25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Wallace Beery

October 25, 2019

Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill opposite Marie Dressler, his titular role in a series of films featuring the character Sweedie, and his titular role in The Champ, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 movies over a 36-year span.

Beery was born in Kansas City, Missouri to Noah W. and Marguerite Beery. He was a younger brother of actor/film executive William Beery and actor Noah Beery, who also had long careers in the motion picture industry. He was an uncle of actor Noah Beery, Jr. According to U.S. Census records, all three Beery brothers were born to the same parents, making them full brothers and not half-brothers as many biographies have claimed.

Wallace Beery ran away from home and joined the Ringling Brothers Circus at age sixteen as an assistant elephant trainer. He left two years later, after being clawed by a leopard. Beery found work in New York City in comic opera as a baritone and began to appear on Broadway. In 1913, Essanay Studios, cast as “Sweedie, The Swedish Maid,” a masculine character in drag. Later, he worked for the Essanay Studios location in Niles, California.

In 1915, Beery starred with his wife Gloria Swanson in Sweedie Goes to College. This marriage did not survive his drinking and abuse. Beery began playing villains, and in 1917 portrayed Pancho Villa in Patria at a time when Villa was still active in Mexico. Beery reprised the role seventeen years later in one of MGM’s biggest hits.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Wallace Reid

October 25, 2019

Wallace Reid was an actor in silent film referred to by Motion Picture Magazine as “the screen’s most perfect lover”.

Born William Wallace Reid in St. Louis, Missouri into a show business family, his mother Bertha Westbrook was an actress and his father, Hal Reid, worked successfully in a variety of theatrical jobs, travelling the country. As a boy, Wallace Reid was performing on stage at an early age but acting was put on hold while he obtained an education at Freehold Military School in Freehold Township, New Jersey. Reid actually graduated from Perkiomen Seminary in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania in 1909. A gifted all-around athlete, Reid participated in a number of sports while also following an interest in music, learning to play the piano, banjo, drums, and the violin. As a teenager, he spent time in Wyoming where he learned to be an outdoorsman.

Reid was drawn to the burgeoning motion picture industry by his father, who would shift from the theatre to acting, writing, and directing films. In 1910, Reid appeared in his first film, The Phoenix, an adaptation of a Milton Nobles play filmed at Selig Polyscope Studios in Chicago. Reid used the script from a play his father had written and approached the very successful Vitagraph Studios hoping to be given the opportunity to direct. Instead, Vitagraph executives capitalized on his sex appeal and in addition to having him direct, they cast him in a major role. Although Reid’s good looks and powerful physique made him the perfect “matinee idol,” he was equally happy with roles behind the scenes and often worked as a writer, cameraman, and director.

Wallace Reid appeared in several films with his father and, as his career in film flourished, he was soon acting and directing with and for early film mogul Allan Dwan. In 1913, while at Universal Pictures, Reid met and married actress Dorothy Davenport. He was featured in both Birth of a Nation and Intolerance both directed by D.W. Griffith, and starred opposite leading ladies such as Florence Turner, Gloria Swanson, Lillian Gish, Elsie Ferguson, and Geraldine Farrar en route to becoming one of Hollywood’s major heartthrobs.

25 Oct 2019
Recording Permalink

The Village People

October 25, 2019

Pop Culture Music icon The Village People celebrated their 30th anniversary with the 2,369th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Village People include Alexander Briley, David Hodo, Ray Simpson, Felipe Rose, Jeff Olson, and Eric Anzalone. Leron Gubler, President and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, presided over the ceremony.

BIOGRAPHY

Village People forever changed the landscape of pop music and pop culture when the group's first two mega hit singles, San Francisco/Hollywood in 1977 and Macho Man in 1978, became the anthems for a generation of teens and young adults seeking the freedom to dance, sing and express themselves with a new kind of music. The group has since sold more than 100 million albums and singles internationally, and remains as popular today as it was then. From faithful fans who were there in the beginning, to new, younger audiences who have found their own meaning in the music and performance, Village People continues to perform to sell-out crowds around the world.

