but determined to remain independent and stay on the farm, despite Lane's requests that her mother come live with her permanently in Connecticut. For the next eight years, she lived alone, looked after by a circle of neighbors and friends who found it hard to believe their very own "Mrs. Wilder" was a world-famous author. She was a familiar figure in Mansfield, being brought into town regularly by her driver to run errands, attend church, or visit friends. She continued an active correspondence with her editors, many fans and friends during these years.
Throughout the 1950s, Lane usually returned to Missouri to spend the winter with her mother. Once, Wilder flew to Connecticut for a visit to Lane's home. In the fall of 1956, Lane went to Mansfield for Thanksgiving, and found her 89-year-old mother severely ill from undiagnosed diabetes and a weakening heart. Several weeks in the hospital seemed to improve the situation somewhat, and Wilder was able to return home on the day after Christmas. But she was very old and very ill, and declined rapidly after that point. Wilder had an extremely competitive spirit going all the way back to the schoolyard as a child, and she had remarked to many people that she wanted to live to be 90, "because Almanzo had". She succeeded. On February 10, 1957, just three days after her 90th birthday, Laura Ingalls Wilder died in her sleep in her Mansfield farmhouse.
With Wilder's death in 1957, use of the Rocky Ridge Farmhouse reverted to the farmer who had earlier bought the surrounding land. The local townsfolk put together a non-profit corporation to purchase the house and its grounds, for use as a museum. After some wariness at the notion of seeing the house rather than the books themselves be a shrine to her mother, Lane came to believe that making a museum of it would draw long-lasting attention to the books. She donated the money needed to purchase the house and make it a museum, agreed to make significant contributions each year for its upkeep and also gave many of the family's belongings to help establish what became a popular museum that still draws thousands of visitors each year to Mansfield.
Lane inherited ownership of the "Little House" literary estate for her lifetime only, all rights reverting to the Mansfield library after her death, according to her mother's will. After her death in 1968, Lane's heir, Roger MacBride, gained control of the copyrights. MacBride was Lane's informally-adopted grandson, as well as her business agent, attorney, and heir. All of MacBride's actions carried Lane's apparent approval. In fact, at Lane's request, the copyrights to each of the "Little House" books, as well as those of Lane's own literary works, had been renewed in MacBride's name when the original copyrights expired during the decade between Wilder's and Lane's deaths.
Controversy did not come until after MacBride's death in 1995, when the Laura Ingalls Wilder Branch of the Wright County Library (which Wilder helped found) in Mansfield, Missouri, decided it was worth trying to recover the rights. The ensuing court case was settled in an undisclosed manner, but MacBride's heirs retained the rights. The library received enough to start work on a new building.
The popularity of the "Little House" series of books has grown phenomenally over the years, spawning a multimillion-dollar franchise of mass merchandising, additional spinoff book series (some written by MacBride and his daughter), and the long-running television show, starring Michael Landon. Laura Ingalls Wilder has been portrayed by Melissa Gilbert (1974-1984), Meredith Monroe (1997, 1998) and Kyle Chavarria (2005) in television series.
Wilder once said the reason she wrote her books in the first place was to preserve the stories of her childhood for today's children, to help them to understand how much America had changed during her lifetime.
Legacy
* Hall of Famous Missourians - Laura Wilder was inducted in 1993
* Missouri State Capitol -a bronze bust depicting her is on permanent display in the rotunda
* Missouri Walk of Fame - Wilder was honored on the in 2006. David Ingalls, an Ingalls cousin, accepted the star.
* Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum - located in Mansfield, Missouri.
* Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum - located in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.
* Laura Wilder Elementary School - located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota
* Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary - located in Woodinville, Washington
* List of craters on Venus - Wilder crater located on the planet Venus was named after her.
Bibliography
Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Ingalls
Search Wikiquote Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Laura Ingalls Wilder
* Little House in the Big Woods (1932)
* Farmer Boy (1933) - about her husband's childhood on a farm in New York
* Little House on the Prairie (1935)
* On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937), a Newbery Honor book
* By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939), a Newbery Honor book
* The Long Winter (1940), a Newbery Honor book
* Little Town on the Prairie (1941), a Newbery Honor book
* These Happy Golden Years (1943), a Newbery Honor book
* On the Way Home (1962, published posthumously) - a diary of the Wilders' move from de Smet to Mansfield, Missouri, edited and added to by Rose Wilder Lane.
* The First Four Years (1971, published posthumously)
* West From Home (1974, published posthumously) - Wilder's letters to Almanzo while visiting Lane in San Francisco in 1915
* The Road Back (Part of A Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Journeys Across America, highlighting Laura's previously unpublished record of a 1931 trip with Almanzo to De Smet, South Dakota, and the Black Hills)
* A Little House Sampler, with Rose Wilder Lane, edited by William Anderson
* Farm Journalist : Writings from the Ozarks
* Writings to Young Women (Volume One: On Wisdom and Virtues, Volume Two: On Life As a Pioneer Woman, Volume Three: As Told By Her Family, Friends, and Neighbors)
* A Little House Reader: A Collection of Writings
* Laura Ingalls Wilder & Rose Wilder Lane (Letters exchanged by Laura and Rose)
* Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings
* Laura's Album (A Remembrance Scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by William Anderson)
and others.
Museums and home sites
Further information: Historic sites and museums
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/10/10 at 8:05 am
The word of the day...Feather
A bird's feathers are the soft covering on its body. Each feather consists of a lot of smooth hairs on each side of a thin stiff centre
If you describe two people as birds of a feather, you mean that they have very similar characteristics, interests, or beliefs.
If you describe something that someone has achieved as a feather in their cap, you mean that they can be proud of it or that it might bring them some advantage.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdmEGWqIWEI
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/10/10 at 11:36 am
Tapestry was one of the finest albums of the 70's. Most people had it in their collection...along with 'Best of Bread', 'Eagles Greatest Hits' and America's 'History'
Absolutely loved that album and bought the CD a couple of years ago...(the album quality isn't so hot anymore).
I had Tapestry. Some great tunes on there, big album in (I think) 1971.
...and I also had the other 3 albums gibbo mentioned. From this post ( and others) I find that gibbo and I have quite the similar taste in music.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/10/10 at 12:18 pm
I had Tapestry. Some great tunes on there, big album in (I think) 1971.
...and I also had the other 3 albums gibbo mentioned. From this post ( and others) I find that gibbo and I have quite the similar taste in music.
My sister had the album. A few years ago, I purchased it on CD. As I was listening to it, I didn't realized that I basically knew the entire album. I guess my sister played it THAT MUCH when I was a kid.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/10/10 at 1:36 pm
The person born on this day...Robert Wagner
Robert John Wagner (born February 10, 1930) is an American film and television actor of stage and screen, who starred in movies, soap operas and television.
Wagner starred in three American television series that spanned three decades: as playboy-thief-turned-secret-agent, Alexander Mundy, in It Takes a Thief (1968–1970), as Eddie Albert's ex-con man turned crime-fighting partner, Det. Pete T. Ryan, in the con-artist-oriented drama Switch (1975–1978), and as Stefanie Powers's super-rich husband and private-eye partner, Jonathan Hart, in the lighthearted crime drama Hart to Hart (1979–1984). In movies, Wagner is known for his role as Number Two in the Austin Powers films of the late 1990s and early 2000s. He also had a recurring role as Teddy Leopold on the TV sitcom Two and a Half Men.
Wagner's autobiography, Pieces of My Heart: A Life, written with author Scott Eyman, was published on September 23, 2008.
When he was dining with his family at a Beverly Hills restaurant he was "discovered" by talent agent Henry Willson. Making his debut in The Happy Years (1950), he would play minor characters in several military themed films until his performance in With a Song in My Heart (1952) starring Susan Hayward, which would lead to a contract with 20th Century Fox.
His signing on with Fox would lead to a series of films in starring roles including Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) and Prince Valiant (1954) as well as smaller, although impressive performances, in A Kiss Before Dying (1956) and Between Heaven and Hell (1956).
Wagner (right), with Jean Peters in the 1954 film Broken Lance
He starred in White Feather (1955) with Debra Paget and Jeffrey Hunter.
It was during his early career that he became the protégé of veteran actor Clifton Webb, appearing with him in Stars and Stripes Forever (1952) and Titanic (1953). His performance earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer in motion pictures. Wagner starred opposite Steve McQueen in The War Lover (1962). Roles soon followed in The Longest Day (1962), The Condemned of Altona and the The Pink Panther. He reunited with McQueen, along with Paul Newman and Faye Dunaway, in the 1974 blockbuster disaster film The Towering Inferno. He reprised his role in the sequel Curse of the Pink Panther (1983).
Career rises
Wagner was convinced by Lew Wasserman in 1968 to make his television series debut starring in It Takes a Thief, after signing with Universal Studios in 1967. While the success of The Pink Panther and Harper began Wagner's comeback, the successful two and a half seasons of his first TV series completed his comeback. In this series he acted with Fred Astaire, who played his father. Astaire was a long-time friend of Wagner's, who had gone to school with Astaire's eldest son, Peter.
In 1972 he produced and cast himself opposite Bette Davis in the television movie Madame Sin, which was released in foreign markets as a feature film.
By the mid-1970s, Wagner's television career was at its peak with the television series Switch opposite Eddie Albert, after re-signing a contract with Universal Studios in 1974. Before Switch, Albert was a childhood television hero of Wagner's, after watching the movie Brother Rat along with a few others. The friendship started in the early 1960s, where he also co-starred in a couple of Albert's movies. After the series' end, the two remained friends until Albert's death on May 26, 2005. Wagner spoke at his funeral, and gave a testimonial about his longtime friendship with him.
In part payment for starring together in the Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg production of the TV movie The Affair Wagner and Wood were given a share in three TV series that the producers were developing for ABC. Only one reached the screen, the very successful TV series Charlie's Angels for which Wagner and Wood had a 50% share, though Wagner was to spend many years in court arguing with Spelling and Goldberg over what was defined as profit.
Wagner and Wood acted together with Laurence Olivier in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (as part of the UK television series Laurence Olivier Presents). Wood also made a small cameo appearance in the pilot episode of Wagner's own television series, Hart to Hart.
His third successful series was Hart to Hart that co-starred Stefanie Powers. Before those roles, Wagner also made guest appearances in the pilot episode of The Streets of San Francisco and as a regular in the UK World War II drama Colditz. He would later be nominated for an Emmy Award for Best TV Actor for his performance in It Takes a Thief and for four Golden Globe awards for his role as Jonathan Hart in Hart to Hart.
Robert Wagner's radio and television career was recognized by the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters on January 30, 2009 when they presented him with their Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award.
Return to film and TV
Robert Wagner as Number Two in New Line's Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)
Wagner's film career received a revival after his role in the Austin Powers series of spy spoofs starring Mike Myers. Wagner played Dr. Evil's henchman Number 2 in all three films: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).
He also became the host of Fox Movie Channel's Hour of Stars, featuring original television episodes of The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955), a series which Wagner had appeared on in his early days with the studio.
In 2007, Wagner had a role in the BBC/AMC series Hustle. In its fourth season premiere, Wagner played a crooked Texan being taken for half a million dollars. As Wagner is considered "a suave icon of American caper television, including It Takes a Thief and Hart to Hart", Robert Glenister (Hustle's fixer, Ash Morgan) commented that "to have one of the icons of that period involved is a great bonus for all of us".
Recently, Wagner played the pivotal role of President James Garfield in the comedy/horror film Netherbeast Incorporated (2007). The role was written with Wagner in mind.
Wagner had a recurring role of a rich suitor to the main characters' mother on the sitcom Two and a Half Men. His most recent appearances on the show were in May 2008.
On November 2, 2009, it was announced that Wagner will guest-star as Tony's father in the 150th episode of NCIS, TVGuide.com has confirmed. Tony and his dad will reunite in the episode, which is slated for January.
Personal life
Marriages and relationships
Wagner had a 4 year romantic relationship with Barbara Stanwyck after they acted together in the movie Titanic. Because of the age difference - he was 22, she was 45 - they kept the affair secret to avoid damage to their careers. When the relationship ended, he graduated to young actresses including Joan Collins and Debbie Reynolds, eventually becoming lasting friends with both.
Wagner became involved with teen actress Natalie Wood and married her on December 28, 1957. The couple soon became involved in financial troubles. At Fox, Wagner's career was slowly being overtaken by newer actors such as Marlon Brando and Paul Newman. The two separated in September 1961 and divorced on April 27, 1962. Wagner, with his career stalled due to a lack of studio support, broke his studio contract with 20th Century Fox. and moved to Europe in search of better film roles.
While in Europe he met an old friend, actress Marion Marshall. After a brief courtship, Wagner, Marshall, and her two children from her marriage to Stanley Donen, in the spring of 1963 moved back to America. Wagner and Marshall married on July 22, 1963 in the Bronx Courthouse. Soon after, they had a daughter, Katie Wagner (born May 11, 1964). The two were together for nearly nine years before they separated in late 1970. They were divorced on April 26, 1971. He then had a relationship with Tina Sinatra.
Wagner kept in contact with Natalie Wood, whose short-lived marriage to Richard Gregson ended in early 1972. Wagner remarried her on July 16, 1972 in a ceremony on a friend's yacht The Ramblin' Rose. On March 9, 1974, the couple had their only child, daughter Courtney. On November 29, 1981, Natalie Wood drowned near their yacht Splendour while moored near Catalina Island with Wagner and Christopher Walken, who was co-starring with her in the motion picture Brainstorm. Wagner was devastated by her death and later stated in his autobiography Pieces of My Heart and in several interviews that he went through a daze between the tragedy and her funeral then spent eight days in bed. He subsequently became the legal guardian of Wood's daughter Natasha Gregson.
In early 1982, Wagner began a relationship with actress Jill St. John, who coincidentally was a childhood friend of Natalie Wood and Wagner's Hart to Hart co-star Stefanie Powers. After an eight-year courtship, they were married on May 26, 1990. In the spring of 2000, St. John herself would become involved in an altercation with Lana Wood during a cover shoot for Vanity Fair featuring the actresses of the long running James Bond series. The two women co-starred in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds are Forever.
On September 21, 2006, he became a first time grandfather when his daughter, Katie, gave birth to a son, Riley Wagner-Lewis.
Wagner maintains residences in Los Angeles, California and Aspen, Colorado.
Wagner is currently pitching for a reverse mortgage company, the Senior Lending Network.
Aaron Spelling lawsuit
In June 2000, Wagner sued Aaron Spelling Productions for $20 million for breach of contract and fraud, claiming he had been cheated out of profits from the Fox television series Beverly Hills, 90210. The dispute centered on an agreement between Wagner and the show's creator-producer Aaron Spelling.
In 1988, Wagner agreed to become involved in Spelling's television series Angels 88, then in development, in which Spelling had agreed Wagner would receive a 7.5% gross profit for his participation, regardless of services rendered. However, when the series was initially picked up by Fox and later dropped in favor of Beverly Hills, 90210, Wagner claimed he was entitled to the rights previously agreed upon in their 1988 agreement.
Filmography
Wagner's career as a supporting player in movies was solid in the 1950s, but declined in the 1960s, and he turned to television with great success. His notable roles include:
* Pvt. Coffman in Halls of Montezuma (1951)
* Willie Little in Stars and Stripes Forever (1952)
* Tony Petrakis in Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953)
* Gifford "Giff" Rogers in Titanic (1953)
* Joe Devereaux in Broken Lance (1954)
* Prince Valiant in Prince Valiant (1954)
* Josh Tanner in White Feather (1955)
* Bud Corliss in A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
* Sam Gifford in Between Heaven and Hell (1956)
* Christopher Teller in The Mountain (1956)
* Jesse James in The True Story of Jesse James, directed by Nicholas Ray (1957)
* Lt. Pell in The Hunters (1958)
* Chad Bixby, based on Chet Baker in All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960)
* Lt Ed Boland in The War Lover (1962)
* George Lytton in The Pink Panther (1963) and Curse of the Pink Panther (1983)
* Allan Taggert in Harper (1966)
* Mike Banning in Banning (1967)
* Luther Erding in Winning (1969)
* Alexander Mundy in It Takes a Thief (1968–70)
* David Corey in The Name of the Game (1970–1971)
* Dan Bigelow in The Towering Inferno (1974)
* Brick Pollitt in Laurence Olivier Presents: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976) (with then wife Natalie Wood and Laurence Olivier)
* Pete T. Ryan in Switch (1975–1978)
* Kevin Harrison in The Concorde ... Airport '79 (1979)
* Jonathan Hart in Hart to Hart (1979–1984)
* Mike Slade in Windmills of the Gods (1988)
* Bill Krieger in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)
* Number Two in the Austin Powers movies (1997, 1999, 2002)
* Tom Baxter in Wild Things (1998)
* Digicron President in Fatal Error (1999)
* Amos in Man of Faith (2005)
* President James Garfield in Netherbeast Incorporated (2007)
* Mr. Wilson in A Dennis the Menace Christmas (2007)
Other roles
* Kenny Walsh in the episode "And God Created Vanity" in the NBC medical drama about psychiatry, The Eleventh Hour (1963)
* Flight Lieutenant/Major Phil Carrington in the BBC series Colditz (1972–1974)
* Jack Gates in Delirious (1991) (uncredited)
* Guest starred as Mickey's father in the Seinfeld episode "The Yada Yada" (1997)
* Guest starred as Jack Fairfield in Hope & Faith (2003)
* Guest starred in Hollywood Homicide (2003)
* Alex Avery in the tv series Las Vegas episode Cash Springs Eternal (2006)
* Guest starred as Teddy, the boyfriend of Alan's and Charlie's mother in Two and a Half Men (2007-2008)
* Guest starred as Anthony DiNozzo Sr. in "NCIS" (2010)
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He is one of my wife's favorites.
