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Bob Ricketts
Robert Williams Ricketts (March 15, 1885 – November 25, 1936) was an American musician, composer, lyricist, bandleader, song arranger and music publisher. Bob Ricketts was associated with fellow musician and songwriter Porter Grainger and together they produced a number of musical works. Career Ricketts was living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1918, where he led the pit band at the Standard Theater in South Philadelphia. Upon his arrival in New York City, he had joined forces with Porter Grainger; together they wrote a number of songs and embarked on a number of endeavors including establishing a publishing house called the Rainbow Music Company; their chief financial backer was the composer Irving Berlin In 1924, the '' Pittsburgh Courier'' reported that Ricketts and Grainger wrote "twenty-two musical numbers" for a show called ''Honey,'' with the book by noted vaudevillians Flournoy E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles. In 1922, Ricketts led a ten piece orchestra for the show ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Springfield, Ohio
Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River, Buck Creek, and Beaver Creek, approximately west of Columbus and northeast of Dayton. Springfield is home to Wittenberg University, a liberal arts college. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 58,662, The Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 136,001 residents. The Little Miami Scenic Trail, a paved rail-trail that is nearly 80 miles long, extends from the Buck Creek Scenic Trail head in Springfield south to Newtown, Ohio (near Cincinnati). It has become popular with hikers and cyclists. In 1983, '' Newsweek'' magazine featured Springfield in its 50th-anniversary issue, entitled, "The American Dream." It chronicled the effects of changes of the previous 50 years on five local families. In 2004, Springfield was chosen as an " All-America City." In the 2010s, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gladys Bryant
Gladys Lillian Bryant (December 21, 1901 – date of death unknown) was an American blues singer and vaudeville performer She was born in Aiken, South Carolina, in 1901 or possibly 1902. She first came to notice as a singer in 1922, in the chorus of ''The Plantation Revue'', produced by Lew Leslie and starring Florence Mills. The following year, she traveled to England with Mills and company to appear in the revue ''From Dover Street to Dixie'', and, along with Edith Wilson, was one of the first to sing blues in Britain. Also in 1923, she recorded six songs for Paramount Records, including "Tired O' Waitin' Blues" and "Laughin’ Cryin’ Blues", with Porter Grainger; on other tracks she was accompanied by Fletcher Henderson.Benjamin Franklin V, ''An Encyclopedia of South Carolina Jazz & Blues Musicians'', University of South Carolina, 2016, p.144 She married dancer Arthur Bryson in Manhattan in 1924, and made no further recordings. By 1930 she was living with her mother i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1885 Births
Events January–March * January 3– 4 – Sino-French War – Battle of Núi Bop: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietnam. * January 4 – The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant, on Mary Gartside. * January 17 – Mahdist War in Sudan – Battle of Abu Klea: British troops defeat Mahdist forces. * January 20 – American inventor LaMarcus Adna Thompson patents a roller coaster. * January 24 – Irish rebels damage Westminster Hall and the Tower of London with dynamite. * January 26 – Mahdist War in Sudan: Troops loyal to Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad conquer Khartoum; British commander Charles George Gordon is killed. * February 5 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State, as a personal possession. * February 9 – The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii. * February 16 – Charles Dow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clara Smith
Clara Smith (March 13, 1894 – February 2, 1935) was an American classic female blues singer, billed as the "Queen of the Moaners", although she had a lighter and sweeter voice than many of her contemporaries. Clara Smith was not related to the singers Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith. Early life Clara Smith was born to parents Selena and William Smith in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. She is not believed to have any siblings. She never was enrolled in school but was recorded on the census as able to read and write. Blues historians thinks that Smith most likely was introduced in her youth to "traveling tent shows", that frequently stopped in Spartanburg and sparked her interest in performance. Career In 1910, Smith began working on African-American theater circuits, in tent shows, and vaudeville. By 1918, she was appearing as a headliner with the Theater Owners Bookers Association circuit across Southern states. By 1923, she had performed at major theatres of the time ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spencer Williams
Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs " Basin Street Blues", " I Ain't Got Nobody", " Royal Garden Blues", " I've Found a New Baby", " Everybody Loves My Baby", " Tishomingo Blues", and many others. Biography Spencer Williams was born in Vidalia, Louisiana, United States. He was educated at St. Charles University in New Orleans. Williams was performing in Chicago by 1907, and moved to New York City about 1916. After arriving in New York, he co-wrote several songs with Anton Lada of the Louisiana Five. Among those songs was " Basin Street Blues", which became one of his most popular songs and is still recorded by musicians to this day. Williams toured Europe with bands from 1925 to 1928; during this time he wrote for Josephine Baker at the Folies Bergère in Paris. Williams then returned to New York for a few years. At the end of the 1920s, Williams was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, she is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Smith was young when her parents died, and she and her six siblings survived by performing on street corners. She began touring and performed in a group that included Ma Rainey, and then went out on her own. Her successful recording career with Columbia Records began in 1923, but her performing career was cut short by a car crash that killed her at the age of 43. Biography Early life The 1900 census indicates that her family reported that Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 1892. The 1910 census gives her age a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mamie Smith
