25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Tim Allen

October 25, 2019

Tim Allen is an American comedian, actor, voice-over artist, and entertainer, known for his role in the sitcom Home Improvement. He is also known for his film roles in several popular movies, including the Toy Story series, The Santa Clause, and Galaxy Quest.

Born in Denver, Colorado, Allen is the son of Martha Katherine, a community-service worker, and Gerald M. Dick, a real estate agent. He is the third oldest of five brothers. His father died in a car accident, colliding with a drunk driver, when Allen was 11. Two years later, his mother married her high school sweetheart, a successful business executive, and moved with her six children to Birmingham, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, to be with her new husband and his three children. Allen attended Ernest W. Seaholm High School in Birmingham, where he was in theater and music classes. He then attended Central Michigan University and transferred to Western Michigan University in 1974. At Western Michigan, Allen worked at the student radio station WIDR and received a bachelor of science degree in communications specializing in radio and television production in 1976 with a split minor in philosophy and design. In 1998, Western Michigan awarded Allen an honorary fine arts degree and the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Allen started his career as a comedian in 1975. On a dare from one of his friends, he participated in a comedy night at a comedy club in Detroit. While in Detroit he began to get recognition appearing in local television commercials and appearing on cable comedy shows such as Gary Thison's Some Semblance of Sanity. He later moved to Los Angeles and became a member of The Comedy Store there. He began to do stand-up appearances on late-night talk shows and specials on record and film.

Allen rose to fame in acting with the television series Home Improvement on ABC, playing Tim "The Tool-Man" Taylor. During one week in November 1994, he simultaneously starred in the highest grossing film, topped the New York Times best-seller list with his book Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man, and appeared in the top rated television series. The following year, he provided the voice of Buzz Lightyear in the blockbuster Toy Story. Simultaneous with his time acting in Home Improvement, Tim Allen formed a race team with Steve Saleen and race driver Bob Bondurant, called the Saleen/Allen "RRR" Speedlab. The team raced Saleen Mustangs in the SCCA World Challenge, with Allen and Saleen as the team's drivers.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Thomas Mitchell

October 25, 2019

Thomas Mitchell was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of the father of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, the drunken doctor in John Ford’s Stagecoach, and Uncle Billy in It’s a Wonderful Life. Mitchell was the first person to win an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony Award.

Mitchell was born to Irish immigrants in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He came from a family of journalists and civic leaders. Both his father and brother were newspaper reporters. Like them, the younger Mitchell also became a newspaper reporter right after high school. Soon, however, Mitchell found he enjoyed writing comic theatrical skits much more than chasing late-breaking scoops.

He became an actor in 1913, at one point touring with Charles Coburn’s Shakespeare Company. Even while playing leading roles on Broadway into the 1920s Mitchell would continue to write. One of the plays he co-authored, Little Accident, was eventually made into a film by Hollywood. Mitchell’s first credited screen role was in the 1923 film Six Cylinder Love. Mitchell’s breakthrough role was as the embezzler in Frank Capra’s 1937 film Lost Horizon.

Following this performance, he was much in demand in Hollywood. That same year, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his performance in the film The Hurricane, directed by John Ford.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Theda Bara

October 25, 2019

Theda Bara, born Theodosia Burr Goodman, was an American silent film actress. Bara was one of the most popular screen actresses of her era, and was one of cinema’s earliest sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname “The Vamp”. The term “vamp” soon became a popular slang term for a sexually predatory woman. Bara, along with Broadway turned film actress Valeska Suratt, and the French film actress Musidora, popularized the vamp persona in the early years of silent film and was soon imitated by rival actresses such as Louise Glaum, Nita Naldi and Pola Negri.

Theodosia Burr Goodman was born in 1885 in the Avondale section of Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father was Bernard Goodman, a prosperous Jewish tailor born in Poland. Her mother, Pauline Louise de Coppett, was born in Switzerland and was also Jewish. Bernard and Pauline married in 1882.

Theda’s brother and sister were Marque and Esther, who also became a film actress under the name Lori Bara and married Francis W. Getty of London in 1920.

The origin of Bara’s stage name is somewhat murky; The Guinness Book of Movie Facts and Feats says it came from director Frank Powell, who learned Theda had a relative named Barranger. At the time, many thought the name was taken from an anagram of “Arab Death”.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Thelma Todd

October 25, 2019

Thelma Alice Todd was an American actress. Appearing in about 120 pictures between 1926 and 1935, she is best remembered for her comedic roles in films like Marx Brothers’ Monkey Business and Horse Feathers, a number of Charley Chase’s short comedies, and co-starring with Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante in Speak Easily. She also had roles in Wheeler and Woolsey farces, several Laurel and Hardy films, the last of which featured her in a part that was truncated by her death.

Todd was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts to Jim and Bertha Todd, and was a bright student who achieved good academic results. She intended to become a school teacher. However, in her late teens, she began entering beauty pageants, winning the title of Miss Massachusetts in 1925. While representing her home state, she was spotted by a Hollywood talent scout and began her career in film.