My sister had the album. A few years ago, I purchased it on CD. As I was listening to it, I didn't realized that I basically knew the entire album. I guess my sister played it THAT MUCH when I was a kid.
Cat
It's one of those albums that always appears in the list of "Most popular 70s albums"
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/10/10 at 2:52 pm
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Great beard!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/11/10 at 6:50 am
The word of the day...Phonograph
A phonograph is a record player
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/11/10 at 6:54 am
The person who was born on this day...Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor, scientist and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (now Edison, New Jersey) by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.
Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator. Edison originated the concept and implementation of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories – a crucial development in the modern industrialized world. His first power station was on Manhattan Island, New York.
Edison became a telegraph operator after he saved three-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from being struck by a runaway train. Jimmie's father, station agent J.U. MacKenzie of Mount Clemens, Michigan, was so grateful that he trained Edison as a telegraph operator. Edison's first telegraphy job away from Port Huron was at Stratford Junction, Ontario, on the Grand Trunk Railway. In 1866, at the age of 19, Thomas Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where, as an employee of Western Union, he worked the Associated Press bureau news wire. Edison requested the night shift, which allowed him plenty of time to spend at his two favorite pastimes—reading and experimenting. Eventually, the latter pre-occupation cost him his job. One night in 1867, he was working with a lead-acid battery when he spilled sulfuric acid onto the floor. It ran between the floorboards and onto his boss's desk below. The next morning Edison was fired.
One of his mentors during those early years was a fellow telegrapher and inventor named Franklin Leonard Pope, who allowed the impoverished youth to live and work in the basement of his Elizabeth, New Jersey home. Some of Edison's earliest inventions were related to telegraphy, including a stock ticker. His first patent was for the electric vote recorder, (U. S. Patent 90,646), which was granted on June 1, 1869.
Marriages and children
Mina Edison in 1906
On December 25, 1871, Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell, whom he had met two months earlier as she was an employee at one of his shops. They had three children:
* Marion Estelle Edison (1873–1965), nicknamed "Dot"
* Thomas Alva Edison, Jr. (1876–1935), nicknamed "Dash"
* William Leslie Edison (1878–1937) Inventor, graduate of the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, 1900.
Mary Edison died on August 9, 1884, possibly from a brain tumor.
On February 24, 1886, at the age of thirty nine, Edison married 20-year-old Mina Miller in Akron, Ohio. She was the daughter of inventor Lewis Miller, co-founder of the Chautauqua Institution and a benefactor of Methodist charities. They also had three children:
* Madeleine Edison (1888–1979), who married John Eyre Sloane.
* Charles Edison (1890–1969), who took over the company upon his father's death and who later was elected Governor of New Jersey. He also took charge of his father's experimental laboratories in West Orange.
* Theodore Edison (1898–1992), (MIT Physics 1923), had over 80 patents to his credit.
Mina outlived Thomas Edison, dying on August 24, 1947.
Beginning his career
Photograph of Edison with his phonograph, taken by Mathew Brady in 1877
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Play sound
Thomas Edison reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
Problems listening to this file? See media help.
Thomas Edison began his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey, with the automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices, but the invention which first gained him fame was the phonograph in 1877. This accomplishment was so unexpected by the public at large as to appear almost magical. Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park," New Jersey, where he lived. His first phonograph recorded on tinfoil around a grooved cylinder and had poor sound quality. The tinfoil recordings could be replayed only a few times. In the 1880s, a redesigned model using wax-coated cardboard cylinders was produced by Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell, and Charles Tainter. This was one reason that Thomas Edison continued work on his own "Perfected Phonograph."
Menlo Park (1876–1881)
Edison's major innovation was the first industrial research lab, which was built in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It was built with the funds from the sale of Edison's quadruplex telegraph. After his demonstration of the telegraph, Edison was not sure that his original plan to sell it for $4,000 to $5,000 was right, so he asked Western Union to make a bid. He was surprised to hear them offer $10,000, which he gratefully accepted. The quadruplex telegraph was Edison's first big financial success, and Menlo Park became the first institution set up with the specific purpose of producing constant technological innovation and improvement. Edison was legally attributed with most of the inventions produced there, though many employees carried out research and development work under his direction. His staff was generally told to carry out his directions in conducting research, and he drove them hard to produce results. The large research group included engineers and other workers.
Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory, removed to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. (Note the organ against the back wall)
William J. Hammer, a consulting electrical engineer, began his duties as a laboratory assistant to Edison in December 1879. He assisted in experiments on the telephone, phonograph, electric railway, iron ore separator, electric lighting, and other developing inventions. However, Hammer worked primarily on the incandescent electric lamp and was put in charge of tests and records on that device. In 1880, he was appointed chief engineer of the Edison Lamp Works. In his first year, the plant under General Manager Francis Robbins Upton turned out 50,000 lamps. According to Edison, Hammer was "a pioneer of incandescent electric lighting".
Thomas Edison's first successful light bulb model, used in public demonstration at Menlo Park, December 1879
Nearly all of Edison's patents were utility patents, which were protected for a 17-year period and included inventions or processes that are electrical, mechanical, or chemical in nature. About a dozen were design patents, which protect an ornamental design for up to a 14-year period. As in most patents, the inventions he described were improvements over prior art. The phonograph patent, in contrast, was unprecedented as describing the first device to record and reproduce sounds. Edison did not invent the first electric light bulb, but instead invented the first commercially practical incandescent light. Several designs had already been developed by earlier inventors including the patent he allegedly purchased from Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans. Others who developed early and not commercially practical incandescent electric lamps included Humphry Davy, James Bowman Lindsay, Moses G. Farmer, William E. Sawyer, Joseph Swan and Heinrich Göbel. Some of these early bulbs had such flaws as an extremely short life, high expense to produce, and high electric current drawn, making them difficult to apply on a large scale commercially. In 1878, Edison applied the term filament to the element of glowing wire carrying the current, although the English inventor Joseph Swan had used the term prior to this. Swan developed an incandescent light with a long lasting filament at about the same time as Edison, but it lacked the high resistance needed for central station DC service. Edison took the features of these earlier designs and set his workers to the task of creating longer-lasting bulbs. By 1879, he had produced a new concept: a high resistance lamp in a very high vacuum, which would burn for hundreds of hours. While the earlier inventors had produced electric lighting in laboratory conditions, dating back to a demonstration of a glowing wire by Alessandro Volta in 1800, Edison concentrated on commercial application, and was able to sell the concept to homes and businesses by mass-producing relatively long-lasting light bulbs and creating a complete system for the generation and distribution of electricity.
In just over a decade Edison's Menlo Park laboratory had expanded to occupy two city blocks. Edison said he wanted the lab to have "a stock of almost every conceivable material". A newspaper article printed in 1887 reveals the seriousness of his claim, stating the lab contained "eight thousand kinds of chemicals, every kind of screw made, every size of needle, every kind of cord or wire, hair of humans, horses, hogs, cows, rabbits, goats, minx, camels ... silk in every texture, cocoons, various kinds of hoofs, shark's teeth, deer horns, tortoise shell ... cork, resin, varnish and oil, ostrich feathers, a peacock's tail, jet, amber, rubber, all ores ..." and the list goes on.
Over his desk, Edison displayed a placard with Sir Joshua Reynolds' famous quote: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking." This slogan was reputedly posted at several other locations throughout the facility.
With Menlo Park, Edison had created the first industrial laboratory concerned with creating knowledge and then controlling its application.
Carbon telephone transmitter
In 1877–1878, Edison invented and developed the carbon microphone used in all telephones along with the Bell receiver until the 1980s. After protracted patent litigation, in 1892 a federal court ruled that Edison—and not Emile Berliner—was the inventor of the carbon microphone. The carbon microphone was also used in radio broadcasting and public address work through the 1920s.
Electric light
Edison in 1878
Edison speech, 1920s.ogg
Play video
Video clip of Thomas Edison talking about the invention of the light bulb, late 1920s
Main article: Incandescent light bulb
After many experiments with platinum and other metal filaments, Edison returned to a carbon filament. The first successful test was on October 22, 1879; it lasted 40 hours. Edison continued to improve this design and by November 4, 1879, filed for U.S. patent 223,898 (granted on January 27, 1880) for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected to platina contact wires". Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament including "cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways", it was not until several months after the patent was granted that Edison and his team discovered a carbonized bamboo filament that could last over 1,200 hours. The idea of using this particular raw material originated from Edison's recalling his examination of a few threads from a bamboo fishing pole while relaxing on the shore of Battle Lake in the present-day state of Wyoming, where he and other members of a scientific team had traveled so that they could clearly observe a total eclipse of the sun on July 29, 1878, from the Continental Divide.
U.S. Patent#223898: Electric-Lamp. Issued January 27, 1880.
Edison allegedly bought light bulb U.S. patent 181,613 of Henry Woodward that was issued August 29, 1876, and obtained an exclusive license to Woodward's Canadian patent. These patents covered a carbon rod in a nitrogen filled glass cylinder, and differed substantially from the first commercially practical bulb invented by Edison.
In 1878, Edison formed the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City with several financiers, including J. P. Morgan and the members of the Vanderbilt family. Edison made the first public demonstration of his incandescent light bulb on December 31, 1879, in Menlo Park. It was during this time that he said: "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles."
George Westinghouse's company bought Philip Diehl's competing induction lamp patent rights (1882) for $25,000, forcing the holders of the Edison patent to charge a more reasonable rate for the use of the Edison patent rights and lowering the price of the electric lamp.
On October 8, 1883, the U.S. patent office ruled that Edison's patent was based on the work of William Sawyer and was therefore invalid. Litigation continued for nearly six years, until October 6, 1889, when a judge ruled that Edison's electric light improvement claim for "a filament of carbon of high resistance" was valid. To avoid a possible court battle with Joseph Swan, whose British patent had been awarded a year before Edison's, he and Swan formed a joint company called Ediswan to manufacture and market the invention in Britain.
Mahen Theatre in Brno in what is now the Czech Republic, was the first public building in the world to use Edison's electric lamps, with the installation supervised by Edison's assistant in the invention of the lamp, Francis Jehl.
Electric power distribution
Edison patented a system for electricity distribution in 1880, which was essential to capitalize on the invention of the electric lamp. On December 17, 1880, Edison founded the Edison Illuminating Company. The company established the first investor-owned electric utility in 1882 on Pearl Street Station, New York City. It was on September 4, 1882, that Edison switched on his Pearl Street generating station's electrical power distribution system, which provided 110 volts direct current (DC) to 59 customers in lower Manhattan.
Earlier in the year, in January 1882 he had switched on the first steam generating power station at Holborn Viaduct in London. The DC supply system provided electricity supplies to street lamps and several private dwellings within a short distance of the station. On January 19, 1883, the first standardized incandescent electric lighting system employing overhead wires began service in Roselle, New Jersey. The key to Edison's fortunes was telegraphy. With knowledge gained from years of working as a telegraph operator, he learned the basics of electricity. This allowed him to make his early fortune with the stock ticker, the first electricity-based broadcast system. Edison patented the sound recording and reproducing phonograph in 1878. Edison was also granted a patent for the motion picture camera or "Kinetograph". He did the electromechanical design, while his employee W.K.L. Dickson, a photographer, worked on the photographic and optical development. Much of the credit for the invention belongs to Dickson. In 1891, Thomas Edison built a Kinetoscope, or peep-hole viewer. This device was installed in penny arcades, where people could watch short, simple films. The kinetograph and kinetoscope were both first publicly exhibited May 20, 1891.
On August 9, 1892, Edison received a patent for a two-way telegraph. In April 1896, Thomas Armat's Vitascope, manufactured by the Edison factory and marketed in Edison's name, was used to project motion pictures in public screenings in New York City. Later he exhibited motion pictures with voice soundtrack on cylinder recordings, mechanically synchronized with the film.
Officially the kinetoscope entered Europe when the rich American Businessman Irving T. Bush (1869–1948) bought from the Continental Commerce Company of Franck Z. Maguire and Joseph D. Bachus a dozen machines. Bush placed from October 17, 1894, the first kinetoscopes in London. At the same time the French company Kinétoscope Edison Michel et Alexis Werner bought these machines for the market in France. In the last three months of 1894 The Continental Commerce Company sold hundreds of kinetoscopes in Europe (i.e. the Netherlands and Italy). In Germany and in Austria-Hungary the kinetoscope was introduced by the Deutsche-österreichische-Edison-Kinetoscop Gesellschaft, founded by the Ludwig Stollwerck of the Schokoladen-Süsswarenfabrik Stollwerck & Co of Cologne. The first kinetoscopes arrived in Belgium at the Fairs in early 1895. The Edison's Kinétoscope Français, a Belgian company, was founded in Brussels on January 15, 1895, with the rights to sell the kinetoscopes in Monaco, France and the French colonies. The main investors in this company were Belgian industrialists. On May 14, 1895, the Edison's Kinétoscope Belge was founded in Brussels. The businessman Ladislas-Victor Lewitzki, living in London but active in Belgium and France, took the initiative in starting this business. He had contacts with Leon Gaumont and the American Mutoscope and Biograph Co. In 1898 he also became a shareholder of the Biograph and Mutoscope Company for France.
In 1901, he visited the Sudbury area in Ontario, Canada, as a mining prospector, and is credited with the original discovery of the Falconbridge ore body. His attempts to actually mine the ore body were not successful, however, and he abandoned his mining claim in 1903. A street in Falconbridge, as well as the Edison Building, which served as the head office of Falconbridge Mines, are named for him.
In 1902, agents of Thomas Edison bribed a theater owner in London for a copy of A Trip to the Moon by Georges Méliès. Edison then made hundreds of copies and showed them in New York City. Méliès received no compensation. He was counting on taking the film to the US and recapture its huge cost by showing it throughout the country when he realized it had already been shown there by Edison. This effectively bankrupted Méliès. Other exhibitors similarly routinely copied and exhibited each others films. To better protect the copyrights on his films, Edison deposited prints of them on long strips of photographic paper with the U.S. copyright office. Many of these paper prints survived longer and in better condition than the actual films of that era.
Edison's favourite movie was The Birth of a Nation. He thought that talkies had "spoiled everything" for him. "There isn't any good acting on the screen. They concentrate on the voice now and have forgotten how to act. I can sense it more than you because I am deaf."
In 1908, Edison started the Motion Picture Patents Company, which was a conglomerate of nine major film studios (commonly known as the Edison Trust). Thomas Edison was the first honorary fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, which was founded in 1929.
Several places have been named after Edison, most notably the town of Edison, New Jersey. Thomas Edison State College, a nationally known college for adult learners, is in Trenton, New Jersey. Two community colleges are named for him: Edison State College in Fort Myers, Florida, and Edison Community College in Piqua, Ohio. There are numerous high schools named after Edison; see Edison High School.
The City Hotel, in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, was the first building to be lit with Edison's three-wire system. The hotel was re-named The Hotel Edison, and retains that name today.
Three bridges around the United States have been named in his honor (see Edison Bridge).
Museums and memorials
In West Orange, New Jersey, the 13.5 acre (5.5 ha) Glenmont estate is maintained and operated by the National Park Service as the Edison National Historic Site. The Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum is in the town of Edison, New Jersey. In Beaumont, Texas, there is an Edison Museum, though Edison never visited there. The Port Huron Museum, in Port Huron, Michigan, restored the original depot that Thomas Edison worked out of as a young newsbutcher. The depot has been named the Thomas Edison Depot Museum. The town has many Edison historical landmarks, including the graves of Edison's parents, and a monument along the St. Clair River. Edison's influence can be seen throughout this city of 32,000. In Detroit, the Edison Memorial Fountain in Grand Circus Park was created to honor his achievements. The limestone fountain was dedicated October 21, 1929.
Companies bearing Edison's name
* Edison General Electric, merged with Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric
* Commonwealth Edison, now part of Exelon
* Consolidated Edison
* Edison International
o Southern California Edison
o Edison Mission Energy
o Edison Capital
* Detroit Edison, a unit of DTE Energy
* Edison Sault Electric Company, a unit of Wisconsin Energy Corporation
* FirstEnergy
o Metropolitan Edison
o Ohio Edison
o Toledo Edison
* Edison S.p.A., a unit of Italenergia
* Boston Edison, a unit of NSTAR, formerly known as the Edison Electric Illuminating Company
* WEEI radio station in Boston, established by the Edison Electric Illuminating Company (hence the call letters)
Awards named in honor of Edison
The Edison Medal was created on February 11, 1904, by a group of Edison's friends and associates. Four years later the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), later IEEE, entered into an agreement with the group to present the medal as its highest award. The first medal was presented in 1909 to Elihu Thomson and, in a twist of fate, was awarded to Nikola Tesla in 1917. It is the oldest award in the area of electrical and electronics engineering, and is presented annually "for a career of meritorious achievement in electrical science, electrical engineering or the electrical arts."