MUSIC HISTORY IN THE MAKING:

In 1977, producer/composer Jacques Morali, with partner Henri Belolo, couldn't help but notice Felipe Rose dancing in his Indian costume before an enthusiastic crowd in New York's Greenwich Village. Rose's performance, and the response he was getting, made a significant impression on Morali and Belolo. Later, they began to contemplate the entertainment impact and potential for success that a group of guys representing the many Village icons might have on a larger, mass audience.

Village People quickly became both a major recording and live concert success. Their biggest hit records include YMCA, Macho Man, In The Navy, Can't Stop the Music, Go West and San Francisco/Hollywood. YMCA is, to date, their best selling single, amassing sales of over 12 million units worldwide (three million in the U.S. alone). Their catalog of combined LP's and singles has topped 100 million in worldwide sales. Both Madonna and Michael Jackson have performed as opening acts for the group.

Celebrating 30 years as international disco music icons, Village People continues to perform to sold-out audiences around the world, entertaining ardent fans and followers from the early days to new, younger fans who are discovering the group and their music for themselves. This year alone, the group has performed in Brazil, Finland, Ireland, South Africa, France, Italy, Spain, Romania, Poland and Canada; and many states in the U.S., including California, Michigan, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Tennessee, Minnesota, Arizona, Nevada, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

Today, the Village People legacy endures and continues to be reinvented through the six performers who don the iconic costumes that first captured and captivated the world's attention in 1977.

They are:

Ray Simpson, who replaced Victor Willis as the group's lead singer/Cop character in 1979, beginning with the group's cult hit film Can't Stop the Music. He is the brother of Valerie Simpson, of the legendary songwriting/recording team Ashford & Simpson.

Felipe Rose, who is the one and only Indian, and was the basis for the creation of the group. He is half-Native American and half-Puerto Rican. Felipe is active in Native American affairs.

Alexander Briley, the one and only G.I./Military Man.

David Hodo, the original Construction Man (he took a leave from the group for a few years in the mid-1980's).

Jeff Olson, who replaced Randy Jones as the Cowboy in 1980, just after Can't Stop the Music.

Eric Anzalone, who became the group's Biker/Leatherman in 1995, after the death from lung cancer of original member Glenn Hughes.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Vilma Bánky

October 25, 2019

Vilma Bánky was a Hungarian-born American silent film actress, although the early part of her acting career began in Budapest, spreading to France, Austria, and Germany.

She was born Vilma Koncsics on January 9, 1901 to János Koncsics and Katalin Ulbert in Nagydorog, Austria-Hungary. Her father was a bureau chief under Franz Joseph’s Austro-Hungarian Empire. Shortly after her birth, her father was transferred to Budapest, and the family relocated.

She had two siblings ? an older brother, Gyula, and a younger sister, Gisella. After graduation from secondary school, Bánky took courses to work as a stenographer, but was offered a role in a film. Acting had been her interest since she was a young girl.

Her first film appearance was in the now lost film, Im Letzten Augenblick, directed by Carl Boese in Germany in 1919. On a trip to Budapest in 1925, Hollywood film producer Samuel Goldwyn discovered and signed her to a contract. Both her mother and father were vehemently against Bánky’s acting career as was her fiancé; nonetheless she left for the United States in March 1925, arriving to a great deal of fanfare.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Vincent Price

October 25, 2019

Vincent Leonard Price II was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.

Price was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Marguerite Cobb and Vincent Leonard Price, Sr., who was the president of the National Candy Company. His grandfather, Vincent Clarence Price, invented “Dr. Price’s Baking Powder”, the first cream of tartar baking powder, and secured the family’s fortune.

Price attended St. Louis Country Day School. He was further educated at Yale in art history and fine art. He was a member of the Courtauld Institute, London. He became interested in the theatre during the 1930s, appearing professionally on stage from 1935.

He made his film debut in 1938 with Service de Luxe and established himself in the film Laura, opposite Gene Tierney, directed by Otto Preminger. He also played Joseph Smith, Jr. in the movie Brigham Young, as well as a pretentious priest in The Keys of the Kingdom .

