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Baby Esther
Esther Lee Jones (born , date of death unknown), known by her stage names "Baby Esther", "Little Esther", and other similar variations, was an American singer and child entertainer of the late 1920s, known for interpreting popular songs with a "mixture of seriousness and childish mischief". After gaining attention in her hometown of Chicago, she became an international celebrity before leaving the public spotlight as a teenager. In 1932, when singer Helen Kane sued Fleischer Studios, claiming that they had appropriated her persona for the voice of the cartoon character Betty Boop, the studios defended themselves by arguing that Kane's style of singing—characterized by her baby voice and use of the phrase "boop-boop-a-doop"—was not her own invention. Theatrical manager Lou Bolton testified during the ''Kane v. Fleischer'' trial that Kane saw Baby Esther's cabaret act in 1928, in which Esther used interpolated words such as "boo-boo-boo" and "doo-doo-doo". An early test sound ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , subdivision_type2 = List of counties in Illinois, Counties , subdivision_name1 = Illinois , subdivision_name2 = Cook County, Illinois, Cook and DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage , established_title = Settled , established_date = , established_title2 = Municipal corporation, Incorporated (city) , established_date2 = , founder = Jean Baptiste Point du Sable , government_type = Mayor–council government, Mayor–council , governing_body = Chicago City Council , leader_title = Mayor of Chicago, Mayor , leader_name = Lori Lightfo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Our Gang
''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, also the producer of the Laurel and Hardy films, ''Our Gang'' shorts were produced from 1922 to 1944, spanning the silent film and early sound film periods of American cinema. ''Our Gang'' is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way; Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular children, rather than have them imitate adult acting styles. The series also broke new ground by portraying white and black children interacting as equals during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation in the United States. Maltin, Leonard (1994). ''The Little Rascals: Remastered and Uncut'', vol. 22, introduction. Videorecording. New York: Cabin Fever Entertainment/ Hallmark Entertainment. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grim Natwick
Myron "Grim" Natwick (' Nordveig; August 16, 1890 – October 7, 1990) was an American artist, animator, and film director. Natwick is best known for drawing the Fleischer Studios' most popular character, Betty Boop. Background Born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, Natwick studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and had five brothers and two sisters. Natwick's parents, James and Henrietta (Lyon), owned a furniture store. His grandfather, Ole, was one of the earliest Norwegian immigrants to the United States arriving in Wisconsin in 1847 (Ole was born on April 8, 1826, to Ole Torkjellson Natvig and Anna at Sagi Natvig, Ardal, Sogn, Norway). He had eleven children in Grand Rapids, Wisconsin (now part of Wisconsin Rapids), including James W., Grim's father, and Joseph, who was the father of Mildred Natwick, Grim's first cousin. Natwick had his nickname since before high school as a takeoff on his "anything but Grim" personality. He was well known even in high sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cab Calloway
Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor and dancer. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years. Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the most popular dance bands in the United States from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. His band included trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Jonah Jones, and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, guitarist Danny Barker, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Cozy Cole. Calloway had several hit records in the 1930s and 1940s, becoming known as the "Hi-de-ho" man of jazz for his most famous song, " Minnie the Moocher", originally recorded in 1931. He reached the ''Billboard'' charts in five consecutive decades (1930s–1970s). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gordon Stretton
Gordon Stretton (5 June 1887 – 3 May 1983), born William Masters, was an English singer, dancer and musical director of mixed Irish and Jamaican descent. He became one of the first Liverpool-based musicians to gain international acclaim,Daniel Brown, "Songs of Slavery", ''Index on Censorship'', Volume 36, Number 1, 2007, p. 138–140. 140 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064220701248560 and is credited with introducing jazz to Latin America. Personal life His mother Sarah Ann Jane Masters (née Williams, 1862–1903) was from Ireland and moved with her parents to Liverpool as a child. His father, William Alexander Gordon Masters, was born in Jamaica around 1854 and worked as a seaman on ''SS Andean'', owned by the Liverpool-based West India Pacific Steamship Company. His parents married in Liverpool on 23 June 1884. They had three sons, all of whom enlisted in the First World War. One was killed and the other two were injured, one by poison gas. His father died a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mistinguett