In the Netherlands, the major music awards are named the Edison Award after him.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers concedes the Thomas A. Edison Patent Award to individual patents since 2000.
Honors and awards given to Edison
The President of the Third French Republic, Jules Grévy, on the recommendation of his Minister of Foreign Affairs Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire and with the presentations of the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs Louis Cochery, designated Edison with the distinction of an 'Officeer of the Legion of Honour' (Légion d'honneur) by decree on November 10, 1881;
Decree awarding Helmholtz, Bell, and Edison, the Legion of Honour
French Presidential Decree -Award of Legion of Honour to Helholtz, Bell and Edison -10 November 1881 Pg. 1.jpg
French Presidential Decree -Award of Legion of Honour to Helholtz, Bell and Edison -10 November 1881 Pg. 3.jpg
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In 1983, the United States Congress, pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 140 (Public Law 97—198), designated February 11, Edison's birthday, as National Inventor's Day.
In 1887, Edison won the Matteucci Medal. In 1890, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Edison was ranked thirty-fifth on Michael H. Hart's 1978 book The 100, a list of the most influential figures in history. Life magazine (USA), in a special double issue in 1997, placed Edison first in the list of the "100 Most Important People in the Last 1000 Years", noting that the light bulb he promoted "lit up the world". In the 2005 television series The Greatest American, he was voted by viewers as the fifteenth-greatest.
In 2008, Edison was inducted in the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Other items named after Edison
The United States Navy named the USS Edison (DD-439), a Gleaves class destroyer, in his honor in 1940. The ship was decommissioned a few months after the end of World War II. In 1962, the Navy commissioned USS Thomas A. Edison (SSBN-610), a fleet ballistic missile nuclear-powered submarine. Decommissioned on December 1, 1983, Thomas A. Edison was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on April 30, 1986. She went through the Navy's Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Bremerton, Washington, beginning on October 1, 1996. When she finished the program on December 1, 1997, she ceased to exist as a complete ship and was listed as scrapped.
In popular culture
Main article: Thomas Edison in popular culture
Thomas Edison has appeared in popular culture as a character in novels, films, comics and video games. His prolific inventing helped make him an icon and he has made appearances in popular culture during his lifetime down to the present day. His history with Nikola Tesla has also provided dramatic tension and is a theme returned to numerous times.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/11/10 at 7:00 am
The person who died on this day...Frank Herbert
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. (October 8, 1920 – February 11, 1986) was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels. The Dune saga, set in the distant future and taking place over millennia, deals with themes such as human survival and evolution, ecology, and the intersection of religion, politics and power. Dune itself is the "best-selling science fiction novel of all time," and the series is widely considered to be among the classics in the genre.
n 1947 Frank Herbert sold his first science fiction story, "Looking for Something", to Startling Stories.
Frank Herbert did not graduate from college, according to his son Brian, because he wanted to study only what interested him and so did not complete the required courses. After leaving college he returned to journalism and worked at the Seattle Star and the Oregon Statesman; he was a writer and editor for the San Francisco Examiner's California Living magazine for a decade.
His career as a novelist began with the publication of The Dragon in the Sea in 1955, where he used the environment of a 21st century submarine as a means to explore sanity and madness. The book predicted worldwide conflicts over oil consumption and production. It was a critical success but not a major commercial one.
Florence, Oregon, with sand dunes that served as an inspiration for the Dune saga
Herbert began researching Dune in 1959 and was able to devote himself wholeheartedly to his writing career because his wife returned to work full time as an advertising writer for department stores, becoming the main breadwinner during the 1960s. Herbert later related in an interview with Willis E. McNeilly that the novel originated when he was supposed to do a magazine article on sand dunes in the Oregon Dunes near Florence, Oregon, but he became too involved in it and ended up with far more raw material than needed for a single article. The article, entitled "They Stopped the Moving Sands," was never written, but it did serve as the seed for the ideas that led to Dune.
Dune took six years of research and writing to complete. Far longer than commercial science fiction of the time was supposed to run, it was serialized in Analog magazine in two separate parts ("Dune World" and "Prophet of Dune"), in 1963 and 1965. It was then rejected by nearly twenty book publishers before finally being accepted. One editor prophetically wrote back "I might be making the mistake of the decade, but..." before rejecting the manuscript.
Chilton, a minor publishing house in Philadelphia known mainly for its auto-repair manuals, gave Herbert a $7,500 advance, and Dune was soon a critical success. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1965 and shared the Hugo Award in 1966 with ...And Call Me Conrad by Roger Zelazny. Dune was the first major ecological science fiction novel, embracing a multitude of sweeping, inter-related themes and multiple character viewpoints, a method that ran through all Herbert's mature work.
The book was not an instant bestseller. By 1968 Herbert had made $20,000 from it, far more than most science fiction novels of the time were generating, but not enough to let him take up full-time writing. However, the publication of Dune did open doors for him. He was the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's education writer from 1969 to 1972 and lecturer in general studies and interdisciplinary studies at the University of Washington (1970 – 1972). He worked in Vietnam and Pakistan as social and ecological consultant in 1972. In 1973 he was director-photographer of the television show The Tillers.
A man is a fool not to put everything he has, at any given moment, into what he is creating. You're there now doing the thing on paper. You're not killing the goose, you're just producing an egg. So I don't worry about inspiration, or anything like that. It's a matter of just sitting down and working. I have never had the problem of a writing block. I've heard about it. I've felt reluctant to write on some days, for whole weeks, or sometimes even longer. I'd much rather go fishing, for example, or go sharpen pencils, or go swimming, or what not. But, later, coming back and reading what I have produced, I am unable to detect the difference between what came easily and when I had to sit down and say, "Well, now it's writing time and now I'll write." There's no difference on paper between the two.
– Frank Herbert
By 1972, Herbert retired from newspaper writing and became a full-time fiction writer. During the 1970s and 1980s, Herbert enjoyed considerable commercial success as an author. He divided his time between homes in Hawaii and Washington's Olympic Peninsula; his home on the peninsula was intended to be an "ecological demonstration project". During this time he wrote numerous books and pushed ecological and philosophical ideas. He continued his Dune saga, following it with Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, and God Emperor of Dune. Other highlights were The Dosadi Experiment, The Godmakers, The White Plague and the books he wrote in partnership with Bill Ransom: The Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect, and The Ascension Factor which were sequels to Destination: Void.
Herbert's change in fortune was shadowed by tragedy. In 1974, Beverly underwent an operation for cancer. She lived ten more years, but her health was adversely impacted by the surgery. During this period, Herbert was the featured speaker at the Octocon II science fiction convention at the El Rancho Tropicana in Santa Rosa, California in October 1978. Beverly Herbert died on February 7, 1984, the same year that Heretics of Dune was published. In his afterword to 1985's Chapterhouse Dune, Frank Herbert wrote a moving eulogy for his wife of 38 years.
1984 was a tumultuous year in Herbert's life. During this same year of his wife's death, his career took off with the release of David Lynch's film version of Dune. Despite high expectations, a big-budget production design and an A-list cast, the movie drew mostly poor reviews in the United States. However, despite a disappointing response in the USA, the film was a critical and commercial success in Europe and Japan.
After Beverly's death, Herbert married Theresa Shackleford in 1985, the year he published Chapterhouse Dune, which tied up many of the saga's story threads (though ending with a cliffhanger intended to lead into his planned Dune 7). This would be Herbert's final single work (the anthology Eye was published that year, and Man of Two Worlds was published in 1986). He died of a massive pulmonary embolism while recovering from surgery for pancreatic cancer on February 11, 1986 in Madison, Wisconsin age 65.
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f156/rjrunar/Frank_Herbert.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/anc7459/frank_herbert.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b136/whiteminority339/Frank_Herbert.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/11/10 at 8:05 am
The word of the day...Phonograph
A phonograph is a record player
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o159/stalkerbynitee/phonograph.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k299/suitofrags/Phonograph.gif
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l139/jvmyka/phonograph.jpg
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z279/edceteraLJ/phonograph.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj57/zombiechik7/Birdcage%20Theater/Phonograph.jpg
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii151/cameramanlink/Phonograph.jpg
http://i647.photobucket.com/albums/uu194/electriclotustattoo/09.jpg
http://i672.photobucket.com/albums/vv84/datopalooza/nipper1.jpg
Wow,how times have changed since the days of The Phonograph. :o
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/11/10 at 10:20 am
Wow,how times have changed since the days of The Phonograph. :o
That's for sure.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/11/10 at 12:56 pm
The word of the day...Phonograph
A phonograph is a record player
http://i672.photobucket.com/albums/vv84/datopalooza/nipper1.jpg
The dog's name was Nipper!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/11/10 at 1:03 pm
British Person of the Day: Mary Quant
Mary Quant, OBE, FCSD (born 11 February 1934 in Blackheath, Kent, England) is a British fashion designer, one of the many designers who took credit for inventing the miniskirt and hot pants. Born to Welsh parents, Quant went to Blackheath High School then studied illustration at Goldsmiths College before taking a career with a couture milliner. She is also famed for her work on pop art in fashion.
Early career
In November 1955, she teamed up with her husband, Alexander Plunkett-Grene, and a former solicitor, Archie Mcnair, to open a clothes shop on the Kings Road in London called Bazaar. Bazaar's best sellers were small white plastic collars to brighten up black dresses or a black sweat shirt. Black stretch stockings were popular too.
Following the positive reaction to a pair of "mad house pyjamas" designed for the opening, and dissatisfied with the variety of clothes available to her, Quant decided to make her own range of clothing. Initially working solo, she was soon employing a handful of machinists, and by 1966 she was working with 18 different manufacturers concurrently.
She has one son, Orlando.
Miniskirt
Skirts had been getting shorter since about 1958 – a development Mary Quant considered to be practical and liberating, allowing women the ability to run for a bus. The miniskirt, for which she is arguably most famous, became one of the defining fashions of the 1960s. The miniskirt was developed separately by André Courrèges and John Bates, and there is disagreement as to who came up with the idea first. Like most fashion, the short- and ever-shorter skirt was evolving already among individual fashion-minded young women: The designers who adapted it just helped spread the style and, in Quant's case, gave it a name. Mary Quant named the miniskirt after her favorite make of car, the Mini; she loved this car so much, she had one designed especially for her.
In addition to the miniskirt, Mary Quant is often credited with inventing the coloured and patterned tights that tended to accompany the garment, although these are also attributed to Cristobal Balenciaga or John Bates.
Later career
In the late 1960s, Quant popularised hot pants. Through the 1970s and 1980s she concentrated on household goods and make-up, rather than just her clothing lines. At a talk at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2007 she claimed to have invented duvet covers.
In 1988, Quant designed the interior of the Mini (1000) Designer (Originally dubbed the Mini Quant, this name was switched when popularity charts were set against having Quant's name on the car). It featured black and white striped seats with red trimming. The seatbelts were red, and the driving and passenger seats had Quant's signature on the upper left quadrant. The steering wheel had Quant's signature daisy and the bonnet badge had "Mary Quant" written over the signature name. The headlight housings, wheel arches, door handles and bumpers were all nimbus grey, rather than the more common chrome or black finishes. 2000 were released in the UK on 15 June 1988, a number were also released on to foreign markets; however, the numbers for these are hard to come by. The special edition Mini came in two body colours, jet black and diamond white.
She is also a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers, and winner of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award.
In 2000, she resigned as director of Mary Quant Ltd., her cosmetics company, after a Japanese buy-out. There are over 200 Mary Quant Colour shops in Japan, where Quant fashions continue to enjoy more popularity.
http://succesdesign.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/mary_quant.jpg
http://www.mookychick.co.uk/images/style/mary-quant-mini4.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/11/10 at 3:53 pm
The dog's name was Nipper!
Why was he looking at a phonograph?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/11/10 at 3:59 pm
Why was he looking at a phonograph?
The dog is listening, not looking.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/11/10 at 4:03 pm
The dog is listening, not looking.
Oh I See.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/11/10 at 5:24 pm
This is in Albany, NY.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3308/3579214816_deb066f260.jpg
My grandparents (both sets) lived in Albany and every time we went to visit them, we would always go by this building. I always loved seeing Little Nipper (only in this case it should have been BIG Nipper :D ;D ;D ;D ) on top of the building.
BTW, this is NOT one of my photos.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/11/10 at 5:33 pm
This is in Albany, NY.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3308/3579214816_deb066f260.jpg
My grandparents (both sets) lived in Albany and every time we went to visit them, we would always go by this building. I always loved seeing Little Nipper (only in this case it should have been BIG Nipper :D ;D ;D ;D ) on top of the building.
BTW, this is NOT one of my photos.
Cat
I have never seen Nipper so big before.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/11/10 at 5:43 pm
I have never seen Nipper so big before.
I have been to Albany twice, but never noticed this.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/11/10 at 6:49 pm
British Person of the Day: Mary Quant
Mary Quant, OBE, FCSD (born 11 February 1934 in Blackheath, Kent, England) is a British fashion designer, one of the many designers who took credit for inventing the miniskirt and hot pants. Born to Welsh parents, Quant went to Blackheath High School then studied illustration at Goldsmiths College before taking a career with a couture milliner. She is also famed for her work on pop art in fashion.
Early career
In November 1955, she teamed up with her husband, Alexander Plunkett-Grene, and a former solicitor, Archie Mcnair, to open a clothes shop on the Kings Road in London called Bazaar. Bazaar's best sellers were small white plastic collars to brighten up black dresses or a black sweat shirt. Black stretch stockings were popular too.
Following the positive reaction to a pair of "mad house pyjamas" designed for the opening, and dissatisfied with the variety of clothes available to her, Quant decided to make her own range of clothing. Initially working solo, she was soon employing a handful of machinists, and by 1966 she was working with 18 different manufacturers concurrently.
She has one son, Orlando.
Miniskirt
Skirts had been getting shorter since about 1958 – a development Mary Quant considered to be practical and liberating, allowing women the ability to run for a bus. The miniskirt, for which she is arguably most famous, became one of the defining fashions of the 1960s. The miniskirt was developed separately by André Courrèges and John Bates, and there is disagreement as to who came up with the idea first. Like most fashion, the short- and ever-shorter skirt was evolving already among individual fashion-minded young women: The designers who adapted it just helped spread the style and, in Quant's case, gave it a name. Mary Quant named the miniskirt after her favorite make of car, the Mini; she loved this car so much, she had one designed especially for her.
In addition to the miniskirt, Mary Quant is often credited with inventing the coloured and patterned tights that tended to accompany the garment, although these are also attributed to Cristobal Balenciaga or John Bates.
Later career
In the late 1960s, Quant popularised hot pants. Through the 1970s and 1980s she concentrated on household goods and make-up, rather than just her clothing lines. At a talk at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2007 she claimed to have invented duvet covers.
In 1988, Quant designed the interior of the Mini (1000) Designer (Originally dubbed the Mini Quant, this name was switched when popularity charts were set against having Quant's name on the car). It featured black and white striped seats with red trimming. The seatbelts were red, and the driving and passenger seats had Quant's signature on the upper left quadrant. The steering wheel had Quant's signature daisy and the bonnet badge had "Mary Quant" written over the signature name. The headlight housings, wheel arches, door handles and bumpers were all nimbus grey, rather than the more common chrome or black finishes. 2000 were released in the UK on 15 June 1988, a number were also released on to foreign markets; however, the numbers for these are hard to come by. The special edition Mini came in two body colours, jet black and diamond white.
She is also a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers, and winner of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award.
In 2000, she resigned as director of Mary Quant Ltd., her cosmetics company, after a Japanese buy-out. There are over 200 Mary Quant Colour shops in Japan, where Quant fashions continue to enjoy more popularity.
http://succesdesign.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/mary_quant.jpg
http://www.mookychick.co.uk/images/style/mary-quant-mini4.jpg
Nice bio Thanks Phil :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/11/10 at 6:50 pm
This is in Albany, NY.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3308/3579214816_deb066f260.jpg
My grandparents (both sets) lived in Albany and every time we went to visit them, we would always go by this building. I always loved seeing Little Nipper (only in this case it should have been BIG Nipper :D ;D ;D ;D ) on top of the building.
BTW, this is NOT one of my photos.
Cat
Is he still there?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/11/10 at 6:57 pm
Is he still there?
I think so.
http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2008/06/25/big-nipper-little-nipper
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/11/10 at 10:29 pm
I think so.
http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2008/06/25/big-nipper-little-nipper
Cat
I hate to think what would happen if it fell.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/12/10 at 2:30 am
Is he still there?
If you go to Google Maps, type in "978 Broadway, Albany, NY, United States" and drag the orange man to the indicator, and turn the image around and look upwards, Nipper can be seen.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/12/10 at 6:12 am
If you go to Google Maps, type in "978 Broadway, Albany, NY, United States" and drag the orange man to the indicator, and turn the image around and look upwards, Nipper can be seen.
Thanks Phil. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/12/10 at 6:18 am
The word or phrase of the day...Ice Storm
An ice storm occurs when frozen rain or hail blankets a region. Not only do roads freeze, but also ice coats trees, bushes and power lines. Because of the weight of the ice, an ice storm can cause tremendous damage to an area, pulling down trees and power lines. A few past ice storms have caused farmers to lose entire crops or power to be lost for many days.
