25 Oct 2019
Radio, Recording Permalink

Garth Brooks

October 25, 2019

Troyal Garth Brooks, best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at #2 in the US country album chart while climbing to #13 on the Billboard 200 pop album chart. Brooks’ integration of rock elements into his recordings and live performances has earned him immense popularity. This progressive approach allowed him to dominate the country single and album charts while quickly crossing over into the mainstream pop arena, exposing country music to a larger audience.

Brooks has enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history, breaking records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the 1990s. Garth Brooks still continues to sell well and according to Nielsen Soundscan, his album sales through the end of 2009 are at 68,363,000, which makes him the best-selling albums artist in the United States in the SoundScan era, a title held since 1991, well over 7 million ahead of his nearest rival, The Beatles. Furthermore, according to RIAA he is the best-selling solo albums artist in the United States of all time with 128 million units sold. Brooks has released six albums that achieved diamond status in the United States, those being: Garth Brooks, No Fences, Ropin’ the Wind, The Hits, Sevens and Double Live. Since 1989, Brooks has released 19 records in all, which include; 9 studio albums, 1 live album, 4 compilation albums, 3 Christmas albums and 2 box sets, along with 77 singles. He won several important awards in his career as 2 Grammy Awards, 16 American Music Awards and the RIAA Award as Best selling solo albums artist of the Century in the United States. As of 2010, Brooks’ world-wide sales now exceed 200 million. Troubled by conflicts between career and family, Brooks officially retired from recording and performing from 2001 until 2009. During this time he sold millions of albums through an exclusive distribution deal with Wal-Mart and has sporadically released new singles. In 2005, Brooks started a partial comeback, and has since given several performances and released two compilation albums.

On October 15, 2009, Garth Brooks announced the end of his retirement. In December 2009, he began a 5 year concert deal with the Encore Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Freddie Prinze

October 25, 2019

Freddie Prinze was an American actor and stand-up comedian. He was best known as the star of Chico and the Man. He was the father of actor Freddie Prinze, Jr.

Prinze was born Frederick Karl Pruetzel at St. Clair’s Hospital in New York City, the son of Maria Pruetzel Graniela and Edward Karl Pruetzel. His mother was Puerto Rican, and his father, a Hungarian of Lutheran and Jewish backgrounds, immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in 1934. He self identified as Puerto Rican, and for comedic purposes called himself a Hunga Rican.

Prinze was raised in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood in Washington Heights, New York City. He began his education at a private Lutheran school, in a religious compromise by his parents. When Prinze was a small child, his mother enrolled him in ballet classes to deal with his weight problem. Without telling his parents, Prinze successfully auditioned for the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, where he was introduced to drama and continued ballet?and where he discovered his gift for comedy while entertaining crowds in the boys restroom. He was also a small time hustler and drug dealer in his neighborhood of 157th Street and Broadway. He dropped out of school in his senior year to become a stand-up comedian.

Prinze worked at several comedy clubs in New York City, including The Improv and Catch a Rising Star where he introduced himself to audiences as a “Hungarican”. For the sake of his budding comedic career, he changed his surname to “Prinze”, which he chose because, according to his friend David Brenner, he originally wanted to be known as the King of comedy, but Alan King already had that last name, so he would be the Prince of comedy instead.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Freddy Fender

October 25, 2019

Freddy Fender, born Baldemar Garza Huerta in San Benito, Texas, United States, was an American Tejano, country and rock and roll musician, known for his work as a solo artist and in the groups Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados. He is best known for his 1975 hits “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” and the subsequent remake of his own “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”.

By age 10, had his first radio appearance on Harlingen’s KGBS-AM radio station, where he sang a current hit “Paloma Querida”, on KGBT in Harlingen, Texas.

In January 1954, at the age of 16, Fender quit school and started a three-year hitch in the United States Marine Corps. However, he was court-martialed in August 1956 and was discharged with rank of Private. He returned to Texas and played nightclubs, bars and honky-tonks throughout the south, mostly to Latino audiences. In 1957, then known as El Bebop Kid, he released two songs to moderate success in Mexico and South America: Spanish-language versions of Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” and Harry Belafonte’s “Jamaica Farewell.” He also recorded his own Spanish version of Hank Williams’s “Cold Cold Heart” under the title “Tu Frio Corazon”.

He became known for his rockabilly music and his cool persona as Eddie Con Los Shades. In 1958, the musician changed his name from Baldemar Huerta to Freddy Fender. He took Fender from the guitar and amplifier, and Freddy because the alliteration sounded good to him and it would,”.sell better with Gringos!” He then headed for California.

25 Oct 2019
Recording Permalink

Freddy Martin

October 25, 2019

Frederick Alfred Martin was an American bandleader and tenor saxophonist.

