25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Godzilla

October 25, 2019

is a daikaij?, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishiro Honda’s 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games, novels, comic books, television series, and an American remake. An American reboot is currently in the works by Legendary Pictures.

With the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still fresh in the Japanese consciousness, Godzilla was conceived as a monster created by nuclear explosions and a metaphor for nuclear weapons in general. As the film series expanded, the stories took on less serious undertones portraying Godzilla in the role of a hero, while later movies returned to depicting the character as a destructive monster.

is a combination of two Japanese words:, and, which is fitting because in one planning stage, Godzilla was described as “a cross between a gorilla and a whale”, alluding to his size, power and aquatic origin. A popular story is that “Gojira” was actually the nickname of a hulking stagehand at Toho Studio. The story has not been verified, however, because in the fifty years since the film’s original release, no one claiming to be the employee has ever stepped forward and no photographs have ever surfaced.

Godzilla’s name was written in man’y?gana as, thus the kanji used were for phonetic value and not for meaning. Many Japanese books on Godzilla have referenced this curious fact, including B Media Books Special: Gojira Gahô, published by Take-Shobo in three different editions .

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Gilda Gray

October 25, 2019

Gilda Gray was a Polish born American actress and dancer who became famous in the US for popularizing a dance called the "shimmy" which became fashionable in 1920s films and theater productions.

Gilda Gray was born as Marianna Michalska in Kraków, Poland on 24 October 1901 to Max and Wanda Michalski, who emigrated to the United States in 1909 and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She had one sibling, Josephine Michalska, Mrs. Sielecki.

When Marianna was 14 or 15 years old she married John Gorecki, a concert violinist. The couple, who divorced in 1923, had one son, Martin Gorecki, who became a bandleader under the name Martin Gray. An obituary published in Time magazine claimed that Gilda Gray was reportedly married at 11 and became a mother at 12.

Although the shimmy is said to have been introduced to American audiences by Gray in New York in 1919, other sources say that her shimmy was born one night when she was singing the Star Spangled Banner and forgot some of the lyrics. She covered up her embarrassment by shaking her shoulders and hips. Although the shimmy was already a well-known dance move, Marianna appropriated it as her own when she was asked about her dancing style, she replied in a heavy Polish accent; "I'm shaking my chemise," which sounded to the English-speaking audience like shimmy.

25 Oct 2019
Television Permalink

Gilda Radner

October 25, 2019

Gilda Susan Radner was an American comedienne and actress, best known for her five years as part of the original cast of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, for which she won an Emmy Award. Radner’s death at age 42 from ovarian cancer helped increase public awareness of the disease and the need for earlier detection and treatment.

Radner was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Jewish parents Henrietta, a legal secretary, and Herman Radner, a businessman. She grew up in Detroit with a nanny, Elizabeth Clementine Gillies, whom she called “Dibby”, and an older brother named Michael. She attended the University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe. Radner wrote in her autobiography It’s Always Something toward the end of her life, “I coped with stress by having every possible eating disorder from the time I was nine years old. I have weighed as much as 160 pounds and as little as 93. When I was a kid, I overate constantly. My weight distressed my mother and she took me to a doctor who put me on Dexedrine diet pills when I was ten years old.”

Radner was close to her father, who operated Detroit’s Seville Hotel, where many nightclub performers and actors stayed while performing in the city. Her father, who died when she was fourteen, took her on trips to New York to see Broadway shows.

Radner enrolled at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where she made a lifelong platonic friend of fellow student, David Saltman, who wrote a biography of her after her death. Radner joined Saltman and his girlfriend on a trip to Paris in the summer of 1966. Saltman wrote that he was so affectionate with his girlfriend that they left Radner to fend for herself during much of their sightseeing. Later, when details of Radner’s eating disorder surfaced, Saltman wrote that he realized she had been in a quandary over the French food, but had no one with whom she could discuss her situation.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Ginger Rogers

October 25, 2019

Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century.