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii49/daleah/IceFrontDrive.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll37/Bozgan/IMG_1838.jpg
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb282/mystang05-photo/m_icestormpart2019.jpg
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb282/mystang05-photo/m_icestormpart2023.jpg
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb282/mystang05-photo/m_icestormpart2029.jpg
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb282/mystang05-photo/m_icestormpart2030.jpg
http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/ww14/peggyvboone/icestorm1-26-09002.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n15/krummerm/Ice%20Storms/DSCN5473.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/12/10 at 6:23 am
The person born on this day...Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci (born February 12, 1980) is an American actress. Ricci received worldwide attention and praise for her performances in films such as The Addams Family (1991), its sequel Addams Family Values (1993), as Wednesday Addams, Casper (1995), The Ice Storm (1997), The Opposite of Sex (1998), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress, Sleepy Hollow (1999) and Monster (2003). She recently appeared in the films Black Snake Moan (2007), Penelope, Speed Racer (2008) and New York, I Love You (2009).
A critic for the Bergen Record discovered Ricci at age eight in a school play (The Twelve Days of Christmas) at Edgemont School in Montclair, New Jersey. The critic's son was originally cast in the role, but Ricci got him to hit her and told on him; he lost the role to her as part of his punishment. After this, she became involved in the movie business. She did several commercials starting at the age of six, until she finally got her big screen debut in Mermaids in 1990 as Cher's younger daughter. The young actress made enough of an impression to land more work; later she appeared in the video of the film's soundtrack "The Shoop Shoop Song". The following year, she starred as the morbidly precocious Wednesday Addams in the film adaptation of The Addams Family. The role would help to establish Ricci as an actress known for playing dark, unconventional characters – she went on to play Wednesday again in the film's 1993 sequel, Addams Family Values, which became another box office draw, and more screen time was provided for Ricci's performance as Wednesday.
After this, her popularity increased dramatically, and she became in high demand by the mid-1990s. Her next project, Casper, received mixed critical reviews, but was a major success at the box office, being the year's seventh highest grossing film. After Casper, she starred in Now and Then, a coming-of-age film about four 12-year-old girls and their friendship during the 1970s to the 1990s. Now and Then was another box office success, and received favourable comparisons to Stand by Me, being called "the female version" of the film, and Ricci was becoming a top box office draw. She also starred in a handful of other films with teenage roles such as Golddiggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain and That Darn Cat.
Career Breakthrough (1998–2005)
In 1997, Ricci began to appear in more adult roles, beginning with her role as the troubled, sexually curious Wendy Hood in Ang Lee's critically acclaimed The Ice Storm. Ricci subsequently appeared in films like the independent hit Buffalo '66 (in which she played Vincent Gallo's unwitting abductee-turned-girlfriend), John Waters' Pecker, and Don Roos' The Opposite of Sex (as the acid-tongued, manipulative Dede). For her performance as Dede, Ricci won acclaim and was nominated for a Golden Globe and attained the unofficial title of the Sundance Film Festival's 1998 "It" Girl. Although she missed out on an Academy Award nomination, Entertainment Weekly honored her well-received performance as one of the "Worst Oscar Snubs Ever".
Later films included Sleepy Hollow (alongside Johnny Depp), and Prozac Nation (which featured her first on-screen nude scene). She starred opposite Charlize Theron in the film Monster. During Theron's acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, she acknowledged Ricci, calling her the "unsung hero" of the film. Ricci had to turn down the role of Ronna in Go because of scheduling conflicts; the role eventually went to Sarah Polley. Ricci was turned down four times for the role of Dolores Haze in Lolita, and the role eventually went to Dominique Swain. Ricci was originally slated to play the lead in Ghost World (2001), but by the time it was filmed she was too old for the part and had moved on to other projects. Thora Birch (Ricci's co-star in Now And Then) took over the role. Ricci also turned down a role in Loser. Ricci made a cameo appearance on Beck's successful album Guero, providing vocals on "Hell Yes".
Ricci at the Gramercy Park Hotel, 2007
In February 2006, Ricci made a guest appearance as a paramedic in the ABC drama Grey's Anatomy, for which she was nominated for an Emmy award. She was a guest star for seven episodes in the last season of Ally McBeal in 2002 as Debbie 'Liza' Bump, a lawyer who works at Cage & Fish and marries Richard Fish in the last episode. It was initially hoped that Ricci and several other noted guest star appearances would boost Ally McBeal's then declining ratings.
On December 4, 1999, she appeared as the guest host on Saturday Night Live. She performed parodies of Britney Spears and the Olsen Twins. During one of her skits, she accidentally punched actress Ana Gasteyer in the face. The skit was a parody of the Sally Jessy Raphael show, in which she played a 13-year-old runaway who sleeps with dogs, and required her to fake-punch Gasteyer, but accidentally ended up really hitting Gasteyer in the eye. Although Ricci initially reacted by putting her hands over her mouth in surprise, she quickly fell back into character.
International success (2006–present)
In 2006, Ricci stated that she feels that at 5 ft 1 in (155 cm) she is "too short" to ever be an A-list actress, saying she tends "to look really small on camera". She has also said that she believes that she does not have much control over her career, specifying that she still has to audition for film parts. Her 2007 film, Black Snake Moan received mixed reviews, with rottentomatoes.com tallying an overall score of 66 percent. On the television program Ebert & Roeper, filmmaker Kevin Smith, filling in for Roger Ebert, described the film as the best of the year thus far and called it Ricci's best performance. Richard Roeper also gave the film a "thumb up" rating. The film earned $4 million, putting it in eighth place for the highest earnings in its opening weekend. For her role in Black Snake Moan, Ricci was required to lose several pounds and wore a forty-pound (18 kg) chain during filming. Apart from having to lose weight, Ricci ate only food items without any nutritional value to achieve her unhealthy appearance. Ricci has starred in Penelope, alongside Reese Witherspoon, a modern day fairytale, and in 2008, she played the female lead in The Wachowski Brothers' feature film adaptation of Speed Racer.
Ricci is currently filming the psychological thriller After.Life in New York with Liam Neeson and Justin Long, and has signed on for three episodes of TNT's crime drama Saving Grace, which recently began its second season. Ricci will play a young detective who temporarily partners with Grace, played by Holly Hunter.
Personal life
Ricci owns her own production company, Blaspheme Films, responsible for Prozac Nation and Pumpkin. Ricci told a magazine in a 2005 interview that she is a Christian. She is on the national board of VOX-Voices for Planned Parenthood. She will also be appearing in national ads for emergency contraception. She supported John Kerry's presidential bid in 2004. Ricci maintains a close friendship with former child star and actress Gaby Hoffmann, with whom she starred in Now and Then and 200 Cigarettes. She is also a friend of Black Snake Moan co-star Samuel L. Jackson.
After making the top of PETA's worst-dressed list and receiving a letter from the animal rights group, Ricci decided to give up wearing fur. Ricci also owns two dogs (The Sheriff Steve Goldburg and Buzz Goldicci).
In 2004, Ricci appeared as the first model in the Spring/ Summer 2005 Louis Vuitton show, and also appeared in advertisements for the popular French fashion house that year.
In April 2007, Ricci became the national spokesperson for RAINN, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network for the United States, which assists victims of these crimes and promotes programs that help prevent them from occurring. She cited some of her research in Black Snake Moan role as educational on the importance of the issues that RAINN deals with.
She has cited Pulp Fiction, Lord of the Rings, Gangs of New York, and My Own Private Idaho as her favorite films. She drives a Porsche Boxster. Her favorite musicians are the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty, The Ramones, R.E.M., The White Stripes, Weezer, and Pixies.
Ricci also has many tattoos: a lion on her right shoulder blade (a reference to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a favorite novel of hers as a child), a fairy on the inside of her right wrist, praying hands on her left hip (this tattoo was originally a bat), a bouquet of sweetpeas on her lower back, the words "Move or Bleed" on the left side of her ribcage, the name "Jack" on her right thigh for a dead pet, a sparrow on her right breast, and a mermaid on her left ankle.
She was briefly engaged to fellow actor Owen Benjamin.
Filmography
Film
Year Film Role Notes
1990 Mermaids Kate Flax Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress in a Supporting Role – Motion Picture
1991 The Hard Way Bonnie
The Addams Family Wednesday Addams Nominated – Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress – Motion Picture
1993 The Cemetery Club Jessica
Addams Family Values Wednesday Addams
1995 Casper Kathleen 'Kat' Harvey Nominated – Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress – Feature Film or Video
Now and Then Young Roberta Martin Nominated – Young Artist Award for Best Cast – Feature film or Video
Golddiggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain Beth Easton
1996 Bastard Out of Carolina Dee Dee
The Last of the High Kings Erin Also known as Summer Fling
1997 Little Red Riding Hood Little Red Riding Hood
That Darn Cat Patti Randall Nominated – Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actress
Nominated – Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress – Feature Film or Video
The Ice Storm Wendy Hood Nominated – Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated – Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress – Feature Film or Video
1998 Souvenir Young Orlando (voice)
Buffalo '66 Layla Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress also for The Opposite of Sex and Pecker
Seattle International Film Festival – Golden Space Needle Award – Best Actress also for The Opposite of Sex
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Lucy
The Opposite of Sex Dede Truitt Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress also for Buffalo '66 and Pecker
National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress
Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Seattle International Film Festival – Golden Space Needle Award – Best Actress also for Buffalo '66
Nominated – American Comedy Award for Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture
Nominated – Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated – Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead
Small Soldiers Gwendy Doll (voice)
Pecker Shelley Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress also for The Opposite of Sex and Buffalo '66
Desert Blue Ely Jackson
I Woke Up Early the Day I Died Teenage Hooker
1999 200 Cigarettes Val
No Vacancy Lillian
Sleepy Hollow Katrina Van Tassel Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress
Nominated – Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress
Nominated – Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress – Feature Film or Video
2000 Bless the Child Cheri Post Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress
The Man Who Cried Suzie Character born "Fegele Abramovich"
2001 All Over the Guy Rayna Wyckoff
Prozac Nation Elizabeth Wurtzel
2002 The Gathering Cassie Grant
The Laramie Project Romaine Patterson
Pumpkin Carolyn McDuffy Nominated – Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress
Miranda Miranda (Alice)
2003 Monster Selby Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss shared with Charlize Theron
Anything Else Amanda
2005 Cursed Ellie
2006 Home of the Brave Sarah Schivino
2007 Black Snake Moan Rae
2008 Penelope Penelope Wilhern
Speed Racer Trixie Fontaine Nominated – Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress
2009 New York, I Love You Camille
After.Life Anna
All's Faire in Love Kate
Television series
Year Film Role Notes
1990 H.E.L.P. Olivia 1 episode
1996 The Simpsons Erin 1 episode
voice
2002 Ally McBeal Liza Bump 7 episodes
Malcolm in the Middle Kelly 1 episode
2005 Joey Mary Teresa 1 episode
2006 Grey's Anatomy Hannah Davies 2 episodes
Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress – Drama Series
2009 Saving Grace Offcr. Abby Charles 3 episodes
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d159/adarr33/christina-ricci_2.png
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/12/10 at 6:31 am
The person who died on this day...Charles Schulz
Charles Monroe Schulz (November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist best known worldwide for his Peanuts comic strip. Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to the Saturday Evening Post; the first of seventeen single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he also contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God (Anderson).
Charlie Brown, the principal character for Peanuts, was named after a co-worker at the Art Instruction Schools; Schulz drew much more inspiration from his own life:
* Like Charlie Brown's parents, Schulz's father was a barber and his mother a housewife.
* Schulz and Charlie Brown were shy and withdrawn.
* Schulz had a dog when he was a boy, although unlike Snoopy the beagle, it was a pointer.
* References to Snoopy's brother Spike living outside of Needles, California were likely influenced by the few years (1928–1930) that the Schulz family lived there; they had moved to Needles to join other family members who had relocated from Minnesota to tend to an ill cousin.
* Schulz's "Little Red-Haired Girl" was Donna Johnson, an Art Instruction Schools accountant with whom he fell in love. Schulz was planning to propose to her, but before he got an opportunity to do so, she agreed to marry another man.
* Linus and Shermy were both named for good friends of his (Linus Maurer and Sherman Plepler, respectively).
* Peppermint Patty was inspired by Patricia Swanson, one of his cousins on his mother's side.
In 1951, Schulz moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. The same year, Schulz married Joyce Halverson. His son, Monte, was born at this time, with their three further children being born later, in Minnesota. He painted a wall in that home for his adopted daughter Meredith, featuring Patty, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. The wall was removed in 2001 and donated to the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California.
Schulz's family returned to Minneapolis and stayed until 1958. They then moved to Sebastopol, California, where Schulz built his first studio. It was here that Schulz was interviewed for the unaired television documentary A Boy Named Charlie Brown. (Some of the footage was eventually used in a later documentary titled Charlie Brown and Charles Schulz. The original documentary is available on DVD from the Charles M. Schulz Museum.)
Schulz's father died while visiting him in 1966, the same year his Sebastopol studio burned down. By 1969, Schulz had moved to Santa Rosa, California, where he lived and worked until his death.
Charles Schulz Highland Arena on Snelling Avenue and Ford Parkway in St. Paul, MN.
Schulz had a long association with ice sports, and both figure skating and ice hockey featured prominently in his cartoons. In Santa Rosa, he was the owner of the Redwood Empire Ice Arena, which opened in 1969 and featured a snack bar called "The Warm Puppy". Schulz's daughter Amy served as a model for the figure skating in the 1980 television special She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown. Schulz also was very active in senior ice-hockey tournaments; in 1975, he formed Snoopy's Senior World Hockey Tournament at his Redwood Empire Ice Arena, and in 1981, Schulz was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for outstanding service to the sport of hockey in the United States. In 1998, he hosted the first-ever Over 75 Hockey Tournament. In 2001, Saint Paul renamed The Highland Park Ice Arena the "Charles Schulz Arena" in his honor.
Although Schulz authorized a biography, Rheta Grimsley Johnson's Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz during his lifetime, the first full-scale biography since his death, Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography, by David Michaelis, was released in October 2007. The book has been heavily criticized by the Schulz family, with son Monte stating it has "a number of factual errors throughout... factual errors of interpretation" and extensively documenting these errors in a number of essays; for his part, Michaelis maintains that there is "no question" his work is accurate. Although artist Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin & Hobbes) feels that the biography does justice to Schulz's legacy, while giving insight into the emotional impetus of the creation of the strips, cartoonist and critic R.C. Harvey regards the book as falling short both in describing Schulz as a cartoonist and in fulfilling Michaelis' stated aim of "understanding how Charles Schulz knew the world", feeling the biography bends the facts to a thesis rather than evoking a thesis from the facts. A review of Michaelis' biography by Dan Shanahan in the American Book Review (vol 29, no. 6) faults the biography not for factual errors, but for "a predisposition" to finding problems in Schulz's life to explain his art, regardless of how little the material lends itself to Michaelis' interpretations. Shanahan cites, in particular, such things as Michaelis' crude characterizations of Schulz's mother's family, and "an almost voyeuristic quality" to the hundred pages devoted to the breakup of Schulz's first marriage.
In light of David Michaelis' biography and the controversy surrounding his interpretation of the personality that was Charles Schulz, responses from his family reveal some intimate knowledge about the Schulz's persona beyond that of mere artist.
Death
Charles Schulz's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999. This was difficult for Schulz, and he was quoted as saying to Al Roker on The Today Show, "I never dreamed that this would happen to me. I always had the feeling that I would stay with the strip until I was in my early eighties, or something like that. But all of sudden it's gone. I did not take it away. This has been taken away from me."
Schulz died in Santa Rosa of complications from colon cancer at 9:45 p.m. on February 12, 2000. He was buried in Sebastopol's Pleasant Hills Cemetery.
The last original strip ran the day after his death. In it, a statement was included from Schulz that his family wished for the strip to end when he was no longer able to produce it. Schulz had previously predicted that the strip would outlive him, with his reason being that comic strips are usually drawn weeks before their publication. As part of his will, Schulz had requested that the Peanuts characters remain as authentic as possible and that no new comic strips based on them be drawn. United Features has legal ownership of the strip, but his wishes have been honored, although reruns of the strip are still being syndicated to newspapers. New television specials have also been produced since Schulz's death, but the stories are based on previous strips.
Schulz had been asked if, for his final Peanuts strip, Charlie Brown would finally get to kick that football after so many decades. His response: "Oh, no! Definitely not! I couldn't have Charlie Brown kick that football; that would be a terrible disservice to him after nearly half a century." Yet, in a December 1999 interview, holding back tears, he recounted the moment when he signed the panel of his final strip, saying, “All of a sudden I thought, 'You know, that poor, poor kid, he never even got to kick the football. What a dirty trick — he never had a chance to kick the football.'”
He was honored on May 27, 2000, by cartoonists of 42 comic strips paying homage to him and Peanuts.
Awards
Schulz's Congressional Gold Medal
Schulz received the National Cartoonist Society Humor Comic Strip Award in 1962 for Peanuts, the Society's Elzie Segar Award in 1980, their Reuben Award for 1955 and 1964, and their Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999. He was also a hockey fan; in 1981, Schulz was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for outstanding contributions to the sport of hockey in the United States, and he was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993. On June 28, 1996, Schulz was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, adjacent to Walt Disney's. A replica of this star appears outside his former studio in Santa Rosa. Schulz is a recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award, the highest adult award given by the Boy Scouts of America, for his service to American youth.