25 Oct 2019
Radio Permalink

Vin Scully

October 25, 2019

Vincent Edward Scully is an American sportscaster, known primarily as the play-by-play voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team on Prime Ticket, KCAL-TV and KABC radio. His 61 seasons with the Dodgers is the longest of any broadcaster with a single club in professional sports history, and he is second by a year to only Tommy Lasorda in terms of length of years with the Dodgers organization in any capacity.

Scully received the Ford Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, and was honored with a Life Achievement Emmy Award for sportscasting and induction into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995. The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association has named Scully as National Sportscaster of the Year three times and California Sportscaster of the Year 29 times, and inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1991. He was named both Broadcaster of the Century by the American Sportscasters Association and top sportscaster of all-time on its Top 50 list. Scully has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6675 Hollywood Blvd.

Born in The Bronx, Scully grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. He made ends meet by delivering beer and mail, pushing garment racks, and cleaning silver in the basement of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City. His father was a silk salesman; his mother a Roman Catholic homemaker of Irish descent with red hair like her son. Scully attended high school at Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx. As a kid growing up in Washington Heights, he was a big Mel Ott fan. He knew he wanted to be a sports announcer the moment he became fascinated with football broadcasts on his radio.

Scully began his career as a student broadcaster and journalist at Fordham University. While at Fordham, he helped form its FM radio station WFUV, was assistant sports editor for Volume 28 of The Fordham Ram his senior year, sang in a barbershop quartet, played center field for the Fordham Rams baseball team, got a degree, and sent about 150 letters to stations along the Eastern seaboard. He got only one response, from CBS Radio affiliate WTOP in Washington, which made him a fill-in.

25 Oct 2019
Recording Permalink

Vikki Carr

October 25, 2019

Vikki Carr is an American singer from Mexican origins, who has performed in a variety of music genres, including jazz, pop and country, but has enjoyed her greatest success singing in Spanish. Carr is a blond and blue-eyed white Hispanic.

After taking the stage name ‘Vikki Carr’ the singer signed with Liberty Records in 1962. Her first single to achieve any success was “He’s a Rebel”, which in 1962 reached No. 5 in Australia and No. 115 in the United States. Producer Phil Spector heard Carr cutting the song in the studio, and immediately recorded a cover version billed to The Crystals that reached No. 1 in the United States. In 1966, Carr toured Vietnam with actor/comedian Danny Kaye. The following year her album It Must Be Him was nominated for three Grammy Awards. The title track reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in 1967. “It Must Be Him” sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. She had two other songs make the US called her “the best girl singer in the business”. Carr had 10 singles which made the US pop charts and 13 albums which made the US pop album charts.

In 1968, she taped six specials for London Weekend TV. She appeared on various television programs, such as ABC’s The Bing Crosby Show in the 1964-1965 season. In 1970, she was named “Woman of the Year” by the Los Angeles Times. She guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1973. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1981. Carr also achieved the rare feat of singing for five presidents during her career: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton. Ford writes in his autobiography, A Time to Heal, that when Carr appeared at the White House, she asked the president, “What Mexican dish do you like?” His response: “I like you.” He goes on to write that the First Lady was not pleased: “Betty overheard the exchange, and needless to say, she wasn’t wild about it.”

In the 1980s and 1990s Carr had enormous success in the Latin music world, winning Grammy Awards for Best Mexican-American Performance in 1986 for her album Simplemente Mujer; Best Latin Pop Album in 1992 for Cosas del Amor; and Best Mexican-American Performance in 1995 for Recuerdo a Javier Solis. She also received Grammy nominations for the discs Brindo a La Vida, Al Bolero, A Ti and Emociones. Her numerous Spanish-language hit singles include “Total,” “Discúlpame,” “Déjame,” “Hay Otro en Tu Lugar,” “Esos Hombres,” “Mala Suerte” and “Cosas del Amor.” The latter song spent more than two months at No. 1 on the US Latin charts in 1991, her biggest Spanish-language US hit. Her Spanish-language albums have been certified gold and platinum in Mexico, Chile, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Vincent Lopez

October 25, 2019

Vincent Lopez was an American bandleader and pianist.