During her long career, she made a total of 73 films, and is noted for her role as Fred Astaire’s romantic interest and dancing partner, in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre. She also achieved great success in a variety of film roles, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kitty Foyle. She ranks #14 on the AFI’s 100 Years.100 Stars list, of actress screen legends.

Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri, the daughter of William Eddins McMath, an electrical engineer, and his wife Lela Emogene Owens. Ginger’s parents separated soon after her birth, and she and her mother went to live with her grandparents, Walter and Saphrona Owens, in nearby Kansas City. Rogers’ parents fought over her custody, with her father even kidnapping her twice. After the parents divorced, Rogers stayed with her grandparents while her mother wrote scripts for two years in Hollywood.

Rogers was to remain close to her grandfather .

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Ginny Simms

October 25, 2019

Ginny Simms, was a big band singer and film actress. She appeared in 11 movies from 1939 to 1951, when she retired. She was married three times, to Hyatt Hotels founder Hyatt von Dehn from 1945 to 1951, to Bob Calhoun from 1951 to 1952, and Don Eastvold from 22 June 1962 until her death on 4 April 1994.

She originally considered studying to become a concert pianist, but enrolled instead at Fresno State Teachers College. While there, she began performing in campus productions, singing with sorority sisters and even forming a popular campus vocal trio. Shortly afterward, she struck out on her own to establish a solo singing career and by 1932, she had her own program on a local radio station.

Also in 1932, she became band vocalist for the Tom Gerun band in San Francisco, working together with other vocalists including a young Tony Martin and Woody Herman. She joined the Kay Kyser Orchestra in 1938, where she received her first national exposure appearing on radio shows and in films with Kyser. She made her first movie with Kyser and Lucille Ball, That?s Right You?re Wrong. She nearly married Kyser but left his orchestra in 1941 to do her own radio show.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Gisele MacKenzie

October 25, 2019

Gisèle MacKenzie was a Canadian-American singer, most famous for her performances on the popular television program Your Hit Parade.

She was born Gisèle Marie-Louise Marguerite LaFlèche in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and studied violin and voice at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Ontario. She had her own Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio program, Meet Gisèle, before moving to Los Angeles, California, in 1951. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1955.

MacKenzie possessed a crystalline, resonant singing voice, and perfect pitch. She recorded albums and singles on various record labels, most notably Capitol and RCA. In 1953 she reached #6 in the UK Singles Chart, with her rendition of “Seven Lonely Days”. Her biggest selling song was “Hard To Get” in 1955.

MacKenzie was an accomplished violinist and performed many comedic musical duets with mentor Jack Benny. She remarked that Benny was so enthusiastic about his own violin playing that at each break in rehearsal he would get his violin and they would play duets. In an often-played clip, she and Benny perform a violin duet of “Getting To Know You”, in which she breaks their synchronization several times to add some extra musical flourishes, to his mock irritation. Finally, he breaks in with a lengthy flourish of his own, and evokes audience laughter with mock indignation: “Fool around with ME, sister!”

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Gladys Knight

October 25, 2019

Gladys Maria Knight, known as the “Empress of Soul”, is an American R&B/soul singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author. She is best known for the hits she recorded during the 1960s and 1970s, for both the Motown and Buddah Records labels, with her group Gladys Knight & the Pips, the most famous incarnation of which also included her brother Merald “Bubba” Knight and her cousins Edward Patten and William Guest.

Knight was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of Sarah Elizabeth and Merald Woodlow Knight, Sr., a postal worker. She first achieved minor fame by winning Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour TV show contest at the age of 7 in 1952. The following year, she, her brother Merald, sister Brenda, and cousins William and Elenor Guest formed a musical group called The Pips. By the end of the decade, the act had begun to tour, and had replaced Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest with Gladys Knight’s cousin Edward Patten and friend Langston George.

Knight discovered she was pregnant in 1960, and married her high school sweetheart James Newman. After a miscarriage, Knight returned to performing with the Pips. In 1961, Bobby Robinson produced the single “Every Beat of My Heart” for the group, which became a #1 R&B and #6 pop hit when released on Vee-Jay Records. In 1962, Langston George left the group, which at that time renamed itself Gladys Knight & the Pips and continued as a quartet.

