25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Lindsay Wagner

October 25, 2019

Lindsay Jean Wagner is an American actress. She is probably most widely known for her portrayal of Jaime Sommers in the 1970s television series The Bionic Woman, though she has maintained a lengthy career in a variety of other film and television productions since.

Wagner was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Marilyn Louise and William Nowels Wagner. When she was seven years old, her parents divorced and her mother moved with her to the northeast Los Angeles neighborhood of Eagle Rock, near Pasadena. Another move with her mother and stepfather brought her to Portland, Oregon, where she attended David Douglas High School and appeared in a number of school plays. She studied at the University of Oregon.

Wagner worked as a model in Los Angeles, and gained some television experience by appearing as a hostess in Playboy After Dark. However, it was not until she contacted a friend at Universal Studios and was cast in a small part in Marcus Welby, M.D. that her acting career gained momentum. Her appearances helped her win roles in the films Two People and The Paper Chase. Wagner played a total of four different roles on the Marcus Welby, M.D. series between 1971-75, as well as a recurring guest role in The Rockford Files.

In 1975, Wagner played the role of Jaime Sommers, a former tennis pro who was the childhood sweetheart of Six Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin. In a two-part episode entitled “The Bionic Woman”, Jaime was critically injured in a skydiving accident and, at Steve’s request, she was equipped with bionic limbs similar to his own. Unfortunately, Jaime’s body rejected her new bionics and she later died.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Lionel Barrymore

October 25, 2019

Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul. He is well known for the role of the villainous Henry Potter in Frank Capra’s 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life.

Barrymore was born Lionel Herbert Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of actors Georgiana Drew and Maurice Barrymore. He was the elder brother of Ethel and John Barrymore, the uncle of John Drew Barrymore and Diana Barrymore, and the granduncle of Drew Barrymore. Barrymore was raised Roman Catholic. He attended the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In her autobiography Eleanor Farjeon recalled that she and Barrymore were friends as toddlers; she would take off her shoes and he would kiss her feet.

During World War I Lionel staved off the deadly Spanish Influenza by taking cold alcohol baths as an antiseptic.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Lionel Hampton

October 25, 2019

Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy Rich to Charlie Parker and Quincy Jones. In 1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

Lionel Hampton was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1908, and was raised by his grandmother. Shortly after he was born, he and his mother moved to her hometown Birmingham, Alabama. He spent his early childhood in Kenosha, Wisconsin before he and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1916. As a youth, Hampton was a member of the Bud Billiken Club, an alternative to the Boy Scouts of America due to segregation. During the 1920s?while still a teenager?Hampton took xylophone lessons from Jimmy Bertrand and started playing drums. Hampton was raised Roman Catholic, and started out playing fife and drum at the Holy Rosary Academy near Chicago.

Lionel Hampton began his career playing drums for the Chicago Defender Newsboy's Band while still a teenager in Chicago, a group that was led by Major N. Clark Smith. He moved to California in 1927 or 1928, playing drums for the Dixieland Blues-Blowers. He made his recording debut with The Quality Serenaders led by Paul Howard, then left for Culver City and drummed for the Les Hite band at Sebastian's Cotton Club. During this period he began practicing on the vibraphone. In 1930 Louis Armstrong came to California and hired the Les Hite band, asking Hampton if he would play vibes on two songs. So began his career as a vibraphonist, popularizing the use of the instrument ever since.

While working with the Les Hite band, Hampton also occasionally did some performing with Nat Shilkret and his orchestra. During the early 1930s he studied music at the University of Southern California. In 1934 he led his own orchestra, and then appeared in the 1936 Bing Crosby film Pennies From Heaven alongside Louis Armstrong .

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Lew Ayres

October 25, 2019

Lew Ayres, born Lewis Frederick Ayres III was an American actor, probably best known for his role as Dr. Kildare in several movies, which was apt since originally he had studied medicine at the University of Arizona.

Ayres was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and reared in San Diego, California, Ayres began acting in bit player roles in films in 1927. He was discovered in 1927 playing banjo in the Henry Halstead Orchestra as Halstead was recording one of the earliest Vitaphone movie shorts called Carnival Night in Paris. Ayres wrote, “I was a member of Henry Halstead’s orchestra in 1927 at the Mission Beach Ballroom in San Diego, California for the summer. My instruments were tenor banjo, long-neck banjo and guitar. After a hiatus, I rejoined Mr. Halstead with a new group, including Phil Harris, on New Year’s Eve the same year for the opening night of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, a memorable occasion.”

