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Howard Theater
The Howard Theatre is a historic theater, located at 620 T Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C., has been a pillar of the community since its opening in 1910. This historic venue, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, showcases a variety of events, including live music, comedy, weddings, private events, and more. In its heyday, the theater was known for catering to an African-American clientele, and had played host to many of the great Black musical artists of the early and mid-twentieth century. The Howard Theatre was billed as the "Theater of the People", and supported two theatrical organizations, the Lafayette Players and the Howard University Players. In September 2010 extensive renovations were started to restore the theater to its former glory. The theater reopened on April 9, 2012 to headline acts including Wanda Sykes, Blue Öyster Cult, and Chaka Khan, all of whom appeared in the first month after its reopening. Early history Constructed in 191 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance ( ) was a period in History of Italy, Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity. Proponents of a "long Renaissance" argue that it started around the year 1300 and lasted until about 1600. In some fields, a Italian Renaissance painting#Proto-Renaissance painting, Proto-Renaissance, beginning around 1250, is typically accepted. The French word (corresponding to in Italian) means 'rebirth', and defines the period as one of cultural revival and renewed interest in classical antiquity after the centuries during what Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanists labelled as the Dark Ages (historiography), "Dark Ages". The Italian Renaissance historian Giorgio Vasari used the term ('rebirth') in his ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'' in 1550, bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Streamline Moderne
Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by Aerodynamics, aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design, it was used in railroad locomotives, telephones, buses, appliances, and other devices to give the impression of sleekness and modernity. In France, it was called the ''style paquebot'', or "ocean liner style", and was influenced by the design of the luxury ocean liner SS Normandie, SS ''Normandie'', launched in 1932. Influences and origins As the Great Depression of the 1930s progressed, Americans saw a new aspect of Art Deco, i.e., streamlining, a concept first conceived by industrial designers who stripped Art Deco design of its ornament in favor of the aerodynamic pure-line concept of motion and speed developed from scientific thinking. The cylindrical forms and long horizontal windowing in architecture may also have be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, Intonation (music), intonation, absolute pitch, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career. Her manager was Moe Gale, co-founder of the Savoy, until she turned the rest of her career over to Norman Granz, who founded Verve Records to produce new records by Fitzgerald. With Verve, she recorded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Eckstine
William Clarence Eckstine (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993) was an American jazz and pop singer and a bandleader during the swing and bebop eras. He was noted for his rich, almost operatic bass-baritone voice. In 2019, Eckstine was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award "for performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording". His recording of " I Apologize" (MGM, 1951) was given the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999. ''The New York Times'' described him as an "influential band leader" whose "suave bass-baritone" and "full-throated, sugary approach to popular songs inspired singers such as Earl Coleman, Johnny Hartman, Joe Williams, Arthur Prysock, and Lou Rawls." Early life and education Eckstine was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of William Eckstein, a chauffeur, and Charlotte Eckstein, a seamstress. Eckstine's paternal grandparents were Willi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington wrote or collaborated on more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, and many of his pieces have become Standard (music), standards. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan (1937 song), Caravan", which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. At the end of the 1930s, Ellington began a nearly thirty five-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Washington Star
''The Washington Star'', previously known as the ''Washington Star-News'' and the ''Washington'' ''Evening Star'', was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C., between 1852 and 1981. The Sunday edition was known as the ''Sunday Star''. The paper was renamed several times before becoming ''Washington Star'' by the late 1970s. For most of the time it was publishing, ''The Washington Star'' was the city's newspaper of record. It provided a longtime home to columnist Mary McGrory (1918-2004) and to cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman (1869-1949). On August 7, 1981, after 128 years, ''The Washington Star'' ceased publication and filed for bankruptcy. In the bankruptcy sale, ''The Washington Post'' purchased the land and buildings owned by ''The Washington Star'', including its printing-presses. History 19th century ''The Washington Star'' was founded on December 16, 1852, by Captain Joseph Borrows Tate. It was originally headquartered on "Newspaper Row" on Pennsylva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Church (building)
A church, church building, church house, or chapel is a building used for Christian worship church service, services and Christian religion, Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 AD and 256 AD. ''Church'' is also used to describe a Church (congregation), body or an assembly of Christian believers, while "the Church" may be used to refer to the worldwide Christian religious community as a whole. In traditional Christian architecture, the plan view of a church often forms a Christian cross with the centre aisle and seating representing the vertical beam and the Church architecture#Characteristics of the early Christian church building, bema and altar forming the horizontal. Towers or domes may inspire contemplation of the heavens. Modern churches have a variety of architectural styles and layouts. Some buildings designed for other purposes have been converted to churches, while many original church buildings have bee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and business failures around the world. The economic contagion began in 1929 in the United States, the largest economy in the world, with the devastating Wall Street stock market crash of October 1929 often considered the beginning of the Depression. Among the countries with the most unemployed were the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Weimar Republic, Germany. The Depression was preceded by a period of industrial growth and social development known as the "Roaring Twenties". Much of the profit generated by the boom was invested in speculation, such as on the stock market, contributing to growing Wealth inequality in the United States, wealth inequality. Banks were subject to laissez-faire, minimal regulation, resulting in loose lending and wides ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sherman Dudley
Sherman Houston Dudley (1872 – March 1, 1940) was an African-American vaudeville performer and theatre entrepreneur. He gained notability in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as an individual performer, a composer of ragtime songs, and as a member and later owner of various minstrel shows including the Smart Set Company. Dudley is also notable as one of the first African Americans to combine business with theater, by starting a black theater circuit, in which theaters were owned or operated by African Americans and provided entertainment by and for African Americans. He created the first black operated vaudeville circuit and led the way for what became the Theatre Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.). Career Reportedly, Dudley was born in 1872 in Dallas, Texas (some sources list his year of birth as around 1870 or 1873), "of humble parentage".Abbot and Seroff 87. A jockey early in his youth, he turned to theater and gained a reputation by singing in a medicine s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Theatre Interior
Howard is a masculine given name derived from the English surname Howard. ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names'' notes that "the use of this surname as a christian name is quite recent and there seems to be no particular reason for it except that it is the name of several noble families". The surname has a number of possible origins; in the case of the noble family, the likely source is the Norse given name Hávarðr, composed of the elements ''há'' ("high") and ''varðr'' ("guardian"). Diminutives include Howie and Ward. Howard reached peak popularity in the United States in the 1920s, when it ranked as the 26th most popular boys' name. As of 2018, it had fallen to 968th place. People with the given name * Howard Allen (1949–2020), American serial killer * Howard Duane Allman (1946–1971), American guitar virtuoso * Howard Anderson (other), name of several people * Howard Andrew (1934–2021), American poker player * Howard Ashman (1950–1991), Ame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
