25 Oct 2019
Television Permalink

Lorne Michaels

October 25, 2019

Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian television producer, writer and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.

Michaels was born Lorne David Lipowitz in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the son of Florence and Henry Abraham Lipowitz, a furrier. He was the eldest of the Lipowitz children. He has a sister, Barbara Lipowitz, who currently resides in Toronto and a brother, Mark Lipowitz, who died from a brain tumor. Michaels attended the Forest Hill Collegiate Institute in Toronto and graduated from University College, University of Toronto, where he majored in English, in 1966. Michaels began his career as a writer and broadcaster for CBC Radio. He moved to Los Angeles from Toronto in 1968 to work as a writer for Laugh-In and The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show. During the late 1960s, Michaels married Rosie Shuster, who later worked with him on Saturday Night Live as a writer. She was the daughter of Frank Shuster, one half of the famous comedy team, Wayne and Shuster. Michaels and Shuster were divorced in 1980.

In 1975, Michaels created the TV show NBC’s Saturday Night, which in 1977 changed its name to Saturday Night Live. The show, which is performed live in front of a studio audience, immediately established a reputation for being cutting edge and unpredictable. It became a vehicle for launching the careers of some of the most successful comedians in the world.

Originally the producer of the show, Michaels was also a writer and later became executive producer. He occasionally appears on-screen as well, where he is known for his deadpan humor. Throughout the show’s history, SNL has been nominated for more than 80 Emmy Awards and has won 18. It has consistently been one of the highest-rated late-night television programs. Michaels has been with SNL for all seasons except for his hiatus in the early 1980s .

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Lionel Richie

October 25, 2019

Lionel Brockman Richie, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer who has sold more than 100 million records.

Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, Richie grew up on the campus of Tuskegee Institute. His grandfather’s house was across the street from the home of the president of the Institute. His family moved to Illinois where he graduated from Joliet Township High School, East Campus, in Joliet. A star tennis player in Joliet, he accepted a tennis scholarship at Tuskegee Institute and later graduated with a major in economics. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Tuskegee, Richie briefly attended graduate school at Auburn University. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

As a student in Tuskegee, Richie formed a succession of R&B groups in the mid-1960s. In 1968 he became a singer and saxophonist with the Commodores. They signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records in 1968 for one record before moving on to Motown Records initially as a support act to The Jackson 5. The Commodores then became established as a popular soul group. Their first several albums had a danceable, funky sound, as in such tracks as “Machine Gun” and “Brick House.” Over time, Richie wrote and sang more romantic, easy-listening ballads such as “Easy,” “Three Times a Lady,” “Still,” and the tragic breakup ballad “Sail On.”

By the late 1970s, he had begun to accept songwriting commissions from other artists. He composed “Lady” for Kenny Rogers, which hit #1 in 1980, and produced Rogers’s album Share Your Love the following year. Richie and Rogers maintained a strong friendship in later years. Latin jazz composer and salsa romantica pioneer La Palabra enjoyed international success with his cover of “Lady,” which was played at Latin dance clubs. Also in 1981, Richie sang the theme song for the film Endless Love, a duet with Diana Ross. Issued as a single, the song topped the UK and U.S. pop music charts, and became one of Motown’s biggest hits. Its success encouraged Richie to branch out into a full-fledged solo career in 1982. He was replaced as lead singer for The Commodores by Skyler Jett in 1983.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Little Jack Little

October 25, 2019

Jack Little, sometimes credited Little Jack Little, was a British-born American composer, singer, actor and songwriter whose songs were featured in several movies. He is not to be confused with the burlesque comedian also known as "Little" Jack Little, who stood 4'5".

He was born in London, but moved to the United States

as a child, growing up in Waterloo, Iowa. Little was educated in pre-med classes at the University of Iowa, where he played in and organized the university band. He toured the country with an orchestra, appearing in hotels, night clubs, and on radio. He collaborated musically with Tommie Malie, Dick Finch, John Siras, and Joe Young.

In 1928 he joined ASCAP. From 1933-'37, he recorded prolifically, starting on Bluebird, Columbia, and finally ARC, playing in a light society dance band style. He often worked with musical director Mitchell Ayres. His compositions include Jealous, I Promise You, A Shanty in Old Shanty Town and You're a Heavenly Thing.

25 Oct 2019
Recording Permalink

Little Richard

October 25, 2019

Richard Wayne Penniman, known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist and recording artist, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame web site entry on Penniman states that:

Penniman began his recording career in 1951 by imitating the gospel-influenced style of late-1940s jump blues artist Billy Wright, but did not achieve commercial success until 1955, when, under the guidance of Robert “Bumps” Blackwell, he began recording in a style he had been performing onstage for years, featuring varied rhythm, a heavy backbeat, funky saxophone grooves, over-the-top Gospel-style singing, moans, screams, and other emotive inflections, accompanied by a combination of boogie-woogie and rhythm and blues music. This new music, which included an original injection of funk into the rock and roll beat, inspired many of the greatest recording artists of the twentieth century, including James Brown, Elvis Presley, Otis Redding, Michael Jackson, and generations of other rhythm & blues, rock and soul music artists. He was subsequently among the seven initial inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and was one of only four of these honorees to also receive the Rhythm and Blues Foundation’s Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award.