In 1962, after scoring a second hit, “Letter Full of Tears”, Knight became pregnant again and gave birth to a son, Jimmy III, that year. She retired from the road to raise her child while The Pips toured on their own. After giving birth in 1963 to a daughter, Kenya, Knight returned to recording with the Pips in order to support her family.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Gladys Swarthout

October 25, 2019

Gladys Swarthout was an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She was born in Deepwater, Missouri.

While studying at the Bush Conservatory of Music in Chicago, a group of friends arranged an audition for her with the Chicago Civic Opera Company. Much to her surprise, she ended up with a contract, though at the time she didn’t know a single operatic role. By her debut a few months later, she had memorized 23 parts and participated in over half of the season’s operas. She sang for the Ravinia Opera Company of Chicago for three seasons. In 1929, she made her debut with the New York Metropolitan Opera Company, where she was a participant for several decades.

She regularly worked eight hours a day with vocal coaches, and would spend an hour or more singing duets with her husband. She also advocated inflating balloons and blowing bubbles to strengthen the chest.

She starred in five films for Paramount Pictures, including Rose of the Rancho, Give Us This Night and Ambush. For the movie Champagne Waltz with Fred MacMurray, she sang her songs in five languages, including French, German, Italian, and Spanish for the foreign versions of the films.

25 Oct 2019
Television Permalink

Glen A. Larson

October 25, 2019

Glen Albert Larson is an American television producer and writer best known as creator of the series Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Knight Rider.

Larson began his career in the entertainment industry in 1956 as a member of the vocal group The Four Preps, with whom he appeared in one of the Gidget films. The Four Preps ultimately produced three gold records for Capitol, all of which Larson wrote and/or composed: “26 Miles ,” “Big Man” and “Down By The Station.” A later member of the Four Preps, David Somerville, and a session singer he knew, Gail Jensen, later collaborated with Larson to write and compose “The Unknown Stuntman,” the theme from The Fall Guy, whose lead cast member, actor Lee Majors, performed the selection over the opening titles.

After working for Quinn Martin Sr. on productions including The Fugitive, Larson signed a production deal with Universal Studios. His first hit series was Alias Smith and Jones, a Western which described the activities of Hannibal Heyes and “Kid Curry,” concentrating on their efforts to go straight.

Larson was involved in the development for television of The Six Million Dollar Man, based on Martin Caidin’s novel Cyborg, into the successful series that starred Lee Majors in the title role, and was one of the program’s early executive producers.

25 Oct 2019
Radio, Recording Permalink

Glen Campbell

October 25, 2019

In memory of Walk of Famer Glen Campbell, flowers were placed on his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, August 8, 2017 at 4 PM PDT. The star in category of Recording is located at 6927 Hollywood Boulevard. “Goodbye Glen, Rhinestone Cowboy. RIP.” Ana Martinez, Producer of the Hollywood Walk of Fame signed the card on behalf of the Hollywood Historic Trust and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

Glen Travis Campbell is a Grammy, Dove Award-winning and two time nominated Golden Globe American country pop singer, guitarist and occasional actor. He is best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for hosting a television variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television.

Campbell's hits include John Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind", Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Wichita Lineman", Allen Toussaint's "Southern Nights" and Larry Weiss's "Rhinestone Cowboy". Campbell made history by winning a Grammy in both country and pop categories in 1967: "Gentle on My Mind" snatched the country honors, and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" won in pop. He owns trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the CMA and the ACM, and took the CMA's top honor as Entertainer of the Year.

During his 50 years in show business, Campbell has released more than 70 albums. He has sold 45 million records and racked up 12 RIAA Gold albums, 4 Platinum albums and 1 Double-Platinum album. Of his 75 trips up the charts, 27 landed in the Top 10. Campbell was hand-picked by actor John Wayne to play alongside him in the 1969 film True Grit, which gave Campbell a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer, and gave Wayne his only Academy Award. Campbell sang and had a hit with the title song which was nominated for an Academy Award. He performed it live at that year's Academy Awards Show.

In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.