Mamie Smith (née Robinson; May 26, 1891 – September 16, 1946) was an American vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist, and actress. As a vaudeville singer she performed in multiple styles, including jazz and blues. In 1920, she entered blues history as the first African American artist to make vocal blues recordings. Willie "The Lion" Smith (no relation) described the background of that recording in his autobiography, ''Music on My Mind'' (1964). Early life Robinson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1891. The year of her birth has previously been given as 1883, but in 2018, researcher John Jeremiah Sullivan discovered her birth certificate stating she was born in Cincinnati in 1891. When she was around 10 years old, she found work touring with a white act, the Four Dancing Mitchells. As a teenager, she danced in Salem Tutt Whitney's ''Smart Set''. In 1913, she left the Tutt Brothers to sing in clubs in Harlem and married William "Smitty" Smith, a singer. Musical career On February ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". In the United States, short films were generally termed short subjects from the 1920s into the 1970s when confined to two 35 mm reels or less, and featurettes for a film of three or four reels. "Short" was an abbreviation for either term. The increasingly rare industry term "short subject" carries more of an assumption that the film is shown as part of a presentation along with a feature film. Short films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals and made by independent filmmakers with either a low budget or no budget at all. They are usually funded by film grants, nonprofit organizations, sponsor, or personal funds. Short films are generally used for industry experience and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jailhouse Blues
''Jailhouse Blues'' (1929) is a short musical film released by Columbia Pictures. It features Mamie Smith, who was a top star in Black Vaudeville and a recording artist with Okeh Records. By the time ''Jailhouse Blues'' was made her contract with Okeh had ended. Basil Smith directed. The film and its soundtrack have been rediscovered. Synopsis Mamie is missing her man, and finds him in jail. She pleads through her singing for his release. Cast *Mamie Smith *Homer Tutt * Porter Grainger * Billy Mitchell *Andrew Fairchild Related history and preservation status Two songs were prerecorded by Victor Records, "Jailhouse Blues" and "You Can't Do It!" as for the film's soundtrack. The visual element has been held at the Library of Congress for a long time, but no soundtrack disc was known. At one point a disc was located, but was destroyed accidentally in shipping. An intact disc was discovered in Australia in 2009 and, as of this writing (March 2011) the short is slated for prese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motion Picture
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound and, more rarely, other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and to the art form that is the result of it. Recording and transmission of film The moving images of a film are created by photographing actual scenes with a motion-picture camera, by photographing drawings or miniature models using traditional animation techniques, by means of CGI and computer animation, or by a combination of some or all of these techniques, and other visual effects. Before the introduction of digital production, series of still images were recorded on a strip of chemically sens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Sony. On June 19, 1918, brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and their business partner Joe Brandt founded Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales Corporation, which would eventually become Columbia Pictures. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name on January 10, 1924 (operating as Columbia Pictures Corporation until December 23, 1968) went public two years later and eventually began to use the image of Columbia, the female personification of the United States, as its logo. In its early years, Columbia was a minor player in Hollywood, but began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra. With Capra and others such as the most successful two reel comedy series The Three Stooges, Columb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fletcher Henderson
James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson (December 18, 1897 – December 29, 1952) was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. He was one of the most prolific black musical arrangers and, along with Duke Ellington, is considered one of the most influential arrangers and bandleaders in jazz history. Henderson's influence was vast. He helped bridge the gap between the Dixieland and the swing eras. He was often known as "Smack" Henderson (because of smacking sounds he made with his lips). Biography James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson was born in Cuthbert, Georgia. He grew up in a middle-class African American family. His father, Fletcher Hamilton Henderson (1857–1943), was the principal of the nearby Howard Normal Randolph School from 1880 until 1942. His home, now known as the Fletcher Henderson House, is a historic site. His mother, a teacher, taught him and his brother Horace to play the piano. He b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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