Vincent Lopez was born of Portuguese immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York and was leading his own dance band in New York City by 1917. On November 27, 1921 his band began broadcasting on the new medium of entertainment radio; the band’s weekly 90-minute show on Newark, NJ station WJZ boosted the popularity of both himself and of radio. He became one of America’s most popular bandleaders, and would retain that status through the 1940s.

He began his radio programs by announcing “Lopez speaking!”.His theme song was “Nola,” Felix Arndt’s novelty ragtime piece of 1915, and Lopez became so identified with it that he occasionally satirized it. Lopez worked occasionally in feature films, notably The Big Broadcast. He was also one of the very first bandleaders to work in Soundies movie musicals, in 1940. He made additional Soundies in 1944.

Noted musicians who played in his band included Artie Shaw, Xavier Cugat, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Mike Mosiello and Glenn Miller. He also featured singers Keller Sisters and Lynch, Betty Hutton and Marion Hutton. Lopez’s longtime drummer was the irreverent Mike Riley, who popularized the novelty hit “The Music Goes Round and Round.”

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Vincente Minnelli

October 25, 2019

Vincente Minnelli, born Lester Anthony Minnelli, was a Hollywood director and stage director. He was married to Judy Garland from 1945 until 1951; they were the parents of Liza Minnelli.

Born as Lester Anthony Minnelli in Chicago, he was the youngest of four known sons, only two of whom survived to adulthood, born to Marie Émilie Odile Lebeau and Vincent Charles Minnelli. His father was musical conductor of Minnelli Brothers’ Tent Theater. Minnelli’s Chicago-born mother was of French Canadian descent and his paternal grandfather was from Sicily. The family toured small towns primarily in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois before settling permanently in Delaware, Ohio.

Following his high school graduation, Minnelli moved to Chicago where he lived briefly with his grandmother and an aunt. His first job was at Marshall Field’s department store as a window display designer. He later worked as a photographer for Paul Stone, who specialized in photographing actors from Chicago’s theater district. His interest in the theater grew and he was greatly interested in art and immersed himself in books on the subject.

Minnelli’s first job in the theater was at the Chicago Theatre where he worked as a costume and set designer. Owned by Balaban and Katz, the theater chain soon merged with a bigger national chain of Paramount-Publix and Minnelli sometimes found himself assigned to work on shows in New York City. He soon left Chicago and rented a tiny Greenwich Village apartment. He was eventually employed at Radio City Music Hall as a set designer and worked his way up to stage director.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Vince McMahon

October 25, 2019

Vincent Kennedy “Vince” McMahon Jr. is an American professional wrestling promoter, announcer, commentator, film producer and former occasional professional wrestler, and is often referred to as the archetypal wrestling magnate. McMahon currently serves as the chairman and CEO of professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment and is the majority shareholder of the company, holding approximately 88% of the total voting power within WWE. Upon acquiring World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling, McMahon’s WWE became the sole remaining major American professional wrestling promotion until the national expansion of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and Ring of Honor.

As an on-camera character, he can appear on all WWE brands. McMahon plays a character known by the ring name Mr. McMahon, based on himself. In the world of WWE, he is a two-time world champion having won the WWE Championship and ECW World Championship. He was also the winner of the 1999 Royal Rumble.

Vince is the husband of Linda McMahon, with whom he ran WWE from its establishment in 1980 until she resigned as CEO in September 2009.

McMahon first met the promoter for Capitol Wrestling Corporation, his father Vincent J. McMahon’s company, at the age of 12. At that point, McMahon became interested in following his father’s professional wrestling footsteps and often accompanied him on trips to Madison Square Garden. McMahon also wanted to be a wrestler but his father would not let him, explaining that promoters did not appear on the show and should stay apart from their wrestlers.