On January 1, 1974, Schulz served as the Grand Marshal of the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.
On February 10, 2000, Congressman Mike Thompson introduced H.R. 3642, a bill to award Schulz the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor the United States legislature can bestow. The bill passed the House (410-1)(with only Ron Paul voting no and 24 not voting) on February 15, and the bill was sent to the Senate where it passed unanimously on May 2. The Senate also considered a bill S.2060 (introduced by Diane Feinstein). President Bill Clinton signed the bill into law on June 20. On June 7, 2001, Schulz's widow Jean accepted the award on behalf of her late husband in a public ceremony.
Schulz was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2007.
Legacy
When the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota first opened, the Amusement Park in the center of the Mall was themed around Schulz' "Peanuts" characters, until the Mall lost the rights to use the branding in 2006.
In 2000, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors rechristened the Charles M. Schulz - Sonoma County Airport in his honor. The airport's logo features Snoopy in goggles and scarf, taking to the skies on top of his red doghouse.
The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center
The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa opened on August 17, 2002, two blocks away from his former studio and celebrates his life's work and art of cartooning. A bronze statue of Charlie Brown and Snoopy stands in Depot Park in downtown Santa Rosa.
The Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center
The Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center at Sonoma State University is one of the largest libraries in the CSU system and the state of California with a 400,000 volume general collection and with a 750,000 volume automated retrieval system capacity. The $41.5 million building was named after Schulz and his wife donated $5 million needed to build and furnish the structure. The library opened in 2000 and now stands as one of the largest buildings in the university.
Peanuts on Parade has been Saint Paul, Minnesota’s tribute to its favorite native cartoonist. It began in 2000 with the placing of 101 five-foot tall statues of Snoopy throughout the city of Saint Paul. Every summer for the next 4 years statues of a different Peanuts character were placed on the sidewalks of Saint Paul. In 2001 there was Charlie Brown Around Town, 2002 brought Looking for Lucy, then in 2003 along came Linus Blankets Saint Paul, ending in 2004 with Snoopy lying on his doghouse. The statues were auctioned off at the end of each summer, so some remain around the city but others have been relocated. The auction proceeds were used for artists' scholarships and for permanent, bronze statues of the Peanuts characters. These bronze statues are in Landmark Plaza and Rice Park in downtown Saint Paul.
In 2006 Forbes ranked Schulz as the third highest-earning deceased celebrity, having earned $35 million in the previous year. According to Tod Benoit in his book Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die?, Charles M. Schulz's income during his lifetime totaled more than $1.1 billion.
Religion
Schulz touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side.
Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God (Anderson) as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church.
From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist":
“ I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in. ”
In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts.
Influences
The Charles M. Schulz Museum counts Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates) and Bill Mauldin as key influences on Schulz's work. In his own strip, Schulz paid an annual Veterans Day tribute to Mauldin's World War II cartoons.
Critics have also credited George Herriman (Krazy Kat), Roy Crane (Wash Tubbs), Elzie C. Segar (Thimble Theater) and Percy Crosby (Skippy) among Schulz's influences. However,
“ It would be impossible to narrow down three or two or even one direct influence on personal drawing style. The uniqueness of Peanuts has set it apart for years... That one-of-kind quality permeates every aspect of the strip and very clearly extends to the drawing. It is purely his with no clear forerunners and no subsequent pretenders.
— Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz, Rheta Grimsley Johnson, p. 68
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/12/10 at 6:40 am
The word or phrase of the day...Ice Storm
An ice storm occurs when frozen rain or hail blankets a region. Not only do roads freeze, but also ice coats trees, bushes and power lines. Because of the weight of the ice, an ice storm can cause tremendous damage to an area, pulling down trees and power lines. A few past ice storms have caused farmers to lose entire crops or power to be lost for many days.
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Wow,reminds me of winter. :o
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/12/10 at 6:48 am
Thanks Phil. :)
Have you seen Nipper yet?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/12/10 at 7:44 am
British Person of the day: Thomas Campion
Thomas Campion, (sometimes Campian) (12 February 1567 – 1 March 1620) was an English composer, poet and physician.
Biography
Campion was born in London and studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge, but left without taking a degree. He later entered Gray's Inn to study law in 1586. However, he left in 1595 without having been called to the bar. On 10 February 1605 he received his medical degree from the University of Caen.
Campion was first published as a poet in 1591 with five of his works appearing in an edition of Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella. The Songs of Mourning: Bewailing the Untimely Death of Prince Henry (1613), were set to music by John Cooper. He also wrote a number of other poems as well as a book on poetry, Observations in the Art of English Poesie (1602), in which he criticises the practice of rhyming in poetry.
Campion wrote over one hundred lute songs in the Books of Airs, with the first collection (co-written with Philip Rosseter) appearing in 1601 and four more following throughout the 1610s. He also wrote a number of masques, including Lord Hay's Masque performed in 1607, along with Somerset Masque and The Lord's Masque which premiered in 1613. Some of Campion's works were quite ribald on the other hand, such as "Beauty, since you so much desire" (see media). In 1615 he published a book on counterpoint, A New Way of Making Fowre Parts in Counterpoint By a Most Familiar and Infallible Rule, which was regarded highly enough to be reprinted in 1660.
He was implicated in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, but was eventually exonerated, as it was found that he had delivered a bribe unwittingly.
Campion died in London, possibly of the plague.
Early dictionary writers, such as Fétis saw Campion as a theorist. It was much later on that people began to see him as a composer.
He was the writer of a poem, Cherry Ripe, which is not the later famous poem of that title but has several similarities.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/12/10 at 7:57 am
Have you seen Nipper yet?
Yeah i just looked it up, maybe someday I'll see him in person.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Womble on 02/12/10 at 9:32 am
Nice bios, Ninny and Philip. Thanks for sharing. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/12/10 at 9:54 am
The word or phrase of the day...Ice Storm
An ice storm occurs when frozen rain or hail blankets a region. Not only do roads freeze, but also ice coats trees, bushes and power lines. Because of the weight of the ice, an ice storm can cause tremendous damage to an area, pulling down trees and power lines. A few past ice storms have caused farmers to lose entire crops or power to be lost for many days.
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii49/daleah/IceFrontDrive.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll37/Bozgan/IMG_1838.jpg
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb282/mystang05-photo/m_icestormpart2019.jpg
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb282/mystang05-photo/m_icestormpart2023.jpg
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb282/mystang05-photo/m_icestormpart2029.jpg
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb282/mystang05-photo/m_icestormpart2030.jpg
http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/ww14/peggyvboone/icestorm1-26-09002.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n15/krummerm/Ice%20Storms/DSCN5473.jpg
You have made me feel cold again.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/12/10 at 11:40 pm
You have made me feel cold again.
We've had cold weather here but not the snow that lot of people saw.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/13/10 at 1:24 am
We've had cold weather here but not the snow that lot of people saw.
Other parts of the UK has snow, but is still cold in London.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/13/10 at 7:00 am
The word of the day...Vertigo
If you get vertigo when you look down from a high place, you feel unsteady and sick.
dizziness: a reeling sensation; a feeling that you are about to fall
Vertigo (from the Latin vertigin-, vertigo, "dizziness," originally "a whirling or spinning movement," from '''' "I turn" ) is a specific type of dizziness, a major symptom of a balance disorder.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/13/10 at 7:02 am
The person born on this day...Kim Novak
Kim Novak (born February 13, 1933) is a two-time Golden Globe Award-winning American actress. She is best known for her performance in the classic 1958 film Vertigo. Novak retired from acting in 1991 and is now an accomplished artist. She currently lives on a ranch in Eagle Point, Oregon, with her veterinarian husband. The 21-year-old Marilyn Novak struck a pose on a stairway for the RKO 3-D motion picture The French Line (1954) starring Jane Russell and Gilbert Roland. Novak received no screen credit. Eventually, she was seen by a Columbia Pictures talent agent and filmed a screen test. Studio chief Harry Cohn was searching for another beauty to replace the rebellious and difficult Rita Hayworth. Novak was signed to a six-month contract. Paramount Pictures had an arrangement whereby budding actresses resided at a "ladies' residence", similar to a sorority, where their personal lives were under supervision.
Columbia decided to make the blonde, buxom actress its version of Marilyn Monroe. Immediately, there was the issue of what to do about her name. Neither Novak nor Columbia wanted to be seen as cashing in on Marilyn Monroe's enormous popularity, so Novak's real first name had to go. She resisted changing it to Kit Marlowe. She and the studio finally settled on the stage name Kim Novak. Cohn told her to lose weight, and he won the battle to make her wear brassieres. She took acting lessons, which she had to pay for herself.
Novak debuted as Lona McLane in Pushover (1954) opposite Fred MacMurray and Philip Carey. Though her role was not the best, her beauty caught the attention of fans and critics alike. She then played the femme fatale role as Janis in Phffft! (1954) opposite Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, and Jack Carson. Novak's reviews were good. People were eager to see the new star, and she received an enormous amount of fan mail.
After playing Madge Owens in Picnic (1955) opposite William Holden, Novak won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer and for World Film Favorite. She was also nominated for the British BAFTA Film Award for Best Foreign Actress. She played Molly in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), on loan to United Artists, with Frank Sinatra. The movie was a big hit. She worked with Sinatra again for Pal Joey (1957), which also starred Rita Hayworth. She also starred in Jeanne Eagels (1957) with Jeff Chandler. Her popularity became such that she made the cover of the July 29, 1957 issue of Time Magazine. That same year, she went on strike, protesting at her salary of $1,250 per week.
Kim Novak in Vertigo
In 1958, Novak starred in the Alfred Hitchcock-directed classic thriller Vertigo with James Stewart. Today, the film is considered a masterpiece of romantic suspense, though Novak's performance has a mixed reputation. Critic David Shipman thought it "little more than competent", while David Thomson sees it as "one of the major female performances in the cinema". Hitchcock, rarely one to praise actors, dismissed Novak in a later interview. "You think you're getting a lot," he said of her ability, "but you're not."
Following Vertigo, she reunited with Stewart and Jack Lemmon in Bell, Book and Candle (1958), a comedy tale of modern-day witchcraft that did not do well at the box office. In 1960, she co-starred with Kirk Douglas in the critically acclaimed Strangers When We Meet also featuring Walter Matthau and Ernie Kovacs.
In 1962, Novak took the leap of producing her own movie, financing her own production company in association with Filmways Productions. Boys' Night Out, in which she starred with James Garner and Tony Randall, marked a turning point in her career when it was not received well either by critics or the public. She continued to act, but took fewer roles as she began to prefer personal activities over acting. She refused to accept many of the sexpot roles she was being offered. She also turned down several strong dramatic roles including Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Hustler, Days of Wine and Roses, and The Sandpiper.
Novak was paired with Lemmon for a third and final time in a mystery-comedy, The Notorious Landlady (1962). She played the vulgar waitress Mildred Rogers in a remake of W. Somerset Maugham's drama Of Human Bondage (1964) opposite Laurence Harvey. She starred in Billy Wilder's cult classic Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) with Ray Walston and Dean Martin, a film critically panned at the time which has since gained a strong following. After playing the title role in The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) with Richard Johnson and Angela Lansbury, Novak took a break, seeing as little of Hollywood as possible.
Her comeback came in a dual role as a young actress, Elsa Brinkmann, and an early-day movie goddess who was murdered, Lylah Clare, in producer-director Robert Aldrich's The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) with Peter Finch and Ernest Borgnine for MGM. It failed miserably. After playing a forger, Sister Lyda Kebanov, in The Great Bank Robbery (1969) opposite Zero Mostel, Clint Walker, and Claude Akins, she stayed away from the screen for four years. She then played the key role of Auriol Pageant in the horror anthology film Tales That Witness Madness (1973). She starred as veteran showgirl Gloria Joyce in the made-for-TV movie The Third Girl From the Left (1973) with Tony Curtis and played Eve in Satan's Triangle (1975).
In 1979, she played Helga in Just a Gigolo starring David Bowie and then Lola Brewster in an Agatha Christie mystery/thriller The Mirror Crack'd (1980) with Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. She and Taylor portrayed rival actresses. She made occasional television appearances over the years. She co-starred with James Coburn in the TV-movie Malibu (1983) and played Rosa in a revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985). From 1986 to 1987, the actress was a cast member of the television series Falcon Crest during the its fourth season in the role of Kit Marlowe (the stage name rejected at the start of her career).
Her most recent appearance on the big screen to date came as a terminally ill writer in the mystery/thriller Liebestraum (1991) for MGM. However, due to battles with the director over how to play the role, her scenes were cut. In a rare interview with Stephen Rebello in the July 2005 issue of Movieline's Hollywood Life, Novak admitted that she had been "unprofessional" in her conduct with director Mike Figgis. Since that time, she has turned down many other offers to appear in film and TV.
Novak has not ruled out further acting. In an interview in 2007, she said that she would consider returning to the screen "if the right thing came along."
Honors
For her contribution to motion pictures, Novak was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6332 Hollywood Boulevard.
In 1995, Novak was ranked 92nd by Empire Magazine on a list of the 100 sexiest stars in film history. In 1955 she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer-Female; in 1957 she won another Golden Globe — for World Favorite female actress. In 1997 Kim won an Honorary Berlin Golden Bear Award. In 2002 a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Novak by Eastman Kodak.
New York rock band The Velvet Underground had a song about Kim Novak on their album Loaded, called "New Age".
British designer Alexander McQueen named his first 'It bag', the Novak, after her in 2005.
Personal life
Novak has been married to veterinarian Dr. Robert Malloy since March 12, 1976. The couple resides on a ranch where they raise horses and llamas. Novak has two stepchildren.
publicity photo of Novak in 1962
For barely a year, Novak was previously married to English actor Richard Johnson from March 15, 1965 to April 23, 1966. Despite their divorce, the two have remained friends. Novak also dated Sammy Davis, Jr in the late 1950s. She was engaged to director Richard Quine although they never married, according to critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.
Her home in Eagle Point, Oregon was partially destroyed in a fire on July 24, 2000. A computer containing the only existing draft of her unfinished autobiography was also lost to the fire. "I take it personally as a sign that maybe I’m not supposed to write my biography; maybe the past is supposed to stay buried," Novak said. Among Novak's lost mementos were scripts of some of her most critically acclaimed movies, including Vertigo and Picnic, as well as several paintings. "It made me realize then what was really valuable," she said. "That’s the day I wrote a gratitude list. We’re safe and our animals are safe."
In 2006, Novak was injured in a horseback riding accident. She suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs and nerve damage, but made a full recovery within a year.
Novak is an accomplished artist who expresses herself in watercolor and oil paintings, sculpture, stained glass design and photography. She also writes poetry.
Filmography
* The French Line (1954) (uncredited)
* Pushover (1954)
* Phffft! (1954)
* Son of Sinbad (1955) (uncredited)
* 5 Against the House (1955)
* Picnic (1955)
* The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
* The Eddy Duchin Story (1956)
* Jeanne Eagels (1957)
* Pal Joey (1957)
* Vertigo (1958)
* Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
* Middle of the Night (1959)
* Strangers When We Meet (1960)
* Pepe (1960) (cameo)
* The Notorious Landlady (1962)
* Boys' Night Out (1962)
* Showman (1963) (documentary)
* Of Human Bondage (1964)
* Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)
* The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965)
* The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)
* The Great Bank Robbery (1969)
* Tales That Witness Madness (1973)
* The Third Girl from the Left (1973)
* Satan's Triangle (1975)
* The White Buffalo (1977)
* Just a Gigolo (1979)
* The Mirror Crack'd (1980)
* Malibu (1983)
* Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985)
* Falcon Crest (14 episodes; 1986-87)
* I Have Been Very Pleased (1987) (short subject)
* The Children (1990)
* Liebestraum (1991)
http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss284/Mirna27/Decorated%20images/kim_novak_01.jpg
http://i484.photobucket.com/albums/rr201/GeorgiaGirl_51/kim_novak_gallery_1.jpg
http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo314/ilovedorisday/KimNovak6.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/13/10 at 7:05 am
The person who died on this day...David Janssen
David Janssen (March 27, 1931 – February 13, 1980) was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive (1963–1967).
Janssen appeared in many television series before he landed programs of his own. In 1956, he and Peter Breck appeared in John Bromfield's syndicated series Sheriff of Cochise in the episode "The Turkey Farmers". Later, he guest starred on NBC's medical drama The Eleventh Hour in the role of Hal Kincaid in the 1962 episode "Make Me a Place", with series co-stars Wendell Corey and Jack Ging. He joined Milner in a 1962 episode of Route 66 as the character Kamo in the episode "One Tiger to a Hill."
Janssen starred in four television series of his own, Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957-60), the hit Quinn Martin produced series, The Fugitive (1963-67), O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971–72) and Harry O (1974–76). At the time, the final episode of The Fugitive held the record for the greatest number of American homes with television sets to watch a series finale, at 72% in August 1967.
His films include To Hell and Back, the autobiography of Audie Murphy, who is considered the most decorated soldier in the military history of the United States; John Wayne's war film The Green Berets (1968), and opposite Gregory Peck in the space story Marooned about three stranded astronauts. Janssen played an alcoholic in the 1977 TV movie A Sensitive, Passionate Man, which co-starred Angie Dickinson.
