25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Monty Hall

October 25, 2019

In memory of entertainer and Walk of Famer Monty Hall, flowers were placed on his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, October, 2, 2017 at 11:30 a.m. PDT. The star in category of Television is located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard. “Rest in peace Mr. Hall.” 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.

Monte Halperin, OC, OM, better known by the stage name Monty Hall, is a Canadian-born emcee, producer, actor, singer and sportscaster, best known as host of the television game show Let's Make a Deal.

Hall was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the son of Rose and Maurice Harvey Halperin, both of whom belonged to an Orthodox congregation of Judaism and who jointly owned a slaughterhouse. He was raised in Winnipeg's north end, where he attended St. John's High School. Hall started his career in Toronto in radio.

Early in his career, Hall hosted game shows such as Bingo at Home on DuMont and guest-hosted more established game shows such as Strike It Rich on CBS, before hosting the first show of his own, Keep Talking in 1958. He succeeded Jack Narz as host of a well-received and unique game show called Video Village, which ran from 1960 to 1962 on CBS. On Video Village, contestants played on a giant game board consisting of three sections: Money Street, Bridge Street and Magic Mile. Players advanced with the roll of a large die. The further contestants advanced along the board, the better the prizes that were offered. A spinoff called Video Village Junior, featuring youngsters, was hosted by Hall and ran during the 1961?1962 regular television season.

Hall had also served as the host/performer of two local New York City TV film shows for children: "Cowboy Theater" for WRCA in 1956 and "Fun In The Morning" for WNEW in the early 1960s.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Monty Woolley

October 25, 2019

Monty Woolley was an American stage, film, radio, and television actor. At the age of 50, he achieved a measure of stardom for his best-known role in the stage play and 1942 film The Man Who Came To Dinner. He distinctive white beard was "his trademark."

He was born Edgar Montillion Woolley in New York City to a wealthy family and grew up in the highest social circles. Woolley attended Yale University, where Cole Porter was an intimate friend and classmate, and Harvard University. He eventually became an assistant professor of English and dramatic coach at Yale. Thornton Wilder and Stephen Vincent Benet were among his students.

He left his academic career and began acting on Broadway in 1936. In 1939 he starred in the Kaufman and Hart comedy The Man Who Came To Dinner for 783 performances. It was for this well-reviewed role he was typecast as the wasp-tongued, supercilious sophisticate.

Like Clifton Webb, Woolley signed with 20th Century Fox in the 1940s and appeared in many films through the mid-1950s. His most famous film role was one which he first performed on Broadway, that of a cranky radio wag restricted to a wheelchair because of a seemingly-injured hip in 1942's The Man Who Came to Dinner, a caricature of the legendary pundit Alexander Woollcott. The film received a good review from the New York Times. He played himself in Warner Bros.' fictionalized film biography of Cole Porter, Night and Day .

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording 1 Comment Permalink

Miles Davis

October 25, 2019 1 Comment

Miles Dewey Davis III was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.

Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and jazz fusion. Many well-known musicians rose to prominence as members of Davis’ ensembles, including saxophonists Gerry Mulligan, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, George Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Dave Liebman, Branford Marsalis and Kenny Garrett; trombonist J. J. Johnson; pianists Horace Silver, Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, and Keith Jarrett; guitarists John McLaughlin, John Scofield and Mike Stern; bassists Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, Marcus Miller and Darryl Jones ; and drummers Philly Joe Jones, Jimmy Cobb, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette, and Al Foster.

On October 7, 2008, his album Kind of Blue, released in 1959, received its fourth platinum certification from the RIAA, signifying sales of 4 million copies. Miles Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Davis was noted as “one of the key figures in the history of jazz”.

On November 5, 2009, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan sponsored a measure in the US House of Representatives to recognize and commemorate the album Kind of Blue on its 50th anniversary. The measure also affirms jazz as a national treasure and “encourages the United States government to preserve and advance the art form of jazz music.” It passed, unanimously, with a vote of 409?0 on December 15, 2009.