Ayres played opposite Greta Garbo in 1929’s The Kiss, but it was his starring role in 1930’s All Quiet on the Western Front which made him a star. Ayres was Janet Gaynor’s leading man in Servants’ Entrance, which featured a combination of live action and Walt Disney animation in a musical dream sequence. He played the title role in Young Dr. Kildare in 1938 and became a matinee idol, starring in several Kildare films. During this time, Ayres also co-starred with Joan Crawford and James Stewart in The Ice Follies of 1939.

Mirroring his anti-war and medical roles in his film work, Ayres was a pacifist who sought to become a member of the Medical Corps during World War II. The United States armed forces, however, would not guarantee him that position, so he declared himself a conscientious objector, and reported to a CPS camp. But having such a well-known public figure take this stance was poor publicity for the United States armed forces. It led to revisions of the rules, at which point Ayres was then able to join the Medical Corps. He so served with distinction in the Pacific theater and in New Guinea.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Lew Wasserman

October 25, 2019

Motion picture luminary and philanthropist Lew Wasserman was honored posthumously with the 2,349th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Honorary Mayor of Hollywood, Johnny Grant, presided over the ceremony. Guests included Jamie Lee Curtis and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Mr. Wasserman’s grandson Casey Wasserman accepted on behalf the family.

6925 Hollywood Boulevard on October 5, 2007.

BIOGRAPHY

The New York Times called him “The Last of the Hollywood Moguls,” but it may have been the late Jack Valenti who best described the legendary Lew Wasserman’s place in the entertainment firmament when he said: “If Hollywood is Mount Olympus, Lew Wasserman is Zeus.”

During a career spanning more than six decades, Wasserman helped create the entertainment industry as we know it today. Under his leadership, the Music Corporation of America (MCA) became Hollywood’s dominant talent agency, the first studio to release a summer movie blockbuster and the original modern multimedia empire. Wasserman also gave the industry, through his savvy political activities, its public voice and, through his extensive philanthropic enterprises, its heart.

Born in Cleveland in 1913, Wasserman worked as a movie theater usher while still a teenager. As a young man he landed a job handling advertising and promotion for a local nightclub that booked bands through the Music Corporation of America. He soon caught the eye of MCA’s founder, Dr. Jules C. Stein and in 1936 became Stein’s national director of advertising and public relations. Just ten years later, Stein turned over the agency to his former protégé.

As president of MCA in the 1940s, Wasserman represented such top talent as Bette Davis, Jimmy Stewart, Judy Garland, Henry Fonda and Alfred Hitchcock and almost single-handedly brought about an end to the onerous long-term actor contracts that turned even big names into studio property. He forged a landmark deal for Stewart that gave his client a share of a movie’s profits and wide-ranging creative control, an arrangement that is the norm for A-list talent today.

In the 1950’s, Wasserman recognized the commercial promise of television and persuaded a wary Hollywood to accept the new medium as a partner rather than a feared competitor. He oversaw the creation of the TV division that through the decades would go on to produce dozens of hit shows ranging from “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “Marcus Welby, M.D.” to “Miami Vice” and “Murder, She Wrote.”

In the 1960’s, he bolstered Hollywood’s political clout by organizing highly successful fund-raising campaigns, most notably for the Democratic Party. Never an ideologue, however, Wasserman forged close ties with top politicians on both sides of the aisle. He was instrumental in helping Ronald Reagan become president of the Screen Actors Guild and the two men remained good friends during Reagan’s years in the California Statehouse and the White House. He also was close to President Lyndon Johnson and was one of the first Hollywood executives to get to know Bill Clinton when the future president was still a little-known Arkansas governor.

In the 1970’s, Mr. Wasserman’s deft marketing of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws created the summer blockbuster as we now know it. He went on to finance and release such acclaimed and commercially successful Spielberg classics as Jurassic Park, E.T. and Schindler’s List. The director, whose first film, the made-for-television thriller “Duel” was also produced by MCA subsidiary Universal TV, called Wasserman “the chief justice of the film industry; fair, tough-minded, and innovative.”

Among the other enduring films produced by Universal during Wasserman’s tenure were Psycho, Oscar® winners The Sting and Out of Africa and beloved comedies Animal House and Back to the Future.

The original architect of today’s multi-faceted entertainment conglomerates, Wasserman pioneered the idea of integrating diverse media units and leveraging successes in one business into profitable ventures for another. Every year, the Universal Studios theme park he built attracts millions of visitors to Southern California. Meanwhile, MCA’s music arm boasted top acts across the popular spectrum including Nirvana, Reba McEntire and Elton John.