At the time of his death, Janssen had just begun filming a television movie playing the part of Father Damien, the priest who dedicated himself to the leper colony on the island of Molokai. The part was eventually reassigned to actor Ken Howard.
Personal life
He was married twice, first to Ellie Graham on August 23, 1959 in Las Vegas, Nevada; they divorced on August 25, 1970. He dated actress Rosemary Forsyth for a few years. From October 4, 1975 to his death, he was married to sometime actress and model Dani Crayne Greco (born Darlyne Danielle Swanson, December 25, 1934, Minneapolis, Minnesota). Dani was previously married to singer Buddy Greco; they divorced in April 1974. Ms. Janssen resides in the penthouse of the west tower of The Century Towers in Century City, Los Angeles, California. She is known for her annual Oscars party in the penthouse where the who's who of the film crowd attend.
Death
David Janssen died of a sudden heart attack in 1980 in Malibu, California, two days into the filming of Father Damien, aged 48. Two days earlier, he had a bad dream that he was being carried in a coffin following a heart attack He was interred in the Hillside Memorial Cemetery in Culver City, California.
Selected filmography
* Francis Goes to West Point (1952)
* Yankee Buccaneer (1952)
* Chief Crazy Horse (1955)
* Cult of the Cobra (1955)
* The Private War of Major Benson (1955)
* Francis in the Navy (1955)
* To Hell and Back (1955)
* Lux Video Theatre (3 episodes, 1955-1956)
* Matinee Theater (1 episode, 1956)
* Never Say Goodbye (1956)
* Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957-1960)
* Dondi (1961)
* Hell to Eternity (1960)
* Ring of Fire (1961)
* Target: The Corruptors!, "The Middle Man" episode, February 2, 1962
* The Fugitive (1963–1967)
* Warning Shot (1967)
* The Green Berets (1968)
* The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)
* Marooned (1969)
* Where It's At (1969)
* O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971-1972)
* Moon of the Wolf (1973)
* Birds of Prey (1973)
* Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough (1975)
* Harry O (1974-1976)
* The Swiss Conspiracy (1976)
* Two-Minute Warning (1976)
* Centennial (1978)
* S.O.S. Titanic (1979)
* High Ice (1980)
See also
* Lifestyle diseases
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http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn19/WadeBallard/AGNES%20MOOREHEAD%20MOTION%20PICTURES/scan0002-1.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f58/FEN_alumni/FEN-Okinawa%20various%20years/Untitled05b.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Womble on 02/13/10 at 7:31 am
I've always liked Kim Novak, Nice bio, Ninny. Thanks for posting. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/13/10 at 8:20 am
I've always liked Kim Novak, Nice bio, Ninny. Thanks for posting. :)
Your Welcome Vinny :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/13/10 at 8:21 am
The person born on this day...Kim Novak
Kim Novak (born February 13, 1933) is a two-time Golden Globe Award-winning American actress. She is best known for her performance in the classic 1958 film Vertigo. Novak retired from acting in 1991 and is now an accomplished artist. She currently lives on a ranch in Eagle Point, Oregon, with her veterinarian husband. The 21-year-old Marilyn Novak struck a pose on a stairway for the RKO 3-D motion picture The French Line (1954) starring Jane Russell and Gilbert Roland. Novak received no screen credit. Eventually, she was seen by a Columbia Pictures talent agent and filmed a screen test. Studio chief Harry Cohn was searching for another beauty to replace the rebellious and difficult Rita Hayworth. Novak was signed to a six-month contract. Paramount Pictures had an arrangement whereby budding actresses resided at a "ladies' residence", similar to a sorority, where their personal lives were under supervision.
Columbia decided to make the blonde, buxom actress its version of Marilyn Monroe. Immediately, there was the issue of what to do about her name. Neither Novak nor Columbia wanted to be seen as cashing in on Marilyn Monroe's enormous popularity, so Novak's real first name had to go. She resisted changing it to Kit Marlowe. She and the studio finally settled on the stage name Kim Novak. Cohn told her to lose weight, and he won the battle to make her wear brassieres. She took acting lessons, which she had to pay for herself.
Novak debuted as Lona McLane in Pushover (1954) opposite Fred MacMurray and Philip Carey. Though her role was not the best, her beauty caught the attention of fans and critics alike. She then played the femme fatale role as Janis in Phffft! (1954) opposite Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, and Jack Carson. Novak's reviews were good. People were eager to see the new star, and she received an enormous amount of fan mail.
After playing Madge Owens in Picnic (1955) opposite William Holden, Novak won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer and for World Film Favorite. She was also nominated for the British BAFTA Film Award for Best Foreign Actress. She played Molly in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), on loan to United Artists, with Frank Sinatra. The movie was a big hit. She worked with Sinatra again for Pal Joey (1957), which also starred Rita Hayworth. She also starred in Jeanne Eagels (1957) with Jeff Chandler. Her popularity became such that she made the cover of the July 29, 1957 issue of Time Magazine. That same year, she went on strike, protesting at her salary of $1,250 per week.
Kim Novak in Vertigo
In 1958, Novak starred in the Alfred Hitchcock-directed classic thriller Vertigo with James Stewart. Today, the film is considered a masterpiece of romantic suspense, though Novak's performance has a mixed reputation. Critic David Shipman thought it "little more than competent", while David Thomson sees it as "one of the major female performances in the cinema". Hitchcock, rarely one to praise actors, dismissed Novak in a later interview. "You think you're getting a lot," he said of her ability, "but you're not."
Following Vertigo, she reunited with Stewart and Jack Lemmon in Bell, Book and Candle (1958), a comedy tale of modern-day witchcraft that did not do well at the box office. In 1960, she co-starred with Kirk Douglas in the critically acclaimed Strangers When We Meet also featuring Walter Matthau and Ernie Kovacs.
In 1962, Novak took the leap of producing her own movie, financing her own production company in association with Filmways Productions. Boys' Night Out, in which she starred with James Garner and Tony Randall, marked a turning point in her career when it was not received well either by critics or the public. She continued to act, but took fewer roles as she began to prefer personal activities over acting. She refused to accept many of the sexpot roles she was being offered. She also turned down several strong dramatic roles including Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Hustler, Days of Wine and Roses, and The Sandpiper.
Novak was paired with Lemmon for a third and final time in a mystery-comedy, The Notorious Landlady (1962). She played the vulgar waitress Mildred Rogers in a remake of W. Somerset Maugham's drama Of Human Bondage (1964) opposite Laurence Harvey. She starred in Billy Wilder's cult classic Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) with Ray Walston and Dean Martin, a film critically panned at the time which has since gained a strong following. After playing the title role in The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) with Richard Johnson and Angela Lansbury, Novak took a break, seeing as little of Hollywood as possible.
Her comeback came in a dual role as a young actress, Elsa Brinkmann, and an early-day movie goddess who was murdered, Lylah Clare, in producer-director Robert Aldrich's The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) with Peter Finch and Ernest Borgnine for MGM. It failed miserably. After playing a forger, Sister Lyda Kebanov, in The Great Bank Robbery (1969) opposite Zero Mostel, Clint Walker, and Claude Akins, she stayed away from the screen for four years. She then played the key role of Auriol Pageant in the horror anthology film Tales That Witness Madness (1973). She starred as veteran showgirl Gloria Joyce in the made-for-TV movie The Third Girl From the Left (1973) with Tony Curtis and played Eve in Satan's Triangle (1975).
In 1979, she played Helga in Just a Gigolo starring David Bowie and then Lola Brewster in an Agatha Christie mystery/thriller The Mirror Crack'd (1980) with Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. She and Taylor portrayed rival actresses. She made occasional television appearances over the years. She co-starred with James Coburn in the TV-movie Malibu (1983) and played Rosa in a revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985). From 1986 to 1987, the actress was a cast member of the television series Falcon Crest during the its fourth season in the role of Kit Marlowe (the stage name rejected at the start of her career).
Her most recent appearance on the big screen to date came as a terminally ill writer in the mystery/thriller Liebestraum (1991) for MGM. However, due to battles with the director over how to play the role, her scenes were cut. In a rare interview with Stephen Rebello in the July 2005 issue of Movieline's Hollywood Life, Novak admitted that she had been "unprofessional" in her conduct with director Mike Figgis. Since that time, she has turned down many other offers to appear in film and TV.
Novak has not ruled out further acting. In an interview in 2007, she said that she would consider returning to the screen "if the right thing came along."
Honors
For her contribution to motion pictures, Novak was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6332 Hollywood Boulevard.
In 1995, Novak was ranked 92nd by Empire Magazine on a list of the 100 sexiest stars in film history. In 1955 she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer-Female; in 1957 she won another Golden Globe — for World Favorite female actress. In 1997 Kim won an Honorary Berlin Golden Bear Award. In 2002 a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Novak by Eastman Kodak.
New York rock band The Velvet Underground had a song about Kim Novak on their album Loaded, called "New Age".
British designer Alexander McQueen named his first 'It bag', the Novak, after her in 2005.
Personal life
Novak has been married to veterinarian Dr. Robert Malloy since March 12, 1976. The couple resides on a ranch where they raise horses and llamas. Novak has two stepchildren.
publicity photo of Novak in 1962
For barely a year, Novak was previously married to English actor Richard Johnson from March 15, 1965 to April 23, 1966. Despite their divorce, the two have remained friends. Novak also dated Sammy Davis, Jr in the late 1950s. She was engaged to director Richard Quine although they never married, according to critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.
Her home in Eagle Point, Oregon was partially destroyed in a fire on July 24, 2000. A computer containing the only existing draft of her unfinished autobiography was also lost to the fire. "I take it personally as a sign that maybe I’m not supposed to write my biography; maybe the past is supposed to stay buried," Novak said. Among Novak's lost mementos were scripts of some of her most critically acclaimed movies, including Vertigo and Picnic, as well as several paintings. "It made me realize then what was really valuable," she said. "That’s the day I wrote a gratitude list. We’re safe and our animals are safe."
In 2006, Novak was injured in a horseback riding accident. She suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs and nerve damage, but made a full recovery within a year.
Novak is an accomplished artist who expresses herself in watercolor and oil paintings, sculpture, stained glass design and photography. She also writes poetry.
Filmography
* The French Line (1954) (uncredited)
* Pushover (1954)
* Phffft! (1954)
* Son of Sinbad (1955) (uncredited)
* 5 Against the House (1955)
* Picnic (1955)
* The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
* The Eddy Duchin Story (1956)
* Jeanne Eagels (1957)
* Pal Joey (1957)
* Vertigo (1958)
* Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
* Middle of the Night (1959)
* Strangers When We Meet (1960)
* Pepe (1960) (cameo)
* The Notorious Landlady (1962)
* Boys' Night Out (1962)
* Showman (1963) (documentary)
* Of Human Bondage (1964)
* Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)
* The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965)
* The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)
* The Great Bank Robbery (1969)
* Tales That Witness Madness (1973)
* The Third Girl from the Left (1973)
* Satan's Triangle (1975)
* The White Buffalo (1977)
* Just a Gigolo (1979)
* The Mirror Crack'd (1980)
* Malibu (1983)
* Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985)
* Falcon Crest (14 episodes; 1986-87)
* I Have Been Very Pleased (1987) (short subject)
* The Children (1990)
* Liebestraum (1991)
http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss284/Mirna27/Decorated%20images/kim_novak_01.jpg
http://i484.photobucket.com/albums/rr201/GeorgiaGirl_51/kim_novak_gallery_1.jpg
http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo314/ilovedorisday/KimNovak6.jpg
There is a picture of her today somewhere.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/13/10 at 8:23 am
There is a picture of her today somewhere.
here's a recent pic taken sometime in the 2000's
http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad190/lookovahere/an6vb010p9dn0b0n.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/13/10 at 8:36 am
The person born on this day...Kim Novak
Kim Novak (born February 13, 1933) is a two-time Golden Globe Award-winning American actress. She is best known for her performance in the classic 1958 film Vertigo. Novak retired from acting in 1991 and is now an accomplished artist. She currently lives on a ranch in Eagle Point, Oregon, with her veterinarian husband. The 21-year-old Marilyn Novak struck a pose on a stairway for the RKO 3-D motion picture The French Line (1954) starring Jane Russell and Gilbert Roland. Novak received no screen credit. Eventually, she was seen by a Columbia Pictures talent agent and filmed a screen test. Studio chief Harry Cohn was searching for another beauty to replace the rebellious and difficult Rita Hayworth. Novak was signed to a six-month contract. Paramount Pictures had an arrangement whereby budding actresses resided at a "ladies' residence", similar to a sorority, where their personal lives were under supervision.
Columbia decided to make the blonde, buxom actress its version of Marilyn Monroe. Immediately, there was the issue of what to do about her name. Neither Novak nor Columbia wanted to be seen as cashing in on Marilyn Monroe's enormous popularity, so Novak's real first name had to go. She resisted changing it to Kit Marlowe. She and the studio finally settled on the stage name Kim Novak. Cohn told her to lose weight, and he won the battle to make her wear brassieres. She took acting lessons, which she had to pay for herself.
Novak debuted as Lona McLane in Pushover (1954) opposite Fred MacMurray and Philip Carey. Though her role was not the best, her beauty caught the attention of fans and critics alike. She then played the femme fatale role as Janis in Phffft! (1954) opposite Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, and Jack Carson. Novak's reviews were good. People were eager to see the new star, and she received an enormous amount of fan mail.
After playing Madge Owens in Picnic (1955) opposite William Holden, Novak won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer and for World Film Favorite. She was also nominated for the British BAFTA Film Award for Best Foreign Actress. She played Molly in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), on loan to United Artists, with Frank Sinatra. The movie was a big hit. She worked with Sinatra again for Pal Joey (1957), which also starred Rita Hayworth. She also starred in Jeanne Eagels (1957) with Jeff Chandler. Her popularity became such that she made the cover of the July 29, 1957 issue of Time Magazine. That same year, she went on strike, protesting at her salary of $1,250 per week.
Kim Novak in Vertigo
In 1958, Novak starred in the Alfred Hitchcock-directed classic thriller Vertigo with James Stewart. Today, the film is considered a masterpiece of romantic suspense, though Novak's performance has a mixed reputation. Critic David Shipman thought it "little more than competent", while David Thomson sees it as "one of the major female performances in the cinema". Hitchcock, rarely one to praise actors, dismissed Novak in a later interview. "You think you're getting a lot," he said of her ability, "but you're not."
Following Vertigo, she reunited with Stewart and Jack Lemmon in Bell, Book and Candle (1958), a comedy tale of modern-day witchcraft that did not do well at the box office. In 1960, she co-starred with Kirk Douglas in the critically acclaimed Strangers When We Meet also featuring Walter Matthau and Ernie Kovacs.
In 1962, Novak took the leap of producing her own movie, financing her own production company in association with Filmways Productions. Boys' Night Out, in which she starred with James Garner and Tony Randall, marked a turning point in her career when it was not received well either by critics or the public. She continued to act, but took fewer roles as she began to prefer personal activities over acting. She refused to accept many of the sexpot roles she was being offered. She also turned down several strong dramatic roles including Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Hustler, Days of Wine and Roses, and The Sandpiper.
Novak was paired with Lemmon for a third and final time in a mystery-comedy, The Notorious Landlady (1962). She played the vulgar waitress Mildred Rogers in a remake of W. Somerset Maugham's drama Of Human Bondage (1964) opposite Laurence Harvey. She starred in Billy Wilder's cult classic Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) with Ray Walston and Dean Martin, a film critically panned at the time which has since gained a strong following. After playing the title role in The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) with Richard Johnson and Angela Lansbury, Novak took a break, seeing as little of Hollywood as possible.
Her comeback came in a dual role as a young actress, Elsa Brinkmann, and an early-day movie goddess who was murdered, Lylah Clare, in producer-director Robert Aldrich's The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) with Peter Finch and Ernest Borgnine for MGM. It failed miserably. After playing a forger, Sister Lyda Kebanov, in The Great Bank Robbery (1969) opposite Zero Mostel, Clint Walker, and Claude Akins, she stayed away from the screen for four years. She then played the key role of Auriol Pageant in the horror anthology film Tales That Witness Madness (1973). She starred as veteran showgirl Gloria Joyce in the made-for-TV movie The Third Girl From the Left (1973) with Tony Curtis and played Eve in Satan's Triangle (1975).
In 1979, she played Helga in Just a Gigolo starring David Bowie and then Lola Brewster in an Agatha Christie mystery/thriller The Mirror Crack'd (1980) with Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. She and Taylor portrayed rival actresses. She made occasional television appearances over the years. She co-starred with James Coburn in the TV-movie Malibu (1983) and played Rosa in a revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985). From 1986 to 1987, the actress was a cast member of the television series Falcon Crest during the its fourth season in the role of Kit Marlowe (the stage name rejected at the start of her career).
Her most recent appearance on the big screen to date came as a terminally ill writer in the mystery/thriller Liebestraum (1991) for MGM. However, due to battles with the director over how to play the role, her scenes were cut. In a rare interview with Stephen Rebello in the July 2005 issue of Movieline's Hollywood Life, Novak admitted that she had been "unprofessional" in her conduct with director Mike Figgis. Since that time, she has turned down many other offers to appear in film and TV.
Novak has not ruled out further acting. In an interview in 2007, she said that she would consider returning to the screen "if the right thing came along."
Honors
For her contribution to motion pictures, Novak was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6332 Hollywood Boulevard.