In October 1957, while at the height of stardom, Penniman abruptly quit rock and roll music and became a born-again Christian. In January 1958, he enrolled in and attended Bible college to become a preacher and evangelist and began recording and performing only gospel music for a number of years. He then moved back and forth from rock and roll to the ministry, until he was able to reconcile the two roles in later life.

Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, the third of 12 children of Charles “Bud” Penniman, Sr., a bootlegger and his wife Leva Mae. He grew up in a religious family in which singing was an integral part of their lives; they performed in local churches as The Penniman Singers, and entered contests with other singing families. His family called him “War Hawk” because of his loud, screaming singing voice. His grandfather, Walter Penniman, was a preacher, and his father’s family were members of the Foundation Templar African Methodist Episcopal Church in Macon. His maternal grandmother was a member of Macon’s Holiness Temple Baptist Church. Penniman attended the New Hope Baptist Church in Macon, where his mother was a member. Penniman’s favorites were the Pentecostal churches because of the music and the fun he would have doing the holy dance and speaking in tongues with members of the congregation. When he was 10, he became a faith healer, singing gospel songs and touching people, who would testify that they felt better afterwards. Inspired by Brother Joe May, a singing evangelist known as “The Thunderbolt of the West”, Penniman wanted to become a preacher.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Livingston & Evans

October 25, 2019

Livingston & Evans were a songwriting and composing team who worked on movies, television and stage. Both had worked on several movies together and separately such as Nurse Betty, Sunset Blvd., The Godfather, Crime, Inc., and The Godfather III. Jay Livingston died in 2001.

25 Oct 2019
Live Performance Permalink

Liza Minnelli

October 25, 2019

Liza May Minnelli is a legendary American singer and actress. She is the daughter of legendary singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli.

Already established as a nightclub singer and musical theatre actress, she first attracted critical acclaim for her dramatic performances in the movies The Sterile Cuckoo and Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon. Minnelli rose to international stardom for her appearance as Sally Bowles in the 1972 film version of the Broadway musical, Cabaret, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

While film projects such as Lucky Lady, A Matter of Time and New York, New York were less favorably received than her stage roles, Minnelli became one of the most versatile, highly regarded and best-selling entertainers in television, beginning with Liza with a Z in 1972, and on stage in the Broadway productions of Flora the Red Menace, The Act and The Rink. Minnelli also toured internationally and did shows such as Liza Minnelli: At Carnegie Hall, Frank, Liza & Sammy: The Ultimate Event, and Liza Live from Radio City Music Hall.

After years of chronic health problems, including a serious infection with viral encephalitis, she returned with a new concert show, Liza’s Back, in 2002. She did several well-received guest appearances in the sitcom Arrested Development and had a small role in the movie The OH in Ohio, while continuing to tour internationally. In 2008/09 she performed the Broadway show Liza’s at The Palace.! which earned a Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Lizabeth Scott

October 25, 2019

Lizabeth Scott is an American actress and singer widely known for her film noir roles.

She was born Emma Matzo in the Pine Brook section of Scranton, Pennsylvania, one of six children, to Ukrainian born parents who emigrated from Uzhgorod, Ukraine. She attended Central High School and Marywood College.

She later went to New York City and attended the Alvienne School of Drama. In late 1942, she was eking out a precarious living with a small Midtown Manhattan summer stock company when she got a job as understudy for Tallulah Bankhead in Thornton Wilder’s play The Skin of Our Teeth. However, Scott never had an opportunity to substitute for Bankhead.

When Miriam Hopkins was signed to replace Bankhead, Scott quit and returned to her drama studies and some fashion modeling. She then received a call that Gladys George, who was signed to replace Hopkins, was ill, and Scott was needed back at the theatre. She went on in the leading role of “Sabina”, receiving a nod of approval from critics at the tender age of 20. The following night, George was out again and Scott went on in her place.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Lloyd Bacon

October 25, 2019

Lloyd Francis Bacon was a screen, stage, and vaudeville actor and film director.

Bacon started in films with Charlie Chaplin and Bronco Billy Anderson and appeared in more than 40 total. As an actor he is best known for supporting Chaplin in such films as 1915’s The Tramp, The Champion and 1917’s Easy Street.