During the silent era, Todd appeared in numerous supporting roles that made full use of her beauty but gave her little chance to act. With the advent of the talkies, Todd was given opportunity to expand her roles when producer Hal Roach signed her to appear with such comedy stars as Harry Langdon, Charley Chase, and Laurel and Hardy. In 1931 she was given her own series, teaming with ZaSu Pitts for slapstick comedies. This was Roach’s attempt to create a female version of Laurel and Hardy. When Pitts left Roach in 1933, she was replaced by Patsy Kelly. The Todd shorts often cast her as a working girl having all sorts of problems, and trying her best to remain poised and charming despite the embarrassing antics of her sidekick.

In 1931, Todd became romantically involved with director Roland West, and starred in his film Corsair.

25 Oct 2019
Live Performance Permalink

Theodore Bikel

October 25, 2019

Theodore Meir Bikel is a character actor, folk singer and musician. He made his film debut in The African Queen and was nominated for an Academy award for his supporting role as Sheriff Max Muller in The Defiant Ones. Bikel was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Miriam and Josef Bikel from Bukovina. His family fled to Palestine following the Nazi occupation of Austria. In Palestine, Bikel started acting while in his teens. He co-founded the Cameri Theatre there?which has gone on to become one of Israel’s biggest theaters?before moving to London to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1945. In 1948, Michael Redgrave recommended Bikel to his friend Laurence Olivier as understudy for the parts of both Stanley Kowalski and Mitch in the West End premiere of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Bikel graduated from understudy to star opposite the director’s wife, Vivien Leigh, who would go on to recreate her role as Blanche DuBois in the film version opposite Marlon Brando.

After several plays and films in Europe, Bikel moved to the United States in 1954, and became a naturalized citizen in 1961. He was the U-boat first officer to Curd Jürgens in The Enemy Below and played the captain of the Russian submarine in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming. He also portrayed the sadistic French general Jouvet in The Pride and the Passion Bikel was screentested for the role of Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond film Goldfinger. The screentest can be seen on the “Ultimate Edition” DVD released in 2006. Bikel also appeared in Frank Zappa’s 1971 film 200 Motels.

On Broadway he originated the role of Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music in 1959, for which he received his second Tony nomination.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Steve Miller

October 25, 2019

Steve Miller Band is an American rock band formed in 1967 in San Francisco, California. The band is managed by Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals.

In 1965, Steve Miller and keyboardist Barry Goldberg founded the Goldberg-Miller Blues Band along with bassist Shawn Yoder, rhythm guitarist Craymore Stevens, and drummer Lance Haas after moving to Chicago to play the blues. The band was contracted to Epic Records after playing many Chicago clubs. They also appeared on Hullabaloo with the Four Tops and the Supremes, and gigged at a Manhattan club.

Miller left the group to go to San Francisco where the psychedelic scene was flourishing. He then formed the Steve Miller Blues Band which, when they contracted with Capitol Records in 1967, they shortened their name to the Steve Miller Band. The band, consisting of Miller, guitarist James Cooke, bassist Lonnie Turner, and drummer Tim Davis, backed Chuck Berry at a gig at the Fillmore West that was released as a live album. Guitarist Boz Scaggs joined the band soon after and the group performed at the Monterey Pop Festival in June. In May 1968 while in England, they recorded their debut album Children Of The Future. The album did not have any successes and did not score among the Top 100 album chart, but standout tracks were the acoustic tune "Baby's Calling Me Home" and funky blues number "Steppin' Stone". Closing the album is a slow version of the blues standard "Key To The Highway".

The Steve Miller Band's second album Sailor appeared in October, and climbed the Billboard chart to #24. Successes included the singles "Livin' In The USA", "Lucky Man", and Boz Scaggs "Overdrive" and "Dime-A-Dance Romance".

25 Oct 2019
Recording, Television Permalink

The Supremes

October 25, 2019

The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.

Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco. They were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and are, to date, America's most successful vocal group with 12 number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Most of these hits were written and produced by Motown's main songwriting and production team, Holland?Dozier?Holland. At their peak in the mid-1960s, The Supremes rivaled The Beatles in worldwide popularity, and their success made it possible for future African-American R&B and soul musicians to find mainstream success.

Founding members Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown, all from the Brewster-Douglass public housing project in Detroit, formed The Primettes as the sister act to The Primes. Barbara Martin replaced McGlown in 1960, and the group signed with Motown the following year as The Supremes. Martin left the act in early 1962, and Ross, Ballard, and Wilson carried on as a trio.

During the mid-1960s, The Supremes achieved mainstream success with Ross as lead singer. In 1967, Motown president Berry Gordy renamed the group Diana Ross & the Supremes, and replaced Ballard with Cindy Birdsong. Ross left to pursue a solo career in 1970 and was replaced by Jean Terrell, at which point the group's name reverted to The Supremes. After 1972, the lineup changed more frequently; Lynda Laurence, Scherrie Payne, and Susaye Greene all became members of the group during the mid-1970s. The Supremes disbanded in 1977 after an 18-year run.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Thelonious Monk

October 25, 2019

Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered “one of the giants of American music”. Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including “Epistrophy”, “‘Round Midnight”, “Blue Monk”, “Straight, No Chaser” and “Well, You Needn’t”. Monk is the second most recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed over 1,000 songs while Monk wrote about 70.