In 1995, Novak was ranked 92nd by Empire Magazine on a list of the 100 sexiest stars in film history. In 1955 she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer-Female; in 1957 she won another Golden Globe — for World Favorite female actress. In 1997 Kim won an Honorary Berlin Golden Bear Award. In 2002 a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Novak by Eastman Kodak.
New York rock band The Velvet Underground had a song about Kim Novak on their album Loaded, called "New Age".
British designer Alexander McQueen named his first 'It bag', the Novak, after her in 2005.
Personal life
Novak has been married to veterinarian Dr. Robert Malloy since March 12, 1976. The couple resides on a ranch where they raise horses and llamas. Novak has two stepchildren.
publicity photo of Novak in 1962
For barely a year, Novak was previously married to English actor Richard Johnson from March 15, 1965 to April 23, 1966. Despite their divorce, the two have remained friends. Novak also dated Sammy Davis, Jr in the late 1950s. She was engaged to director Richard Quine although they never married, according to critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.
Her home in Eagle Point, Oregon was partially destroyed in a fire on July 24, 2000. A computer containing the only existing draft of her unfinished autobiography was also lost to the fire. "I take it personally as a sign that maybe I’m not supposed to write my biography; maybe the past is supposed to stay buried," Novak said. Among Novak's lost mementos were scripts of some of her most critically acclaimed movies, including Vertigo and Picnic, as well as several paintings. "It made me realize then what was really valuable," she said. "That’s the day I wrote a gratitude list. We’re safe and our animals are safe."
In 2006, Novak was injured in a horseback riding accident. She suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs and nerve damage, but made a full recovery within a year.
Novak is an accomplished artist who expresses herself in watercolor and oil paintings, sculpture, stained glass design and photography. She also writes poetry.
Filmography
* The French Line (1954) (uncredited)
* Pushover (1954)
* Phffft! (1954)
* Son of Sinbad (1955) (uncredited)
* 5 Against the House (1955)
* Picnic (1955)
* The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
* The Eddy Duchin Story (1956)
* Jeanne Eagels (1957)
* Pal Joey (1957)
* Vertigo (1958)
* Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
* Middle of the Night (1959)
* Strangers When We Meet (1960)
* Pepe (1960) (cameo)
* The Notorious Landlady (1962)
* Boys' Night Out (1962)
* Showman (1963) (documentary)
* Of Human Bondage (1964)
* Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)
* The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965)
* The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)
* The Great Bank Robbery (1969)
* Tales That Witness Madness (1973)
* The Third Girl from the Left (1973)
* Satan's Triangle (1975)
* The White Buffalo (1977)
* Just a Gigolo (1979)
* The Mirror Crack'd (1980)
* Malibu (1983)
* Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985)
* Falcon Crest (14 episodes; 1986-87)
* I Have Been Very Pleased (1987) (short subject)
* The Children (1990)
* Liebestraum (1991)
http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss284/Mirna27/Decorated%20images/kim_novak_01.jpg
http://i484.photobucket.com/albums/rr201/GeorgiaGirl_51/kim_novak_gallery_1.jpg
http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo314/ilovedorisday/KimNovak6.jpg
We all loved her in Vertigo
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/13/10 at 8:55 am
We all loved her in Vertigo
Yes she was great along with Jimmy Stewart :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/13/10 at 8:56 am
Yes she was great along with Jimmy Stewart :)
Just one great movie by the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Womble on 02/13/10 at 1:26 pm
here's a recent pic taken sometime in the 2000's
http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad190/lookovahere/an6vb010p9dn0b0n.jpg
She still looks great.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/13/10 at 3:01 pm
Just one great movie by the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock.
Yes, love those Hitchcock films. And Vertigo was one of the better ones.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/13/10 at 3:53 pm
Yes, love those Hitchcock films. And Vertigo was one of the better ones.
True, I also liked Rear Window.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/13/10 at 4:54 pm
True, I also liked Rear Window.
another brillliant Hitchcock/Stewart movie
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/13/10 at 8:19 pm
here's a recent pic taken sometime in the 2000's
http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad190/lookovahere/an6vb010p9dn0b0n.jpg
Thank You Ninny. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/13/10 at 8:28 pm
Novak is a big name ...yet she was only in a handful of 'big' movies! Picnic and Vertigo would have been her biggest movies ...while ManWith The Golden Arm and Pal Joey were also successful.
I liked her ... but she was never a favourite of mine.
I used to watch Jansen in The Fugitive. I enjoyed him in that show but otherwise I felt he was a fairly one dimensional actor!!! :-\\
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/14/10 at 4:00 am
British Person of the Day: Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg (born Simon John Beckingham; 14 February 1970) is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer and director. He is best known for his starring roles in Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Run Fatboy Run, the comedy series Spaced and his portrayal of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the revamped Star Trek. Much of his major work has been in collaboration with some combination of Nick Frost, Jessica Hynes, Dylan Moran and Edgar Wright.
Career
In 1993, he moved to London and performed on the stand-up comedy circuit. In 1995 he took his acclaimed one-man show to the Edinburgh Festival, which led to his being invited to perform at festivals in Adelaide and Melbourne in Australia and Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in New Zealand, which he did in 1996 and 1997. His work as a stand up attracted the attention of several TV producers, leading to appearances in Asylum, Six Pairs of Pants, Faith in the Future, Big Train and Hippies. From 1998 to 2004, Pegg regularly featured on BBC Radio 4's The 99p Challenge. In 1999, he created and co-wrote the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced with Jessica Stevenson. For this project Pegg brought in Nick Frost, his best friend. For his performance in this series, Pegg was nominated for a British Comedy Award as Best Male Comedy Newcomer. Pegg co-wrote (with Spaced director Edgar Wright) and starred in the "romantic zombie comedy" film Shaun of the Dead, released in April 2004. At George A. Romero's invitation, Pegg and Wright made cameo appearances in Romero's film, Land of the Dead. In 2004, Pegg also starred in a spin-off of the television show Danger! 50,000 Volts! called Danger! 50,000 Zombies!, in which he played a zombie hunter named Dr. Russel Fell.
Pegg's other credits include the World War II miniseries Band of Brothers, guest appearances on Black Books, Brass Eye Special, I'm Alan Partridge, The Parole Officer and in the Factory Records story 24 Hour Party People. He also played the mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha, the Strontium Dog, in a series of Big Finish Productions audio plays based on the character from British comic 2000 AD and featured in Guest House Paradiso, a film based on the sitcom Bottom.
Pegg appeared in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio story Invaders From Mars as Don Chaney, and portrayed the Editor in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Long Game". He also narrated the first series of the documentary series Doctor Who Confidential.
Upon completion of Shaun of the Dead, Pegg was questioned on whether he would be abandoning the British film industry for bigger and better things, to which he replied "It's not like I'm going to run off and do Mission: Impossible III!" He then promptly went on to do just that, playing Benji Dunn, an I.M.F. technician who assists Tom Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt. In 2006 he played an American character, Gus, in Big Nothing alongside David Schwimmer.
In 2006, Pegg and Wright completed their second film, Hot Fuzz, released in February 2007. The film is a police-action movie homage and also stars Nick Frost. Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a London policeman who is transferred to rural Sandford, a fictional village situated in Pegg's home county of Gloucestershire, where grisly events take place.
In 2007, Pegg starred in The Good Night (directed by Jake Paltrow) and Run Fatboy Run directed by David Schwimmer and co-starring Thandie Newton and Hank Azaria.
In 2008, Pegg wrote the dialogue for an English language re-release of the cult 2006 animated Norwegian film, Free Jimmy. Pegg received screenwriting credit for this, and Pegg also voiced one of the main characters in the English language version, which has an international range of actors including Woody Harrelson.
Pegg is co-writing and starring with Nick Frost in an upcoming film entitled Paul, with production expected to begin in June 2009. The plot revolves around characters played by Pegg and Frost road tripping across America. Pegg also announced that he and Wright had the idea for "the concluding part in what we are calling our 'Blood and Ice Cream' trilogy" (the first two being Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). It is provisionally called The World Ends. In those films and in Spaced, Pegg typically plays the leading hero while Frost plays the sidekick. However, he has revealed that Paul will reverse this dynamic. Pegg has also stated that Wright will not direct, Paul not being part of their 'Blood and Ice Cream' trilogy. The completed script appeared on the 2008 Black List, a film-industry-compiled list of the best unproduced screenplays. Paul received two votes.
Pegg played engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the newest Star Trek film, released 8 May 2009. He wore a kilt to the film's United Kingdom premiere, at the Empire Leicester Square theatre. He told Jo Russell's show on Absolute Radio that he is waiting for a Scotty action figure to add to his collection of Simon Pegg action figures from Dr Who, Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the Dead. He is currently completing a film, directed by John Landis, about Burke and Hare, the Ulster men who were notorious murderers and bodysnatchers in early nineteenth-century Edinburgh. His likeness was also used for the character of Wee Hughie in the comic book series The Boys; while this was done without Pegg's permission, he quickly became a fan of the title, and even wrote the introduction to the first bound volume.
Movies
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
The World's End (2010)
Paul (2010)
Star Trek (2009)
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2008)
Run, Fat Boy, Run (2007)
The Good Night (2007)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Grindhouse (2007)
Big Nothing (2006)
Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)
Free Jimmy (2006)
Land of the Dead (2005)
The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (2005)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Sex & Lies (2004)
The Reckoning (2003)
Final Demand (2003)
24 Hour Party People (2002)
Band of Brothers (2001)
The Parole Officer (2001)
Guest House Paradiso (1999)
Tube Tales (1999)
http://www.virginmedia.com/images/bca0simon-pegg-290x400.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/14/10 at 5:52 am
British Person of the Day: Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg (born Simon John Beckingham; 14 February 1970) is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer and director. He is best known for his starring roles in Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Run Fatboy Run, the comedy series Spaced and his portrayal of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the revamped Star Trek. Much of his major work has been in collaboration with some combination of Nick Frost, Jessica Hynes, Dylan Moran and Edgar Wright.
Career
In 1993, he moved to London and performed on the stand-up comedy circuit. In 1995 he took his acclaimed one-man show to the Edinburgh Festival, which led to his being invited to perform at festivals in Adelaide and Melbourne in Australia and Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in New Zealand, which he did in 1996 and 1997. His work as a stand up attracted the attention of several TV producers, leading to appearances in Asylum, Six Pairs of Pants, Faith in the Future, Big Train and Hippies. From 1998 to 2004, Pegg regularly featured on BBC Radio 4's The 99p Challenge. In 1999, he created and co-wrote the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced with Jessica Stevenson. For this project Pegg brought in Nick Frost, his best friend. For his performance in this series, Pegg was nominated for a British Comedy Award as Best Male Comedy Newcomer. Pegg co-wrote (with Spaced director Edgar Wright) and starred in the "romantic zombie comedy" film Shaun of the Dead, released in April 2004. At George A. Romero's invitation, Pegg and Wright made cameo appearances in Romero's film, Land of the Dead. In 2004, Pegg also starred in a spin-off of the television show Danger! 50,000 Volts! called Danger! 50,000 Zombies!, in which he played a zombie hunter named Dr. Russel Fell.
Pegg's other credits include the World War II miniseries Band of Brothers, guest appearances on Black Books, Brass Eye Special, I'm Alan Partridge, The Parole Officer and in the Factory Records story 24 Hour Party People. He also played the mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha, the Strontium Dog, in a series of Big Finish Productions audio plays based on the character from British comic 2000 AD and featured in Guest House Paradiso, a film based on the sitcom Bottom.
Pegg appeared in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio story Invaders From Mars as Don Chaney, and portrayed the Editor in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Long Game". He also narrated the first series of the documentary series Doctor Who Confidential.
Upon completion of Shaun of the Dead, Pegg was questioned on whether he would be abandoning the British film industry for bigger and better things, to which he replied "It's not like I'm going to run off and do Mission: Impossible III!" He then promptly went on to do just that, playing Benji Dunn, an I.M.F. technician who assists Tom Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt. In 2006 he played an American character, Gus, in Big Nothing alongside David Schwimmer.
In 2006, Pegg and Wright completed their second film, Hot Fuzz, released in February 2007. The film is a police-action movie homage and also stars Nick Frost. Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a London policeman who is transferred to rural Sandford, a fictional village situated in Pegg's home county of Gloucestershire, where grisly events take place.
In 2007, Pegg starred in The Good Night (directed by Jake Paltrow) and Run Fatboy Run directed by David Schwimmer and co-starring Thandie Newton and Hank Azaria.
In 2008, Pegg wrote the dialogue for an English language re-release of the cult 2006 animated Norwegian film, Free Jimmy. Pegg received screenwriting credit for this, and Pegg also voiced one of the main characters in the English language version, which has an international range of actors including Woody Harrelson.
Pegg is co-writing and starring with Nick Frost in an upcoming film entitled Paul, with production expected to begin in June 2009. The plot revolves around characters played by Pegg and Frost road tripping across America. Pegg also announced that he and Wright had the idea for "the concluding part in what we are calling our 'Blood and Ice Cream' trilogy" (the first two being Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). It is provisionally called The World Ends. In those films and in Spaced, Pegg typically plays the leading hero while Frost plays the sidekick. However, he has revealed that Paul will reverse this dynamic. Pegg has also stated that Wright will not direct, Paul not being part of their 'Blood and Ice Cream' trilogy. The completed script appeared on the 2008 Black List, a film-industry-compiled list of the best unproduced screenplays. Paul received two votes.
Pegg played engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the newest Star Trek film, released 8 May 2009. He wore a kilt to the film's United Kingdom premiere, at the Empire Leicester Square theatre. He told Jo Russell's show on Absolute Radio that he is waiting for a Scotty action figure to add to his collection of Simon Pegg action figures from Dr Who, Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the Dead. He is currently completing a film, directed by John Landis, about Burke and Hare, the Ulster men who were notorious murderers and bodysnatchers in early nineteenth-century Edinburgh. His likeness was also used for the character of Wee Hughie in the comic book series The Boys; while this was done without Pegg's permission, he quickly became a fan of the title, and even wrote the introduction to the first bound volume.
Movies
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
The World's End (2010)
Paul (2010)
Star Trek (2009)
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2008)
Run, Fat Boy, Run (2007)
The Good Night (2007)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Grindhouse (2007)
Big Nothing (2006)
Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)
Free Jimmy (2006)
Land of the Dead (2005)
The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (2005)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Sex & Lies (2004)
The Reckoning (2003)
Final Demand (2003)
24 Hour Party People (2002)
Band of Brothers (2001)
The Parole Officer (2001)
Guest House Paradiso (1999)
Tube Tales (1999)
http://www.virginmedia.com/images/bca0simon-pegg-290x400.jpg
I was just about to do him ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/14/10 at 6:05 am
The word of the day...Heart
Your heart is the organ in your chest that pumps the blood around your body. People also use heart to refer to the area of their chest that is closest to their heart
You can refer to someone's heart when you are talking about their deep feelings and beliefs.
You use heart when you are talking about someone's character and attitude towards other people, especially when they are kind and generous.
If you refer to things of the heart, you mean love and relationships
The heart of something is the most central and important part of it.
http://i533.photobucket.com/albums/ee335/PicPocket74/coffee%20art/Copyofhearts.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae1/cillymiu/Heart/lovimage0sbnF.jpg
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h47/satasiza/heart.jpg
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/All_About_Anime/heart.jpg
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j301/brunette58/heart-1.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/jowanna__daatio/patterns/heart.jpg
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn290/RAWRxitsmaya/REAL_HEART.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae1/cillymiu/Heart/shwluvh1.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/14/10 at 6:09 am
The person born on this day...Alan Parker
Sir Alan William Parker, CBE (born 14 February 1944) is an English film director, producer, writer and actor. He has been active in both the British film industry and Hollywood and was a founding member of the Director's Guild of Great Britain.
Life and career
Parker was born into a working class family in Islington, North London, the son of Elsie Ellen, a dressmaker, and William Leslie Parker, a house painter. He attended Dame Alice Owen's School. Parker started out as a copywriter for advertising agencies in the 1960s and 1970s and later began to write his own television commercial scripts. His most celebrated and enduring advertising work was when he worked for famed London agency Collett Dickenson Pearce where he directed many award winning commercials, including the famous Cinzano vermouth advertisement, starring Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins, shown in the UK.
His film career began through his association with producer David Puttnam, now Lord Puttnam, when he wrote the screenplay for the feature Melody (1971). Puttnam would later produce a number of Parker's films including Midnight Express (1978). This, his breakthrough, was a highly controversial film set in a Turkish prison that was lauded by critics and ended up earning Parker a number of Oscar nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture. He was later nominated for Best Director with Mississippi Burning (1988).
Parker has directed a number of off-beat musicals including Bugsy Malone (1976), Fame (1980), Pink Floyd The Wall (1982), The Commitments (1991) and Evita (1996).
He was knighted in the New Year's Honours for 2002. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Sunderland in 2005 of which his long time associate Lord Puttnam is chancellor. Parker is an Arsenal fan and attends their home games.
Controversy
One of his films, Midnight Express, stirred enormous controversy in the world, especially in Turkey. The film derives from a book written by Billy Hayes. Oliver Stone wrote the screenplay of the film and David Puttnam is the producer. After the release of the film, it was and is condemned in Turkey for its portrayal of Turkish people, Turkish institutions and consequently damaging the public image of Turkey.