He also directed over a hundred films between 1920 and 1955. He is best known as director of such classics as 1933’s 42nd Street, 1937’s Ever Since Eve from a screenplay by the playwright Lawrence Riley et al., 1938’s A Slight Case of Murder with Edward G. Robinson, 1939’s Invisible Stripes with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart, 1939’s The Oklahoma Kid with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, 1940’s Knute Rockne, All American with Pat O’Brien and Ronald Reagan, 1943’s Action in the North Atlantic, and 1944’s The Fighting Sullivans with Anne Baxter and Thomas Mitchell. He also directed Wake Up and Dream. Bacon was not related to Irving Bacon, who was a film actor who appeared in a number of Bacon’s films. Irving’s parents were Millar and Myrtle Bacon of St. Joseph, Missouri. Lloyd’s father, Frank Bacon, was the co-author and star of Lightnin‘, which for a while was the longest-running play in Broadway history. His mother was Jennie Bacon, whom he adored.

25 Oct 2019
Television Permalink

Lloyd Bridges

October 25, 2019

Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. was an American actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. Bridges is best known for his role of Mike Nelson in Sea Hunt, which was the top American TV series in 1958. He is the father of Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges.

Bridges was born in San Leandro, California, the son of Harriet Evelyn and Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Sr., who was involved in the California hotel business and once owned a movie theater. Bridges graduated from Petaluma High School in 1931. He studied political science at UCLA, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He met his future wife there, Dorothy Bridges ; they married in 1938 in New York City.

Bridges made his Broadway debut in 1939 in a production of Shakespeare’s Othello. In 1941, he joined the stock company at Columbia Pictures, where he played small roles in features and short subjects. He left Columbia to enlist in the U.S. Coast Guard. Following World War II, he returned to film acting. He was blacklisted briefly in the 1950s after he admitted to the House Un-American Activities Committee that he had once been a member of the Actors’ Lab, a group with links to the Communist Party. He resumed working after being cleared by the FBI, finding his greatest success in television.

Bridges gained wide recognition as Mike Nelson, the main character in the television series Sea Hunt, created by Ivan Tors, which ran in syndication from 1958-1961. Following that success, he starred in the eponymous CBS anthology The Lloyd Bridges Show, which included appearances by his sons Beau and Jeff. Producer Gene Roddenberry, who worked with Bridges on “Sea Hunt”, reportedly offered Bridges the role of Captain Kirk on before the part went to William Shatner. In addition, he was a regular cast member in the Rod Serling western series The Loner, and in the two NBC failures San Francisco International Airport and a Police Story spin-off Joe Forrester. Later, he appeared in Paper Dolls and Capital News, both for ABC, and again with Harts of the West, this time for CBS, a comedy/western set on a dude ranch in Nevada. Son Beau Bridges co-starred, along with Harley Jane Kozak as Beau’s wife, Alison Hart, and Sean Murray as the oldest Hart son, Zane Grey Hart.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Lloyd Hamilton

October 25, 2019

Lloyd Vernon Hamilton was a major silent film star. Hamilton is best remembered as the stocky half of silent comedy’s “Ham and Bud”, and later, his own series of short comedies. Hamilton’s skill was admired by his fellow comedians, thus contributing to his reputation as a comedian’s comedian?according to Oscar Levant, Charlie Chaplin singled him out as the one actor of whom he was jealous, Buster Keaton in an interview praised him as “one of the funniest men in pictures,” while Charley Chase, who early in his career had directed Hamilton in a number of short subjects, stated that he would often ask himself “how would ‘Ham’ Hamilton play this?” before shooting a scene.

In his solo comedies, the husky Hamilton adopted the persona of a slightly prissy, overgrown boy, and his films often have surreal touches: in The Movies he tearfully bids goodbye to his mother to go to the city, turns his back on the family farm, and steps directly into the city which is right next door. In Move Along he neatly lays his trousers in the street, to have a steamroller press them. Few of Hamilton’s silent comedies survive; they were produced by Educational Pictures, which suffered a laboratory fire in 1937. Those of Hamilton’s films that do exist are often prized by comedy collectors and silent-film enthusiasts.

Hamilton was a heavy drinker, and it has long been claimed that he would often turn rather violent when intoxicated. In the late 1920s he was in a speakeasy when a boxer was murdered, and after the incident the motion picture authorities banned him from pictures. By 1929 he was back on screen in talking pictures but his continued drinking affected his health. Meanwhile, his alcoholism also affected his family life; he was married twice, first to Ethel Lloyd and later to Irene Dalton, but each marriage turned disastrous and did not last long.

Hamilton’s last starring series was a string of two-reel comedies produced by Mack Sennett. He continued to play the hapless victim of circumstance, as in Too Many Highballs where Hamilton tries to park his car and keeps getting boxed in by motorists. When the Sennett series lapsed, there was talk of Hamilton joining the Hal Roach studio, but Roach knew of Hamilton’s notorious alcohol abuse and declined to hire him. Hamilton’s facial features had acquired deep lines and hollows from heavy drinking, and he no longer looked like the “overgrown boy” in his final films.