Often regarded as a founder of bebop, Monk’s playing later evolved away from that style. His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are consistent with Monk’s unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations.

Monk’s manner was idiosyncratic. Visually, he was renowned for his distinctive style in suits, hats and sunglasses. He was also noted for the fact that at times, while the other musicians in the band continued playing, he would stop, stand up from the keyboard and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano. One of his regular dances consisted of continuously turning counterclockwise, which has drawn comparisons to ring-shout and Sufi whirling.

He is one of only five jazz musicians to be featured on the cover of Time .

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

The Three Stooges

October 25, 2019

The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid?20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe, Larry, and Shemp," among other lineups. The film trio was originally composed of Moe Howard, brother Shemp Howard and longtime friend Larry Fine. Curly Howard replaced brother Shemp, who later returned when Curly suffered a debilitating stroke in 1946.

After Shemp's death in 1955, he was replaced by comedian Joe Besser, after the use of stuntman Joe Palma to record several "Shemp" shorts after his death. Eventually Joe "Curly-Joe" DeRita replaced Joe Besser. Larry suffered a serious stroke in 1970, and was unable to continue performing. Emil Sitka, a longtime actor in Stooge comedies, was contracted to replace Larry, but no film was ever made with him in the role, although publicity photographs exist of him with his hair combed similarly to Larry's, posing with Moe and Curly-Joe. However, Larry's paralyzing stroke in 1970 effectively marked the end of the act. He died in January 1975. Moe died of cancer a few months later.

The Three Stooges started in 1925 as part of a raucous vaudeville act called 'Ted Healy and His Stooges'. In the act, lead comedian Healy would attempt to sing or tell jokes while his noisy assistants would keep "interrupting" him. Healy would respond by verbally and physically abusing his stooges. Brothers Moe and Shemp were joined later that year by violinist-comedian Larry Fine, and Fred Sanborn joined the group as well.

In 1930, Ted Healey and His Stooges, including Sanborn, appeared in their first Hollywood feature film: Soup to Nuts, released by Fox Film Corporation. The film was not a success with the critics, but the Stooges' performances were considered the highlight and Fox offered the trio a contract without Healy. This displeased Healy, who told studio executives that the Stooges were his employees. The offer was withdrawn, and after Howard, Fine and Howard learned of the reason, they left Healy to form their own act, which quickly took off with a tour of the theatre circuit. Healy attempted to stop the new act with legal action, claiming they were using his copyrighted material. There are accounts of Healy threatening to bomb theaters if Howard, Fine and Howard ever performed there, which worried Shemp so much that he almost left the act; reportedly, only a pay raise kept him on board. Healy tried to save his act by hiring replacement stooges, but they were inexperienced and not as well-received as their predecessors. In 1932, with Moe now acting as business manager, Healy reached a new agreement with his former Stooges, and they were booked in a production of Jacob J. Shubert's The Passing Show of 1932. During rehearsals, Healy received a more lucrative offer and found a loophole in his contract allowing him to leave the production. Shemp, fed up with Healy's abrasiveness, decided to quit the act and found work almost immediately, in Vitaphone movie comedies produced in Brooklyn, New York.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

The Temptations

October 25, 2019

The Temptations is an American vocal group that achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.

Formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1960 as The Elgins, the Temptations have always featured at least five male vocalists/dancers. Known for its recognizable choreography, distinct harmonies, and flashy onstage suits, the Temptations have been said to be as influential to soul as The Beatles are to pop and rock. Having sold tens of millions of albums, the Temptations are one of the most successful groups in music history., the Temptations continue to perform and record for Universal Records with its one living original member, Otis Williams, still in its lineup.

The original lineup included members of two local Detroit vocal groups: from The Distants, second tenor Otis Williams, first tenor Elbridge "Al" Bryant and bass Melvin Franklin; and from The Primes, first tenor/falsetto Eddie Kendricks and second tenor/baritone Paul Williams. Among the most notable future Temptations were lead singers David Ruffin and Dennis Edwards, Richard Street, Damon Harris, Glenn Leonard, Ron Tyson, Ali-Ollie Woodson, Theo Peoples, and G. C. Cameron. Like its "sister" female group, the Supremes, the Temptations' lineup has changed frequently over the years.

Over the course of their career, the Temptations have released four Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles and 14 Billboard R&B number-one singles. Their material has earned them three Grammy Awards, while two more awards were conferred upon the songwriters and producers who crafted their 1972 hit "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone". The Temptations were the first Motown act to earn a Grammy Award. Six Temptations were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. Three classic Temptations songs, "My Girl", "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", are among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.