25 Oct 2019
Radio, Recording Permalink

Mills Brothers

October 25, 2019

The Mills Brothers, sometimes billed as The Four Mills Brothers, were an American jazz and pop vocal quartet of the 20th century who made more than 2,000 recordings that combined sold more than 50 million copies, and garnered at least three dozen gold records. The Mills Brothers were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998.

The group was originally composed of four African-American brothers born in Piqua, Ohio, 25 miles north of Dayton: John Jr. bassist and guitarist, Herbert tenor, Harry baritone, and Donald lead tenor. Their parents were John H. and Eathel Mills. John Sr. owned a barber shop and founded a barbershop quartet, called the ‘”Four Kings of Harmony”‘.

As the boys grew older, they began singing in the choir of the Cyrene African Methodist Episcopal Church and in the Park Avenue Baptist Church in Piqua. After their lessons at the Spring Street Grammar School, they would gather in front of their father’s barbershop on Public Square or at the corner of Greene and Main to sing and play the kazoo to passersby.

They entered an amateur contest at Piqua’s Mays Opera House, but while on stage, Harry discovered he had lost his kazoo. He cupped his hands to his mouth and imitated a trumpet. The success of his imitation led to all the brothers taking on instruments to imitate and created their early signature sound. John Jr. accompanied the four-part harmony first with a ukulele and then a guitar. They practiced imitating orchestras they heard on the radio. John, as the bass, would imitate the tuba. Harry, a baritone, imitated the trumpet, Herbert became the second trumpet and Donald the trombone. They entertained on the Midwest theater circuit, at house parties, tent shows, music halls and supper clubs throughout the area and became well known for their close harmonies, mastery of scat singing, and their ability to imitate musical instruments with their voices.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio, Television Permalink

Milton Berle

October 25, 2019

Milton Berle was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC’s Texaco Star Theater, in 1948 he was the first major star of US television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr. Television to millions during TV’s golden age.

Milton Berlinger was born to a Jewish family in a five-story walkup at 68 West 118th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, he chose Milton Berle as his professional name when he was 16. His father, Moses Berlinger, was a paint and varnish salesman. His mother, Sarah Glantz Berlinger, eventually became stagestruck and changed her name to Sandra Berle when Milton became famous.

Berle entered show business at the age of five when he won an amateur talent contest. He appeared as a child actor in silent films, beginning with The Perils of Pauline, filmed in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The director told Berle that he would portray a little boy who would be thrown from a moving train. In Milton Berle: An Autobiography, he explained, “I was scared shitless, even when he went on to tell me that Pauline would save my life. Which is exactly what happened, except that at the crucial moment they threw a bundle of rags instead of me from the train. I bet there are a lot of comedians around today who are sorry about that.”

By Berle’s account, he continued to play child roles in other films: Bunny’s Little Brother, Tess of the Storm Country, Birthright, Love’s Penalty, Divorce Coupons and Ruth of the Range. Berle recalled, “There were even trips out to Hollywood—the studios paid—where I got parts in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, with Mary Pickford; The Mark of Zorro, with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Tillie’s Punctured Romance, with Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Marie Dressler.”

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Milton Cross

October 25, 2019

Milton John Cross was an American radio announcer famous for his work on the NBC and ABC radio networks. He was best known as the voice of the Metropolitan Opera, hosting its Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts for 43 years, from the time of their inception in 1931 until his death in 1975.

Born in New York City, Cross started his career just as network radio itself was in its earliest stages. He joined the New Jersey station WJZ in 1921. By 1927 WJZ had moved to Manhattan and had become the flagship station of the Blue Network of NBC’s new national radio network. Cross’ voice became familiar as he not only delivered announcements for the Blue Network but also hosted a number of popular programs. In addition to the Metropolitan Opera, Cross was the announcer for the quiz program Information Please, and the musical humor show The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street among others.