In 1990, as media giants including Time Warner and News Corp. rose to prominence, Wasserman sold MCA to the Matsushita Company of Japan. Even after relinquishing the helm of the company, Wasserman remained Hollywood’s sage patriarch. Top executives, union leaders and politicians lined up to seek his counsel on matters great and small.

Wasserman’s philanthropic causes were numerous and included the Motion Picture & Television Fund in Woodland Hills, a health and human service organization dedicated to serving over 100,000 entertainment industry workers each year, and the prestigious Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. He also helped Dorothy Chandler raise the funds to build the Los Angeles Music Center. In 1995, President Clinton awarded Wasserman the country’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his contributions to the Research to Prevent Blindness foundation and other charitable efforts.

After Wasserman died at the age of 89 in 2002, Clinton commented: “He was one of the smartest men I ever met, and in more than intellectual ways. He just came across as someone who understood what life was all about and was pulling for people to have good lives.”

The Wasserman family, including his wife Edie, their daughter Lynne and grandchildren Casey and Carol, remains committed to the causes for which he cared so deeply. Casey Wasserman is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Wasserman Foundation, founded by Lew and Edie in 1952, and the organization continues its work to benefit the community and assist those in need.

Throughout his long career, Wasserman avoided the limelight. “Publicity is for clients, not for us,” he often told his colleagues. But while he may have shunned attention, his profound and lasting impact on the entertainment business and philanthropy will never be forgotten.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Lewis J. Selznick

October 25, 2019

Lewis J. Selznick was a Jewish-Ukrainian-American producer in the early years of the film industry.

Selznick was born Lewis Zeleznick in 1870 in Kiev, Russia, and emigrated to the United States at age 18. Changing his name to Selznick, he settled in Pittsburgh and built up a successful jewelry retail business.

About 1896, he married Florence Sachs, and they had four children. His eldest son Myron Selznick would work as a producer and studio executive until establishing a successful talent agency. His second son, David O. Selznick, became a notable Hollywood filmmaker, producing Gone With the Wind. A third son, Howard, chose not to enter the film business.

In 1910 in New York City, he opened what he called "the world's largest jewelry store"; however, the business closed within a few months.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Lewis Milestone

October 25, 2019

Lewis Milestone was a Russian-American motion picture director. He is known for directing Two Arabian Knights and All Quiet on the Western Front, both of which received Academy Awards for Best Director. He also directed The Front Page, The General Died at Dawn, Of Mice and Men, Ocean’s Eleven, and Mutiny on the Bounty. Milestone was born in Kishinev, Bessarabia, Imperial Russia, Moldova) to a family of Jewish heritage. He came to the United States in 1912 just prior to World War I. Milestone held a number of odd jobs before enlisting in the U.S. Signal Corps, where he worked as an assistant director on Army training films during the war. In 1919 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

After the war he went to Hollywood, where he first worked as a film cutter, and later as an assistant director. Howard Hughes promoted Milestone to director, and one of his early efforts, the 1928 film Two Arabian Knights, won him an Oscar in the first Academy Award ceremony. He also directed The Racket, an early gangster film, and later helped Hughes direct scenes for his aviation saga Hell’s Angels. Milestone won his second Academy Award for All Quiet on the Western Front, a harrowing screen adaptation of the antiwar novel by Erich Maria Remarque. His next, The Front Page, brought the Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur play to the screen. It earned him another Oscar nomination. His work during the 1930s and 1940s was always easily identifiable by its lighting and imaginative use of fluid camera. He worked extensively in television from the mid 1950s.

25 Oct 2019
Recording, Television Permalink

Liberace

October 25, 2019

Wladziu Valentino Liberace, better known by only his last name Liberace, was a famous American entertainer and pianist. During the 1950s?1970s he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world.

Liberace, known as “Lee” to his friends and “Walter” to family, was born in West Allis, Wisconsin, a Milwaukee suburb, to Frances Zuchowska, a Pole, and Salvatore Liberace, an immigrant from Formia, Italy. He had a twin who died at birth and he was born with a caul, which in his family, as in many societies, was taken as a sign of genius and an exceptional future. Liberace’s father was a musician who played the French horn in bands and movie theaters but sometimes had to work as a factory worker or laborer. While his father encouraged music in the family, his mother was not musical and thought music lessons and a record player to be luxuries they couldn’t afford, causing angry family disputes. Liberace later stated, “My dad’s love and respect for music created in him a deep determination to give as his legacy to the world, a family of musicians dedicated to the advancement of the art”.