Martin was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Raised largely in an orphanage and with various relatives, Martin started out playing drums, then switched to C-melody saxophone and later tenor saxophone, the latter the one he would be identified with. Early on, he had intended to become a journalist. He had hoped that he would earn enough money from his musical work to enter Ohio State, but instead, he wound up becoming an accomplished musician. Martin led his own band while he was in high school, then played in various local bands. After working on a ship's band, Martin joined the Mason-Dixon band, then joined Arnold Johnson and Jack Albin. It was with Albin's "Hotel Pennsylvania Music" that he made his first recordings, for Columbia's Harmony, Velvet Tone, and Clarion 50 cent labels in 1930.

After a couple of years, his skill began attracting other musicians. One such musician was Guy Lombardo, who would remain friends with Martin throughout his life. There is a story about Lombardo and Martin. After graduation from high school, Martin accepted a job at the H.N. White musical instrument company. When Lombardo was playing in Cleveland, Martin tried giving Lombardo some saxophones, which proved unsuccessful. Fortunately, Lombardo did get to hear Freddy?s band. One night, when Guy could not do a certain date, he suggested that Freddy?s band could fill in for him. The band did very well and that?s how Martin?s career really got started. But the band broke up and he did not form a permanent band until 1931 at the Bossert Hotel in Brooklyn.

At the Bossert Marine Room, Freddy pioneered the "Tenor Band" style that swept the sweet-music industry. With his own tenor sax as melodic lead, Martin fronted an all-tenor sax section with just two brasses and a violin trio plus rhythm. The rich, lilting style quickly spawned imitators in hotels and ballrooms nationwide. "Tenor bands", usually with just the three tenors and one trumpet, could occasionally be found playing for older dancers well into the 1980s.

25 Oct 2019
Recording Permalink

Frederick Stock

October 25, 2019

Frederick Stock was a German conductor and composer.

Stock was born in Jülich, Germany and given his early musical education by his army bandmaster father. At the age of fourteen, Frederick Stock was admitted into the Cologne Conservatory as a student of violin and composition, where he counted Engelbert Humperdinck as one of his teachers, and Willem Mengelberg among his classmates. After graduating from the conservatory in 1890, Stock was accepted to the Municipal Orchestra of Cologne as a violinist.

In 1895, Stock met with Theodore Thomas, founder and first music director of the then fledgling Chicago Orchestra and the man who was to have a decisive impact on Stock’s future. Thomas, who was then visiting Germany in search of recruits for his Chicago Orchestra, auditioned Stock and gave him a position as violist in the orchestra. Thomas soon realized, however, that his new violist was also a very talented conductor and in 1899, Stock was promoted to assistant conductor.

After the death of Theodore Thomas on January 4, 1905, Frederick Stock took over the immediate duties of music director. That year, he wrote a symphonic poem Eines Menschenlebens Morgen, Mittag, und Abend, dedicated to “Theodore Thomas and the Members of the Chicago Orchestra.” The work was first performed on April 7 and 8, 1905.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Fredric March

October 25, 2019

Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and in 1946 for The Best Years of Our Lives.

March was born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel in Racine, Wisconsin, the son of Cora Brown, a schoolteacher, and John F. Bickel, a devout

Presbyterian Church elder who worked in the wholesale hardware business. March attended the Winslow Elementary School, Racine High School, and the University of Wisconsin?Madison where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi. He began a career as a banker, but an emergency appendectomy caused him to reevaluate his life, and in 1920 he began working as an extra in movies made in New York City, using a shortened form of his mother’s maiden name, Marcher. He appeared on Broadway in 1926, and by the end of the decade signed a film contract with Paramount Pictures.

March received an Oscar nomination in 1930 for The Royal Family of Broadway, in which he played a role based upon John Barrymore. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, leading to a series of classic films based on stage hits and classic novels like Design for Living, Death Takes a Holiday, Les Misérables, Anthony Adverse, and as the original Norman Maine in A Star is Born, for which he received his third Oscar nomination.

25 Oct 2019
Radio, Recording Permalink

Freeman Gosden

October 25, 2019

Freeman Fisher “Gozzie” Gosden was an American radio comedian, and pioneer in the development of the situation comedy form. He is best known for his work in the Amos ‘n’ Andy series.

Freeman Gosden was born in Richmond, Virginia. During World War I he served in the United States Navy as a wireless operator, which prompted his great interest in the young medium of radio. While attending school in Richmond, Gozzie worked part time in Tarrant’s Drug Store at 1 West Broad Street.