But it is as the host of the Metropolitan’s broadcasts that Cross will be remembered. His distinctive voice conveyed the excitement of live performances “from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City” for generations of radio listeners. Initially he broadcast from a seat in “Box 44” at the old Met at Broadway and 40th St. In 1966, he introduced America to the Met’s new home at Lincoln Center as he hosted a special broadcast of the opening night performance from a modern radio booth in the new house. Cross also edited several popular editions of opera synopses, published in conjunction with the Met broadcasts.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Milton Sills

October 25, 2019

Milton Sills was a highly successful American stage and film actor of the early twentieth century.

Milton Sills was born in Chicago, Illinois into a wealthy and highly regarded family. He was the son of a successful mineral dealer father and an heiress mother from a prosperous banking family. Upon completing high school, Sills was offered a one-year scholarship to the University of Chicago where he studied psychology and philosophy. After graduating, he was offered a position at the university as a researcher and within several years worked his way up to becoming a professor at the school.

In 1905, stage actor Donald Robertson visited the school to lecture on author and playwright Henrik Ibsen and suggested to Sills that he should try his hand at acting. On a whim, Sills agreed and left his prestigious teaching career to embark on a stint in acting. Sills joined Robertson’s stock theater company and began touring the country.

In 1908, while Milton Sills was performing in New York City, he garnered critical praise from such notable Broadway producers as David Belasco and Charles Frohman. That same year he made his Broadway debut in This Woman and This Man, which was an immediate success with both the theater-going public and critics. From 1908 to 1914, Sills appeared in about a dozen Broadway shows, becoming a crowd favorite and attaining a great deal of fame.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Miriam Hopkins

October 25, 2019

Miriam Hopkins was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles.

Born as Ellen Miriam Hopkins in Savannah, Georgia, she was raised in Bainbridge, a town in the state’s southwest near the Alabama border. She attended a finishing school in Vermont and later Syracuse University in New York.

At the age of 20, she became a chorus girl in New York City. In 1930, she signed with Paramount Pictures, and made her official film debut in Fast and Loose. Her first great success was in Ernst Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise, where she proved her charm and wit as a beautiful and jealous pickpocket. During the remainder of the decade, she appeared in such films as The Smiling Lieutenant and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Design for Living, Becky Sharp, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, Barbary Coast, These Three and The Old Maid. Hopkins rejected the role of Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night, The role went to Claudette Colbert and resulted in an Academy Award.

Hopkins had well-publicized fights with her arch-enemy Bette Davis, when they co-starred in their two films The Old Maid and Old Acquaintance. Davis admitted to enjoying very much a scene in Old Acquaintance in which she shakes Hopkins hand. There were even press photos taken with both divas in boxing rings with gloves up and director Vincent Sherman between the two.

25 Oct 2019
Recording Permalink

Mischa Elman

October 25, 2019

Mikhail Saulovich ‘Mischa’ Elman was a Jewish, Ukrainian-born, violinist, famed for his passionate style and beautiful tone.

He was born in the small town of Talnoye near Kiev. His grandfather was a klezmer, a Jewish folk musician, who also played the violin. It became apparent when Mischa was very young that he had perfect pitch, but his father hesitated about a career as a musician, since musicians were not very high on the social scale. He finally gave in, and gave Mischa a miniature violin, on which he soon learned several tunes by himself. Soon thereafter, he was taken to Odessa, where he studied at the Imperial Academy of Music. Pablo de Sarasate gave him a recommendation, stating that he could become one of the great talents of Europe. He auditioned for Leopold Auer at the age of 11, playing the Wieniawski Concerto No. 2 and 24th Caprice by Paganini. Auer was so impressed that he had Elman admitted to the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Elman was still only a boy when Auer arranged for him to play with the famous Colonne Orchestra during

their visit to Pavlovsk. Knowing Édouard Colonne’s hatred of child prodigies, Auer did not tell him Elman’s age when making the arrangements, and not until the famous conductor saw young Mischa waiting to go on the platform did he realize that he had engaged a child. He was furious, and flatly refused to continue with the programme. Frantic attempts were made to assure him that Elman had the recommendation of Auer himself and was well capable of doing justice to the music, but Colonne was adamant, ” I have never yet played with a child, and I refuse to start now,” he retorted. So Elman had to play with piano accompaniment while conductor and orchestra sat listening.