Unlike Parker, Putnam, Stone and Hayes who were producer, screenwriter and author of the original book respectively expressed their concerns with the film regarding its anti-Turkish agenda. Screenwriter of that film, Oliver Stone, who won an Academy Award for the film, visited Turkey in 2004, made an apology for the portrayal of the Turkish people in the film. In parallel with Stone, an amateur interview with Billy Hayes who is the author of the book that Midnight Express is based on, appeared on YouTube (Part 1 - Part 2) recorded during the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, in which he expressed his disappointment with the film adaptation. In an article for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Hayes stated that the film "depicts all Turks as monsters".
In an interview in 1984, David Puttnam, producer of the film, called the book dishonest. In addition to Putnam, Stone and Hayes, film reviewers described the film as "violent", "national hate-film", "a cultural form that narrows horizons", "confirming the audience’s meanest fears and prejudices and resentments".
Filmography
* Melody (1971)
* Our Cissy (1974) (short film)
* Footsteps (1974) (short film)
* The Evacuees (1975) (TV)
* Bugsy Malone (1976)
* Midnight Express (1978)
* Fame (1980)
* Shoot the Moon (1982)
* Pink Floyd The Wall (1982)
* Birdy (1984)
* Angel Heart (1987)
* Mississippi Burning (1988)
* Come See The Paradise (1990)
* The Commitments (1991)
* The Road to Wellville (1994)
* Evita (1996)
* Angela's Ashes (1999)
* The Life of David Gale (2003)
http://i1021.photobucket.com/albums/af338/pawellsphotos/Stardust%20Memories/alanparker.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/14/10 at 6:14 am
The person who died(?) on this day...Saint Valentine
Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is the name of several martyred saints of ancient Rome. The name "Valentine", derived from valens (worthy), was popular in Late Antiquity. Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on February 14, nothing is known except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome on February 14. It is even uncertain whether the feast of that day celebrates only one saint or more saints of the same name. For this reason this liturgical commemoration was not kept in the Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical veneration as revised in 1969. But "Martyr Valentinus the Presbyter and those with him at Rome" remains in the list of saints proposed for veneration by all Catholics.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Valentine the Presbyter is celebrated on July 6, and Hieromartyr Saint Valentine (Bishop of Interamna, Terni in Italy) is celebrated on July 30. The name "Valentine" (Priest Valentio) does not occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, compiled by the Chronographer of 354. The feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." As Gelasius implied, nothing was known, even then, about the lives of any of these martyrs. The Saint Valentine that appears in various martyrologies in connection with February 14 is described either as:
* A priest in Rome,
* A bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), or
* A martyr in the Roman province of Africa.
The first representation of Saint Valentine appeared in the Nuremberg Chronicle, (1493); alongside the woodcut portrait of Valentine the text states that he was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II, known as Claudius Gothicus. He was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner -- until Valentinus tried to convert the Emperor -- whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stoned; when that didn't finish him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate. Various dates are given for the martyrdom or martyrdoms: 269, 270, or 273.
The official Roman Martyrology for February 14 mentions only one Saint Valentine.
Saint Valentine of Terni oversees the construction of his basilica at Terni, from a 14th century French manuscript (BN, Mss fr. 185)
English eighteenth-century antiquarians Alban Butler and Francis Douce, noting the obscurity of Saint Valentine's identity, suggested that Valentine's Day was created as an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia. This idea has lately been contested by Professor Jack Oruch of the University of Kansas. Many of the current legends that characterise Saint Valentine were invented in the fourteenth century in England, notably by Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when the feast day of February 14 first became associated with romantic love.
While a website of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and other sources give different lists of Saint Valentines, the Catholic Church's official list of recognized saints, the Roman Martyrology lists seven: a martyr (Roman priest or Terni bishop?) buried on the Via Flaminia (February 14); a priest from Viterbo (November 3); a bishop from Raetia who died in about 450 (January 7); a fifth-century priest and hermit (July 4); a Spanish hermit who died in about 715 (October 25); Valentine Berrio Ochoa, martyred in 1861 (November 24); and Valentine Jaunzarás Gómez, martyred in 1936 (September 18).
Earliest church dedications
Saint Valentine receives a rosary from the Virgin, by David Teniers III
Hagiographical sources speak of a Roman priest and a bishop of Terni each buried along the Via Flaminia outside Rome, at different distances from the city, with each venerated on February 14. In the Middle Ages, two Roman churches were dedicated to Saint Valentine. One was the tenth-century church Sancti Valentini de Balneo Miccine or de Piscina, which was rededicated by Pope Urban III in 1186. The other, on the Via Flaminia, was the ancient basilica S. Valentini extra Portam founded by Pope Julius I (337‑352), though not under this dedication. The basilica appellatur Valentini, "is called Valentine's"; but early basilicas were as often called by the name of their former owner as by the saint to whom they were dedicated: see titulus.
This, the earlier and by far more important of the churches, is dedicated to the less prominent of the two saints, Valentine, presbyter of Rome; this was the Basilica S. Valentini extra Portam, the "Basilica of Saint Valentine beyond the Gate" which was situated beyond the Porta Flaminia (the Porta del Popolo, which was the Porta S. Valentini when William of Malmesbury visited Rome). It stood on the right hand side at the second milestone on the Via Flaminia. It had its origins in a funerary chapel on the site of catacombs, which the Liber Pontificalis attributes to a foundation by Pope Julius I (337-352). However, the dedications of two basilicas dedicated by Julius are not specified in the Liber Pontificalis. It was restored or largely rebuilt by Pope Theodore (642‑649) and Pope Leo III (795‑816), enriched with an altar cloth by Pope Benedict II (683‑685) and by gifts of Pope Hadrian I (772‑795), Pope Leo III and Pope Gregory IV (827‑844), so that it had become ecclesia mirifice ornata, "a church marvellously adorned". The monastery of San Silvestro in Capite was annexed to it, and in the surviving epitome of a lost catalogue of the churches of Rome, compiled by Giraldus Cambrensis about 1200, it was hospitale S. Valentini extra urbem, the "hospital of Saint Valentine outside the city". But in the thirteenth century the martyr's relics were transferred to Santa Prassede, and the ancient basilica decayed: in Signorili's catalogue, made in about 1425, it was Ecclesia sancti Valentini extra portam sine muris non habet sacerdotem, "the church of Saint Valentine beyond the gate without walls, has no priest".
In the Golden Legend
The Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, compiled about 1260 and one of the most-read books of the High Middle Ages, gives sufficient details of the saints for each day of the liturgical year to inspire a homily on each occasion. The very brief vita of St Valentine has him refusing to deny Christ before the "Emperor Claudius" in the year 280. Before his head was cut off, this Valentine restored sight and hearing to the daughter of his jailer. Jacobus makes a play with the etymology of "Valentine", "as containing valour".
St. Valentine's Day
For more details on this topic, see Valentine's Day.
Historian Jack Oruch has made the case that the traditions associated with "Valentine's Day", documented in Geoffrey Chaucer's Parliament of Foules and set in the fictional context of an old tradition, had no such tradition before Chaucer. He argues that the speculative explanation of sentimental customs, posing as historical fact, had their origins among 18th-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler's Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars. In the French 14th-century manuscript illumination from a Vies des Saints (illustration above), Saint Valentine, bishop of Terni, oversees the construction of his basilica at Terni; there is no suggestion here yet that the bishop was a patron of lovers.
Relics and liturgical celebration
The flower crowned skull of St Valentine is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome.
In 1836, some relics that were exhumed from the catacombs of Saint Hippolytus on the Via Tiburtina, then near (rather than inside) Rome, were identified with St Valentine; placed in a casket, and transported to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland, to which they were donated by Pope Gregory XVI. Many tourists visit the saintly remains on St. Valentine's Day, when the casket is carried in solemn procession to the high altar for a special Mass dedicated to young people and all those in love. Alleged relics of St. Valentine also lie at the reliquary of Roquemaure in France, in the Stephansdom in Vienna and also in Blessed John Duns Scotus' church in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland. There is also a gold reliquary bearing the words 'Corpus St. Valentin, M' (Body of St. Valentine, Martyr) at The Birmingham Oratory, UK in one of the side altars in the main church.
Of greatest interest at this altar is the rich coffin which lies beneath it, containing the body of St. Valentine, a martyr whose relics from the Roman catacombs were given to John Henry Cardinal Newman by Blessed Pius IX in 1847.
The Saint Valentine who is celebrated on February 14 remains in the Catholic Church's official list of saints (the Roman Martyrology), but, in view of the scarcity of information about him, his commemoration was removed from the General Calendar for universal liturgical veneration, when this was revised in 1969. It is included in local calendars of places such as Balzan and Malta, where relics of the saint are claimed to be found. Some still observe the calendars of the Roman Rite from the Tridentine Calendar until 1969, in which Saint Valentine was at first celebrated as a simple feast, until 1955, when Pope Pius XII reduced the mention of Saint Valentine to a commemoration in the Mass of the day. It is kept as a commemoration by Traditionalist Roman Catholics who, in accordance with the authorization given by Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of July 7, 2007, use the General Roman Calendar of 1962 and the liturgy of Pope John XXIII's 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, and, as a Simple Feast, by Traditionalist Roman Catholics who use the General Roman Calendar as in 1954.
The feast day of Saint Valentine, priest and martyr, was included in the Tridentine Calendar, with the rank of Simple, on February 14. In 1955, Pope Pius XII reduced the celebration to a commemoration within the celebration of the occurring weekday. In 1969, this commemoration was removed from the General Roman Calendar, but Saint Valentine continues to be recognized as a saint, since he is included in the Roman Martyrology, the Catholic Church's official list of saints. The feast day of Saint Valentine also continues to be included in local calendars of places such as Balzan and Malta, where relics of the saint are claimed to be found.
See also
* La Fête du Baiser
* Saint Valentine, 8th century Spanish martyr
http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt284/Osarseph/322012-7.jpg
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f249/InsaneAmbiguous/StValentinemosaic.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d42/cha_psh/saint.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/14/10 at 6:24 am
I was just about to do him ;D
Sorry http://www.inthe00s.com/Smileys/valentine/smiley.gif
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/14/10 at 7:16 am
Sorry http://www.inthe00s.com/Smileys/valentine/smiley.gif
That's OK :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/14/10 at 7:19 am
That's OK :)
Originally I was going to James Cook, the English explorer, navigator and cartographer, who died this day in 1779 in Hawaii, but the info was far too much to handle.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/14/10 at 7:41 am
The word of the day...Heart
Your heart is the organ in your chest that pumps the blood around your body. People also use heart to refer to the area of their chest that is closest to their heart
You can refer to someone's heart when you are talking about their deep feelings and beliefs.
You use heart when you are talking about someone's character and attitude towards other people, especially when they are kind and generous.
If you refer to things of the heart, you mean love and relationships
The heart of something is the most central and important part of it.
http://i533.photobucket.com/albums/ee335/PicPocket74/coffee%20art/Copyofhearts.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae1/cillymiu/Heart/lovimage0sbnF.jpg
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h47/satasiza/heart.jpg
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/All_About_Anime/heart.jpg
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j301/brunette58/heart-1.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/jowanna__daatio/patterns/heart.jpg
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn290/RAWRxitsmaya/REAL_HEART.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae1/cillymiu/Heart/shwluvh1.jpg
http://www.tailgatershandbook.com/Images/Heart.jpg :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/14/10 at 7:45 am
My Heart Will Goo On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saalGKY7ifU
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/14/10 at 7:45 am
My Heart Will Goo On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saalGKY7ifU
a very sad song.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/14/10 at 1:33 pm
Originally I was going to James Cook, the English explorer, navigator and cartographer, who died this day in 1779 in Hawaii, but the info was far too much to handle.
I had that a couple of times where it told me I had too many words, sometimes it's hard to distinguish what to keep and what not.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/14/10 at 1:34 pm
My Heart Will Goo On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saalGKY7ifU
a very sad song.
Yes and very beautiful :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/14/10 at 1:37 pm
I had that a couple of times where it told me I had too many words, sometimes it's hard to distinguish what to keep and what not.
Exactly, that was the same reason for me too.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Womble on 02/14/10 at 7:44 pm
British Person of the Day: Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg (born Simon John Beckingham; 14 February 1970) is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer and director. He is best known for his starring roles in Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Run Fatboy Run, the comedy series Spaced and his portrayal of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the revamped Star Trek. Much of his major work has been in collaboration with some combination of Nick Frost, Jessica Hynes, Dylan Moran and Edgar Wright.
Career
In 1993, he moved to London and performed on the stand-up comedy circuit. In 1995 he took his acclaimed one-man show to the Edinburgh Festival, which led to his being invited to perform at festivals in Adelaide and Melbourne in Australia and Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in New Zealand, which he did in 1996 and 1997. His work as a stand up attracted the attention of several TV producers, leading to appearances in Asylum, Six Pairs of Pants, Faith in the Future, Big Train and Hippies. From 1998 to 2004, Pegg regularly featured on BBC Radio 4's The 99p Challenge. In 1999, he created and co-wrote the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced with Jessica Stevenson. For this project Pegg brought in Nick Frost, his best friend. For his performance in this series, Pegg was nominated for a British Comedy Award as Best Male Comedy Newcomer. Pegg co-wrote (with Spaced director Edgar Wright) and starred in the "romantic zombie comedy" film Shaun of the Dead, released in April 2004. At George A. Romero's invitation, Pegg and Wright made cameo appearances in Romero's film, Land of the Dead. In 2004, Pegg also starred in a spin-off of the television show Danger! 50,000 Volts! called Danger! 50,000 Zombies!, in which he played a zombie hunter named Dr. Russel Fell.
Pegg's other credits include the World War II miniseries Band of Brothers, guest appearances on Black Books, Brass Eye Special, I'm Alan Partridge, The Parole Officer and in the Factory Records story 24 Hour Party People. He also played the mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha, the Strontium Dog, in a series of Big Finish Productions audio plays based on the character from British comic 2000 AD and featured in Guest House Paradiso, a film based on the sitcom Bottom.
Pegg appeared in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio story Invaders From Mars as Don Chaney, and portrayed the Editor in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Long Game". He also narrated the first series of the documentary series Doctor Who Confidential.
Upon completion of Shaun of the Dead, Pegg was questioned on whether he would be abandoning the British film industry for bigger and better things, to which he replied "It's not like I'm going to run off and do Mission: Impossible III!" He then promptly went on to do just that, playing Benji Dunn, an I.M.F. technician who assists Tom Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt. In 2006 he played an American character, Gus, in Big Nothing alongside David Schwimmer.
In 2006, Pegg and Wright completed their second film, Hot Fuzz, released in February 2007. The film is a police-action movie homage and also stars Nick Frost. Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a London policeman who is transferred to rural Sandford, a fictional village situated in Pegg's home county of Gloucestershire, where grisly events take place.
In 2007, Pegg starred in The Good Night (directed by Jake Paltrow) and Run Fatboy Run directed by David Schwimmer and co-starring Thandie Newton and Hank Azaria.
In 2008, Pegg wrote the dialogue for an English language re-release of the cult 2006 animated Norwegian film, Free Jimmy. Pegg received screenwriting credit for this, and Pegg also voiced one of the main characters in the English language version, which has an international range of actors including Woody Harrelson.
Pegg is co-writing and starring with Nick Frost in an upcoming film entitled Paul, with production expected to begin in June 2009. The plot revolves around characters played by Pegg and Frost road tripping across America. Pegg also announced that he and Wright had the idea for "the concluding part in what we are calling our 'Blood and Ice Cream' trilogy" (the first two being Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). It is provisionally called The World Ends. In those films and in Spaced, Pegg typically plays the leading hero while Frost plays the sidekick. However, he has revealed that Paul will reverse this dynamic. Pegg has also stated that Wright will not direct, Paul not being part of their 'Blood and Ice Cream' trilogy. The completed script appeared on the 2008 Black List, a film-industry-compiled list of the best unproduced screenplays. Paul received two votes.
Pegg played engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the newest Star Trek film, released 8 May 2009. He wore a kilt to the film's United Kingdom premiere, at the Empire Leicester Square theatre. He told Jo Russell's show on Absolute Radio that he is waiting for a Scotty action figure to add to his collection of Simon Pegg action figures from Dr Who, Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the Dead. He is currently completing a film, directed by John Landis, about Burke and Hare, the Ulster men who were notorious murderers and bodysnatchers in early nineteenth-century Edinburgh. His likeness was also used for the character of Wee Hughie in the comic book series The Boys; while this was done without Pegg's permission, he quickly became a fan of the title, and even wrote the introduction to the first bound volume.
Movies
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
The World's End (2010)
Paul (2010)
Star Trek (2009)
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2008)
Run, Fat Boy, Run (2007)
The Good Night (2007)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Grindhouse (2007)
Big Nothing (2006)
Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)
Free Jimmy (2006)
Land of the Dead (2005)
The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (2005)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Sex & Lies (2004)
The Reckoning (2003)
Final Demand (2003)
24 Hour Party People (2002)
Band of Brothers (2001)
The Parole Officer (2001)
Guest House Paradiso (1999)
Tube Tales (1999)
http://www.virginmedia.com/images/bca0simon-pegg-290x400.jpg
I enjoy his films. Interesting bio, Philip. Thanks for sharing. :)