Mistinguett (, born Jeanne Florentine Bourgeois; 5 April 1873 – 5 January 1956) was a French actress and singer. She was at one time the highest-paid female entertainer in the world. Early life The daughter of Antoine Bourgeois, a 31-year-old day-labourer, and Jeannette Debrée, a 21-year-old seamstress, Jeanne Bourgeois was born at 5 Rue du Chemin-de-Fer (today Rue Gaston-Israël), in Enghien-les-Bains, Val-d'Oise, Île-de-France, France. The family moved to Soisy-sous-Montmorency where she spent her childhood; her parents later worked as mattress-makers.Flanner, Janet, ''Paris Journal, Volume Two, 1956—1964'' (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1965), page 6 At an early age Bourgeois aspired to be an entertainer. She began as a flower seller in a restaurant in her hometown, singing popular ballads as she sold blossoms. Entertainer After taking classes in theatre and singing, she began her career as an entertainer in 1885. One day on the train to Paris for a violin lesso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vu (magazine)
''Vu'', stylized as ''VU'', was a weekly French pictorial magazine, created and directed by Lucien Vogel, which was published from 21 March 1928 to 29 May 1940; it ran for 638 issues. History ''Vu'' was the first large weekly to systematically feature photographs in essay form, and as such was an important precursor to, and proponent of, the magazine format of photojournalism (which came to prominence a decade after its print run in magazines such as ''Life'' and ''Look''). Innovation Although inspired in part by the German magazine ''Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung'', ''VU'' featured a constructivist aesthetic and was innovative in its layouts, especially in its double-page spreads, in which the layout artists were assisted by rotogravure from film positives of both type and halftone images which could be easily cut and arranged on a light box, rather than using less flexible and more expensive metal halftone blocks. Photography Notable contributing photographers include ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald; naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film ''Siren of the Tropics'', directed by and . During her early career, Baker was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the in Paris. Her performance in the revue in 1927 caused a sensation in the city. Her costume, consisting of only a short skirt of artificial bananas and a beaded necklace, became an iconic image and a symbol both of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties. Baker was celebrated by artists and intellectuals of the era, who variously dubbed her the "Black Venus", the "Black Pearl", the "Bronze Venus", and the "Creole Goddess". Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she renounced her U.S. citizenship and became a Frenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gustaf V Of Sweden
Gustaf V (Oscar Gustaf Adolf; 16 June 1858 – 29 October 1950) was King of Sweden from 8 December 1907 until his death in 1950. He was the eldest son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Sophia of Nassau, a half-sister of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Reigning from the death of his father Oscar II in 1907 to his own death nearly 43 years later, he holds the record of being the oldest monarch of Sweden and the third-longest rule, after Magnus IV (1319–1364) and Carl XVI Gustaf (1973–present). He was also the last Swedish monarch to exercise his royal prerogatives, which largely died with him, although they were formally abolished only with the remaking of the Swedish constitution in 1974. He was the first Swedish king since the High Middle Ages not to have a coronation and so never wore the king's crown, a practice that has continued ever since. Gustaf's early reign saw the rise of parliamentary rule in Sweden although the leadup to World War I induced his dismissal of Lib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria Eugenie Of Battenberg
Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena of Battenberg (24 October 1887 – 15 April 1969) was Queen of Spain as the wife of King Alfonso XIII from their marriage on 31 May 1906 until 14 April 1931, when the Spanish Second Republic was proclaimed. A Hessian princess by birth, she was a member of the Battenberg family, a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was the youngest granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Unlike other members of the Battenberg family, who were accorded the lower rank of ''Serene Highness'', Victoria Eugenie was born with the rank of '' Highness'' due to a Royal Warrant issued in 1886 by Queen Victoria. Early life Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg was born on 24 October 1887 at Balmoral Castle, in Scotland. Her father was Prince Henry of Battenberg, the fourth child and third son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine by his morganatic wife Countess Julia von Hauke, and her mother was Princess Beatrice, the fifth daughter of Queen Victori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Chicago Defender
''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim Crow-era violence and urged black people in the American South to settle in the north in what became the Great Migration. Abbott worked out an informal distribution system with Pullman porters who surreptitiously (and sometimes against southern state laws and mores) took his paper by rail far beyond Chicago, especially to African American readers in the southern United States. Under his nephew and chosen successor, John H. Sengstacke, the paper dealt with racial segregation in the United States, especially in the U.S. military, during World War II. Copies of the paper were passed along in communities, and it is estimated that at its most successful, each copy was read by four to five people. In 1919–1922, the ''Defender'' attracted th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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