Selma Diamond
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Selma Diamond
Selma Diamond (August 5, 1920 – May 13, 1985) was a Canadian-born American comedian, actress, and radio and television writer, known for her high-range, raspy voice and her portrayal of Selma Hacker on the first two seasons of the NBC television comedy series '' Night Court''. Early life Diamond was born on August 5, 1920, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to a tailor and his wife. They moved when Diamond was a young girl to Brooklyn, New York City, New York. Diamond attended high school in Brooklyn and graduated from New York University. Career Diamond published cartoons and humor essays in ''The New Yorker''. Later, she moved to the West Coast and hired an agent. She worked in radio and, eventually, television. Her first radio writing credit was in 1943 on ''Blue Ribbon Town'' with Groucho Marx. That initial credit turned into a 65-week tenure with Marx's show and a longer friendship with him. She also wrote for the '' Camel Caravan'' with Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore, ''The ...
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Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill around which the early city of Ville-Marie is built. The city is centred on the Island of Montreal, which obtained its name from the same origin as the city, and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. The city is east of the national capital Ottawa, and southwest of the provincial capital, Quebec City. As of 2021, the city had a population of 1,762,949, and a metropolitan population of 4,291,732, making it the second-largest city, and second-largest metropolitan area in Canada. French is the city's official language. In 2021, it was spoken at home by 59.1% of the population and 69.2% in the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area. Overall, 85.7% of the population of the city of Montre ...
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Duffy's Tavern
''Duffy's Tavern'' is an American radio situation comedy that ran for a decade on several networks ( CBS, 1941–42; NBC-Blue Network, 1942–44; and NBC, 1944–51), concluding with the December 28, 1951, broadcast. The program often featured celebrity guest stars but always hooked them around the misadventures of Archie, the tavern's manager, portrayed by Ed Gardner. Archie was prone to involvement in get-rich-quick schemes and romantic missteps, and constantly communicated with malaprops and mixed metaphors. Gardner had performed the character of Archie, talking about Duffy's Tavern, as early as November 9, 1939, when he appeared on NBC's ''Good News of 1940''. Characters and story In the early 1940s, Gardner worked as a director, writer, and producer for radio programs. In 1941, he created a character for ''This Is New York'', a program that he was producing. The character, which Gardner played, became Archie of ''Duffy's Tavern''. In the familiar opening, " When Irish ...
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Emmy Awards
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with their own set of rules and award categories. The two events that receive the most media coverage are the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Daytime Emmy Awards, which recognize outstanding work in American primetime and daytime entertainment programming, respectively. Other notable U.S. national Emmy events include the Children's & Family Emmy Awards for children's and family-oriented television programming, the Sports Emmy Awards for sports programming, News & Documentary Emmy Awards for news and documentary shows, and the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards and the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards for technological and engineering achievements. Regional Emmy Awards are also presented throughout the country at various times through the yea ...
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Caesar's Hour
''Caesar's Hour'' is a live, hour-long American sketch-comedy television program that aired on NBC from 1954 until 1957. The program starred, among others, Sid Caesar, Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Janet Blair, and Milt Kamen, and featured a number of cameo roles by famous entertainers such as Joan Crawford and Peggy Lee. Widely considered a continuation of Caesar's earlier programs, the ''Admiral Broadway Revue'' and ''Your Show of Shows'', ''Caesar's Hour'' included most of the same writers and actors, with the notable addition of Larry Gelbart (who went on to co-create the ''M*A*S*H'' TV series with Gene Reynolds) in the latter show. Nanette Fabray replaced Imogene Coca, who opted to star in her own TV series in 1954, '' The Imogene Coca Show''. ''Caesar's Hour'' expanded on the format of ''Your Show of Shows'' with many sketches running a half-hour or more, including musical parodies such as "There's No Business" and "Towers Trot", and genre parodies such as " ...
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Your Show Of Shows
''Your Show of Shows'' is a live 90-minute variety show that was broadcast weekly in the United States on NBC from February 25, 1950, through June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Other featured performers were Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Bill Hayes, baritone singer Jack Russell, Judy Johnson, The Hamilton Trio and the soprano Marguerite Piazza. José Ferrer made several guest appearances on the series. In 2002, ''Your Show of Shows'' was ranked #30 on ''TV Guide''s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, it was ranked #37 on ''TV Guide''s 60 Best Series of All Time. In 2007, Time placed ''Your Show of Shows'' on its unranked list of "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME.” In 2013, ''Your Show of Shows'' was ranked #10 on ''Entertainment Weekly''’s Top 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked ''Your'' ''Show of Shows'' #41 on its list of the "101 Best Written TV Series of All Time.” Production The 90-minute live seri ...