Liberace began playing the piano at four and while his father took them to concerts to further expose the children to music, he was also a taskmaster demanding high standards from the children in practice and performance. Liberace’s prodigious talent was in evidence early. He memorized difficult pieces by age seven. He studied the technique of the famous Polish pianist and later family friend Ignaz Paderewski and at eight, meeting him backstage at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee. “I was intoxicated by the joy I got from the great virtuoso’s playing. My dreams were filled with fantasies of following his footsteps?Inspired and fired with ambition, I began to practice with a fervor that made my previous interest in the piano look like neglect.”

The Great Depression was hard on the family financially. The early-teenage Liberace also suffered from a speech problem and from the taunts of neighborhood children who mocked his avoidance of sports and his fondness for the piano and for cooking. Liberace focused fiercely on his piano playing and blossomed under the instruction of music teacher Florence Kelly who guided his musical development for ten years. He gained experience playing popular music in theaters, on local radio, for dancing classes, for clubs, and for weddings. He played jazz with a school group called the “Mixers” in 1934, then other groups later. Liberace also performed in cabarets and strip clubs, and even though his parents did not approve, he was earning a tidy living during hard times. For a while he adopted the stage name “Walter Busterkeys”. He also showed an interest in draftsmanship, design, and painting, and he became a fastidious dresser and follower of fashion. By now, he already showed the knack of turning his eccentricities into attention-getting virtues and he grew more popular at school, though mostly as an object of comic relief.

25 Oct 2019
Recording, Television Permalink

Licia Albanese

October 25, 2019

Licia Albanese is an Italian-born American operatic soprano. Noted especially for her portrayals of the lyric heroines of Verdi and Puccini, Albanese was a leading artist with the Metropolitan Opera of New York from 1940 to 1966. She also made many recordings and is chairman of The Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation which is dedicated to assisting young artists and singers.

Born in Bari, Italy, Licia Albanese made her unofficial singing debut in Milan in 1934, when she replaced an absent performer in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, the opera with which she would forever be connected. Over 40 years, she sang more than 300 performances of Cio-Cio San. Although she has been praised for many of her roles, including Mimì, Violetta, Liù and Manon Lescaut, it is her portrayal of the doomed geisha which has remained her best loved. Her connection with that work began early with her teacher, Giuseppina Baldassare-Tedeschi, a contemporary of the composer and an important exponent of the title role in the previous generation.

There is some controversy regarding when she made her formal debut. It was either in that same year at the Teatro Municipale in Bari, singing in La bohème, or in Parma, or in Milan in 1935 in Madama Butterfly. By the end of that year, she had debuted at La Scala as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. She soon realized great success all over the world, especially for her performances in Carmen, L’amico Fritz and Madama Butterfly in Italy, France and England.

Following her considerable success in Italy, France, England, and Malta, Licia Albanese made her Metropolitan Opera debut on February 9, 1940, in the first of 72 performances as Madama Butterfly at the old Metropolitan Opera House. Her success was instantaneous, and Albanese remained at the Met for 26 seasons, performing a total of 427 performances of 17 roles in 16 operas. She left the company in 1966 in a dispute with General Manager Sir Rudolf Bing without a grand farewell. After performing in four productions during 1965-66, she was scheduled for only one performance the next season. She returned her contract unsigned.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Lila Lee

October 25, 2019

Lila Lee was a prominent screen actress of the early silent film era.

Lila Lee was born Augusta Wilhelmena Fredericka Appel in Union Hill, New Jersey into a middle-class family of German immigrants who relocated to New York City when Lila was quite young. Searching for a hobby for their gregarious young daughter, the Appels enrolled Lila in Gus Edwards’ kiddie review shows where she was given the nickname of “Cuddles”; a name that she would be known by for the rest of her acting career. Her stagework became so popular with the public that her parents had her educated with private tutors. Edwards would become Lee’s long-term manager.

In 1918 she was chosen for a film contract by Hollywood film mogul Jesse Lasky for Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, which later became Paramount Pictures. Her first feature The Cruise of the Make-Believes garnered the seventeen year old starlet much public acclaim and Lasky quickly sent Lee on an arduous publicity campaign. Critics lauded Lila for her wholesome persona and sympathetic character parts. Lee quickly rose to the ranks of leading lady and often starred opposite such matinee heavies as Conrad Nagel, Gloria Swanson, Wallace Reid, Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle, and Rudolph Valentino.

In 1922 Lee was cast as Carmen in the enormously popular film Blood and Sand, opposite matinee idol Rudolph Valentino and silent screen vamp Nita Naldi; Lee subsequently won the first WAMPAS Baby Stars award that year. Lee continued to be a highly popular leading lady throughout the 1920s and made scores of critically praised and widely watched films.