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Madman Muntz
Earl William "Madman" Muntz (January 3, 1914 – June 21, 1987) was an American businessman and engineer who sold and promoted cars and consumer electronics in the United States from the 1930s until his death in 1987. He was a pioneer in television commercials with his oddball "Madman" persona; an alter ego who generated publicity with his unusual costumes, stunts, and outrageous claims. Muntz also pioneered car stereos by creating the Muntz Stereo-Pak, better known as the 4-track cartridge, a predecessor to the 8-track cartridge developed by Lear Industries. He invented the practice that came to be known as Muntzing, which involved simplifying otherwise complicated electronic devices. Muntz produced and marketed the first black-and-white television receivers to sell for less than $100, and created one of the earliest functional widescreen projection TVs. He was credited with coining the abbreviation "TV" for ''television'', although the term had earlier been in use in call ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elgin, Illinois
Elgin ( ) is a city in Cook and Kane counties in the northern part of the U.S. state of Illinois. Elgin is located northwest of Chicago, along the Fox River. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 114,797, the seventh-largest city in Illinois. History The Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Black Hawk Indian War of 1832 led to the expulsion of the Native Americans who had settlements and burial mounds in the area and set the stage for the founding of Elgin. Thousands of militiamen and soldiers of Gen. Winfield Scott's army marched through the Fox River valley during the war, and accounts of the area's fertile soils and flowing springs soon filtered east. In New York, James T. Gifford and his brother Hezekiah Gifford heard tales of this area ripe for settlement, and they traveled west. Looking for a site on the stagecoach route from Chicago to Galena, Illinois, they eventually settled on a spot where the Fox River could be bridged. In April 1835, they e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sports Car
A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by many manufacturers around the world. Definition Definitions of sports cars often relate to how the car design is optimised for dynamic performance, without any specific minimum requirements; both a Triumph Spitfire and Ferrari 488 Pista can be considered sports cars, despite vastly different levels of performance. Broader definitions of sports cars include cars "in which performance takes precedence over carrying capacity", or that emphasise the "thrill of driving" or are marketed "using the excitement of speed and the glamour of the (race)track" However, other people have more specific definitions, such as "must be a two-seater or a 2+2 seater" or a car with two seats only. In the United Kingdom, early recorded usage of the "sports ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from 191,719 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Los Angeles County and the 24th-largest city in California. It is located about north of downtown Los Angeles. Glendale lies in the Verdugo Mountains, and is a suburb in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The city is bordered to the northwest by the Sun Valley and Tujunga neighborhoods of Los Angeles; to the northeast by La Cañada Flintridge and the unincorporated area of La Crescenta; to the west by Burbank and Griffith Park; to the east by Eagle Rock and Pasadena; to the south by the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles; and to the southeast by Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Golden State, Ventura, Glendale, and Foothill freeways run through the city. History Spanish rule In 1798, José Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elgin High School (Illinois)
Elgin High School, or EHS, is a public four-year high school located in Elgin, Illinois, an American city 40 mi. (63.5 km) northwest of Chicago. It is part of Elgin Area School District U46, which also includes Bartlett High School, Larkin High School, South Elgin High School, and Streamwood High School. History Elgin High School is one of the oldest public high schools in the state. Its first graduation ceremony was held in 1872 and its accreditation dates back to 1904. It was formerly housed on Gifford Street adjacent to Gifford Park in a building that now serves as the Gifford Street High School. A new campus was constructed on the eastern edge of Elgin adjacent to Poplar Creek, which is its present location. Elgin High was first established in 1869 in Illinois and has changed locations 3 times so far. The school, however, is not represented by any mascot, as the previous mascot "The Maroon" (a Native American) was considered to be racist and was removed in 200 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The Financial contagion, economic contagion began around September and led to the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Wall Street stock market crash of October 24 (Black Thursday). It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide Gross domestic product, gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. However, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. Devastating effects were seen in both rich and poor countries with falling personal income, prices, tax revenues, and profits. International t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning style on radio, in films, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was the owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/Anaheim/California Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997. From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 films, and between 1950 and 1956 hosted '' The Gene Autry Show'' television series. During the 1930s and 1940s, he personified the straight-shooting hero—honest, brave, and true. Autry was also one of the most important pioneering figures in the history of country music, considered the second major influential artist of the genre's development after Jimmie Rodgers. His singing cowboy films were the first vehicle to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Clark
Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American radio and television personality, television producer and film actor, as well as a cultural icon who remains best known for hosting '' American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 1989. He also hosted five incarnations of the ''Pyramid'' game show from 1973 to 1988 and ''Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'', which transmitted New Year's Eve celebrations in New York City's Times Square. As host of '' American Bandstand'', Clark introduced rock & roll to many Americans. The show gave many new music artists their first exposure to national audiences, including Ike & Tina Turner, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Simon & Garfunkel, Iggy Pop, Prince, Talking Heads, and Madonna. Episodes he hosted were among the first in which black people and white people performed on the same stage, and they were among the first in which the live studio audience sat down together without racial segregation. Singer P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bert Lahr
Irving Lahrheim (August 13, 1895 – December 4, 1967), known professionally as Bert Lahr, was an American actor. He was best known for his role as the Cowardly Lion, as well as his counterpart Kansas farmworker "Zeke", in the MGM adaptation of '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). He was well known for his quick-witted humor and his work in burlesque and vaudeville and on Broadway. Early life, family and education Lahr was born as Irving Lahrheim on August 13, 1895, at First Avenue and 81st Street, in the Yorkville section of Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. He was the son of Augusta (1871–1932) and Jacob Lahrheim (1870–1947), an upholsterer. His parents were German-Jewish immigrants. He attended P.S. 77 and Morris High School, although he left school at age 15. Lahr later served in the U.S. Navy during World War I as a seaman second class. Stage career Lahr began performing in minor parts on vaudeville stages at age 14. He quit school at age 15 to join a juv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Colonna (entertainer)
Gerardo Luigi Colonna (September 17, 1904 – November 21, 1986), better known as Jerry Colonna, was an American musician, actor, comedian, singer, songwriter and trombonist who played the zaniest of Bob Hope's sidekicks in Hope's popular radio shows and films of the 1940s and 1950s. He also voiced the March Hare in Disney's 1951 animated film ''Alice in Wonderland.'' With his pop-eyed facial expressions and large handlebar moustache, Colonna was known for singing loudly in what Gerald Nachman called a "comic caterwaul", and for his catchphrase, " Who's Yehudi?", uttered after many an old joke, though it usually had nothing to do with the joke itself. The line was believed to be named for violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin, and "the search for Yehudi" became a running gag on Hope's show. Colonna played a range of nitwitted characters, the best-remembered of which was a moronic professor, of which Nachman wrote: :Colonna brought a whacked-out touch to Hope's show. In a typical e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudy Vallee
Rudy or Rudi is a masculine given name, sometimes short for Rudolf, Rudolph, Rawad, Rudra, Ruairidh, or variations thereof, a nickname and a surname which may refer to: People Given name or nickname *Rudolf Rudy Andeweg (born 1952), Dutch political scientist *Rudolf Rudi Assauer (1944–2019), German football manager and player *Rudolf Rudy Ballieux (1930–2020), Dutch immunologist * Rudi Carrell (1934–2006), Dutch television entertainer *Rudy Cerami (born 1988), American football player *Rudy D'Amico (born 1940), American National Basketball Association scout, and former college and professional basketball coach * Rudy Demotte (born 1963), Belgian politician *Rudi Dil, birth name of Ruud Gullit (born 1962), Dutch retired football manager and player * Rudi Dolezal (born 1958), Austrian film director and film producer *Rüdiger Rudi Dornbusch (1942–2002), German economist *Alfred Willi Rudolf Rudi Dutschke (1940–1979), the most prominent spokesperson of the 1960s German ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Ada Diller (née Driver; July 17, 1917 – August 20, 2012) was an American stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician, and visual artist, best known for her eccentric stage persona, self-deprecating humor, wild hair and clothes, and exaggerated, cackling laugh. Diller was one of the first female comics to become a household name in the U.S., credited as an influence by Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, and Ellen DeGeneres, among others.Phyllis Diller Dies; Groundbreaking Comedian Is Dead at 95 ''People'', Stephen M. Silverman, August 20, 2012, retrieved November 4, 2015 She had a large gay following and is considered a gay icon. She was also one of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