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Imogene Coca
Imogene Coca (born Emogeane Coca; November 18, 1908 – June 2, 2001) was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on ''Your Show of Shows''. Starting out in vaudeville as a child acrobat, she studied ballet and wished to have a serious career in music and dance, graduating to decades of stage musical revues, cabaret and summer stock. In her 40s, she began a celebrated career as a comedian on television, starring in six series and guest starring on successful television programs from the 1940s to the 1990s. She was nominated for five Emmy Awards for ''Your Show of Shows'', winning Best Actress in 1951 and singled out for a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting in 1953. Coca was also nominated for a Tony Award in 1978 for '' On the Twentieth Century'' and received a sixth Emmy nomination at the age of 80 for an episode of ''Moonlighting''. She possessed a rubbery face capable of the broadest expressions — ''Life'' magazine compared her to Beat ...
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Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor, comedian and writer. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950–1954), which was a 90-minute weekly show watched by 60 million people and its successor, ''Caesar's Hour'' (1954–1957), both of which influenced later generations of comedians. ''Your Show of Shows'' and its cast received seven Emmy nominations between the years 1953 and 1954 and tallied two wins. He also acted in films; he played Coach Calhoun in ''Grease (film), Grease'' (1978) and its sequel ''Grease 2'' (1982) and appeared in the films ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' (1963), ''Silent Movie'' (1976), ''History of the World, Part I'' (1981), ''Cannonball Run II'' (1984), and ''Vegas Vacation'' (1997). Caesar was considered a "sketch comic" and actor, as opposed to a stand-up comedian. He also relied more on body language, accents, ...
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New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed with '' The New York Times'' in the daily morning market. The paper won twelve Pulitzer Prizes during its lifetime. A "Republican paper, a Protestant paper and a paper more representative of the suburbs than the ethnic mix of the city", according to one later reporter, the ''Tribune'' generally did not match the comprehensiveness of ''The New York Times'' coverage. Its national, international and business coverage, however, was generally viewed as among the best in the industry, as was its overall style. At one time or another, the paper's writers included Dorothy Thompson, Red Smith, Roger Kahn, Richard Watts Jr., Homer Bigart, Walter Kerr, Walter Lippmann, St. Clair McKelway, Judith Crist, Dick Schaap, Tom Wolfe, John Steinbeck, and ...
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Gill Fox
Gilbert Theodore Fox (November 29, 1915 – May 15, 2004) was an American political cartoonist, comic book artist and editor, and animator. Biography Fox began his career in animation at Max Fleischer's studio, but left due to labor unrest associated with a 1937 strike. He entered the comic book industry, working for a number of studios and companies, including DC Comics. During this period he was an editor and a cover artist for Quality Comics, with his work gracing the covers of such titles as '' Torchy'' and ''Plastic Man''. In 1941, he wrote several weeks of continuity for the '' Spirit'' daily newspaper strip. A 1941 comic book written by Gill Fox, describing a German attack on Pearl Harbor, was published one month before the real-life Japanese attack on that U.S. naval base. He left his editorial position at Quality in 1943 to serve in World War II, where he worked for '' Stars and Stripes''. Once discharged from military service, Fox freelanced for Quality Comics until t ...
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Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, 1902 – December 12, 1968) was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several prominent films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's '' Lifeboat'' (1944). She also had a brief but successful career on radio and made appearances on television. In all, Bankhead amassed nearly 300 film, stage, television and radio roles during her career. She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1972 and the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1981. Bankhead was a member of the Bankhead and Brockman family, a prominent Alabama political family. Her grandfather and her uncle were U.S. senators, and her father was Speaker of the House of Representatives. Bankhead's support of liberal causes, including the budding civil rights movement, brought her into public conflict with her family and southern contemporaries, who championed white supremacy and racial segregation. She also sup ...
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The Big Show (NBC Radio)
''The Big Show'', an American radio variety program featuring 90 minutes of comic, stage, screen and music talent, was aimed at keeping American radio in its classic era alive and well against the rapidly growing television tide. For a good portion of its two-year run (November 5, 1950 – April 20, 1952), the show's quality made its ambition seem plausible. Personalities Hosted by stage actress Tallulah Bankhead, ''The Big Show'' began November 5, 1950, on NBC with a stellar line-up of guests: Fred Allen, Mindy Carson, Jimmy Durante, José Ferrer, Portland Hoffa, Frankie Laine, Russell Knight, Paul Lukas, Ethel Merman, Danny Thomas and Meredith Willson. To make sure no one missed the launch, NBC ran in Sunday newspapers across the country an illustrated advertisement displaying headshots of Allen, Bankhead, Carson, Durante and Merman. The premiere opened with this introduction: :Tallulah Bankhead: This is radio, 1950. The greatest stars of our time on one big program. And the m ...
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Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; yi, דוד־דניאל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs. Kaye starred in 17 films, notably '' Wonder Man'' (1945), '' The Kid from Brooklyn'' (1946), '' The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'' (1947), '' The Inspector General'' (1949), '' Hans Christian Andersen'' (1952), '' White Christmas'' (1954), and '' The Court Jester'' (1955). His films were popular, especially for his performances of patter songs and favorites such as "Inchworm" and "The Ugly Duckling". He was the first ambassador-at-large of UNICEF in 1954 and received the French Legion of Honour in 1986 for his years of work with the organization. Early years David Daniel Kaminsky was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 18, 1911 (though he would later say 1913), to Ukrainian–Jewish immigrants Jacob and Clar ...
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