In 1921 Gosden first teamed up with Charles Correll to do radio work, presenting comedy acts, sketches, and hosting variety shows. They met in Durham, North Carolina, both working for the Joe Bren Producing Company. Their first regular show came in 1925 with their WEBH Chicago show Correll and Gosden, the Life of the Party. On this show the two told jokes, sang, and played music. In 1926 Gosden and Correll had a hit with their radio show Sam & Henry on Chicago radio station WGN. Sam & Henry is considered by some historians to have been the first situation comedy.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Fritz Kreisler

October 25, 2019

Friedrich 'Fritz' Kreisler was an Austrian-born violin virtuoso and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately recognizable as his own. Although he derived in many respects from the Franco-Belgian school, his style is nonetheless reminiscent of the gemütlich lifestyle of pre-war Vienna.

Kreisler was born in Vienna to a Jewish father and a German Protestant mother; he was baptised at age twelve. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory and in Paris, where his teachers included Anton Bruckner, Léo Delibes, Jakob Dont, Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr., Joseph Massart, and Jules Massenet. He made his United States debut at Steinway Hall in New York City on November 10, 1888, and his first tour of the United States in 1888-89 with Moriz Rosenthal, then returned to Austria and applied for a position in the Vienna Philharmonic. He was turned down by the concertmaster Arnold Rosé. Hearing a recording of the Rosé Quartet, it is easy to hear why – Rosé was sparing in his use of vibrato, and Kreisler would not have blended successfully with the orchestra's violin section. As a result, he left music to study medicine. He spent a brief time in the army before returning to the violin in 1899, giving a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Arthur Nikisch. It was this concert and a series of American tours from 1901 to 1903 that brought him real acclaim.

In 1910, Kreisler gave the premiere of Sir Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto, a work commissioned by and dedicated to him. He briefly served in the Austrian Army in World War I before being honourably discharged after he was wounded. He spent the remaining years of the war in America. He returned to Europe in 1924, living first in Berlin, then moving to France in 1938. Shortly thereafter, at the outbreak of World War II, he settled once again in the United States, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1943. He lived in that country for the rest of his life. He gave his last public concert in 1947 and broadcast performances for a few years after that.

On April 26, 1941, he was involved in the first of two traffic accidents that marked his life. Struck by a truck while crossing a street in New York, he fractured his skull, and was in a coma for over a week. Towards the end of his life, he was in another accident while traveling in an automobile, and spent his last days blind and deaf from that accident, but he "radiated a gentleness and refinement not unlike his music," according to Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen who visited him frequently during that time. He died in New York City in 1962 and was interred in a private mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Fritz Lang

October 25, 2019

Friedrich “Fritz” Christian Anton Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany’s school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the “Master of Darkness” by the British Film Institute. His most famous films are the groundbreaking Metropolis and M, made before he moved to the United States, his iconic contribution to the film noir genre.

Lang was born in Vienna as the second son of Anton Lang, an architect and construction company manager, and his wife Pauline “Paula” Lang née Schlesinger. Fritz Lang himself was baptized on 28 December 1890 at the Schottenkirche in Vienna.

Lang’s parents were of Moravian descent and practicing Roman Catholics, his mother having been born Jewish and converted to Catholicism when Fritz was ten. His mother took this conversion seriously and was dedicated to raising Fritz as a Catholic. Lang never had an interest in his Jewish heritage and identified himself as Catholic. Although he was not a particularly devout Catholic, he “regularly used Catholic images and themes in his films”.

After finishing school, Lang briefly attended the Technical University of Vienna, where he studied civil engineering and eventually switched to art. In 1910 he left Vienna to see the world, traveling throughout Europe and Africa and later Asia and the Pacific area. In 1913, he studied painting in Paris, France.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Fred Zinnemann

October 25, 2019

Fred Zinnemann was an Austrian-American film director. He won four Academy Awards and directed movies like High Noon, From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons.

Zinnemann was born to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, and died of a heart attack in London, England. While growing up in Austria, he wanted to become a musician, but went on to study law. While studying at the University of Vienna, he became drawn to films and eventually became a cameraman. He worked in Germany with several other beginners before going to America to study film.

One of his first assignments in Hollywood was when he found work as an extra in All Quiet on the Western Front, although he was fired from the production for talking back to the director, Lewis Milestone. After some success with short films, he graduated to features in 1942, turning out two crisp B mysteries, Eyes in the Night and Kid Glove Killer before getting his big break with The Seventh Cross, starring Spencer Tracy, which was his first hit.

He directed many different film genres including thrillers, westerns, film noir, and play adaptations. Nineteen actors appearing in Zinnemann’s films received Academy Award nominations for their performances: among that number are Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn, Glynis Johns, Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, Wendy Hiller, Jason Robards, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda, Gary Cooper and Maximilian Schell. Zinnemann’s 1950 film The Men is noted for giving Marlon Brando his first screen role.