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Katherine Grayson
Kathryn Grayson (born Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick; February 9, 1922 – February 17, 2010) was an American actress and coloratura soprano.Ronald Berganbr>Obituary ''London Guardian'', February 19, 2010. From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She was under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by the early 1940s, soon establishing a career principally through her work in musicals. After several supporting roles, she was a lead performer in such films as ''Thousands Cheer'' (1943), ''Anchors Aweigh'' (1945) with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, and ''Show Boat'' (1951) and ''Kiss Me Kate'' (1953), both with Howard Keel. When film musical production declined, she worked in theatre, appearing in ''Camelot'' (1962–1964). Later in the decade she performed in several operas, including ''La bohème'', ''Madama Butterfly'', ''Orpheus in the Underworld'' and ''La traviata''. Early life Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick was born on February 9, 1922, in Winston-Salem, Nort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in North Carolina, the third-largest urban area in North Carolina, and the 90th most populous city in the United States. With a metropolitan population of 679,948 it is the fourth largest metropolitan area in North Carolina. Winston-Salem is home to the tallest office building in the region, 100 North Main Street, formerly known as the Wachovia Building and now known locally as the Wells Fargo Center. In 2003, the Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point metropolitan statistical area was redefined by the OMB and separated into the two major metropolitan areas of Winston-Salem and Greensboro-High Point. The population of the Winston-Salem metropolitan area in 2020 was 679,948. The metro area covers over 2,000 square miles and spans the five co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Show Boat (1951 Film)
''Show Boat'' is a 1951 American musical romantic drama film, based on the 1927 stage musical of the same name by Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (script and lyrics), and the 1926 novel by Edna Ferber. It was made by MGM, adapted for the screen by John Lee Mahin, produced by Arthur Freed and directed by George Sidney. Filmed previously in 1929 and in 1936, this third adaptation of ''Show Boat'' was shot in Technicolor in the typical MGM lavish style, while the basic plot remains unchanged. The film stars Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, and Howard Keel, with Joe E. Brown, Marge Champion, Gower Champion, William Warfield, Robert Sterling, Agnes Moorehead and Leif Erickson. Unlike the 1936 film, none of the members of the original Broadway cast of the show appeared in this version. The 1951 ''Show Boat'' was the most financially successful of the film adaptations of the show: one of MGM's most popular musicals, it was the second highest-grossing film of that ye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Hardy's Private Secretary
''Andy Hardy's Private Secretary'' is a 1941 American comedy film directed by George B. Seitz and starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Kathryn Grayson, Ann Rutherford and Fay Holden. It was the tenth of the 16-film Andy Hardy series. Marian Hardy ( Cecelia Parker) does not appear in this film. Plot A week from the end of high school, Andy (Mickey Rooney) is keenly anticipating his graduation, but is putting more effort into running the various student committees – most of which he chairs – than studying for his examinations. His father, honorable judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) learns that Andy has been giving money for tuition to a fellow student, a girl named Kathryn Land ( Kathryn Grayson). Judge Hardy also learns that Kathryn's father is poor. On his father's advice, Andy attempts to offload some of his own study work, and asks Kathryn Land to be his private secretary, much to the chagrin of his steady girlfriend Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford). Polly gets quite jealous of Ka ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an American film production and distribution company owned by Comcast through the NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment division of NBCUniversal. Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, and Jules Brulatour, Universal is the oldest surviving film studio in the United States; the world's fifth oldest after Gaumont, Pathé, Titanus, and Nordisk Film; and the oldest member of Hollywood's "Big Five" studios in terms of the overall film market. Its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. In 1962, the studio was acquired by MCA, which was re-launched as NBCUniversal in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deanna Durbin
Edna Mae Durbin (December 4, 1921 – April 17, 2013), known professionally as Deanna Durbin, was a Canadian-born actress and singer, who moved to the USA with her family in infancy. She appeared in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s. With the technical skill and vocal range of a legitimate lyric soprano, she performed many styles from popular standards to operatic arias. Durbin was a child actress who made her first film appearance with Judy Garland in ''Every Sunday'' (1936), and subsequently signed a contract with Universal Studios. She achieved success as the ideal teenaged daughter in films such as '' Three Smart Girls'' (1936), '' One Hundred Men and a Girl'' (1937), and '' It Started with Eve'' (1941). Her work was credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy, and led to Durbin being awarded the Academy Juvenile Award in 1938. As she matured, Durbin grew dissatisfied with the girl-next-door roles assigned to her and attempted to move into sophisticated non-music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Muny
The St. Louis Municipal Opera Theatre (commonly known as The Muny) is an amphitheater located in St. Louis, Missouri. The theatre seats 11,000 people with about 1,500 free seats in the last nine rows that are available on a first come, first served basis. The Muny seasons run every year from mid-June to mid-August. It is run by a nonprofit organization. The current president and chief executive is Kwofe Coleman. The current artistic director and executive producer is Mike Isaacson. History In 1914, Luther Ely Smith began staging pageant-masques on Art Hill in Forest Park. In 1916, a grassy area between two oak trees on the present site of The Muny was chosen for a production of ''As You Like It'' produced by Margaret Anglin and starring Sydney Greenstreet with a local cast of "1,000 St. Louis folk dancers and folk singers" in connection with the tercentenary of Shakespeare's death. The audience sat in portable chairs on a gravel floor. Soon after, the Convention Board o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kirkwood, Missouri
Kirkwood is an inner-ring western suburb of St. Louis located in St. Louis County, Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 27,540. Founded in 1853, the city is named after James P. Kirkwood, builder of the Pacific Railroad through that city. It was the first planned suburb located west of the Mississippi River. History Plans for a new community close to St. Louis were begun after the St. Louis fire of 1849 and the preceding and subsequent cholera outbreaks that killed one-tenth of the residents of downtown St. Louis. In 1850, Hiram W. Leffingwell and Richard Smith Elliott bought land from downtown, which was at about the same time James P. Kirkwood, chief engineer of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, was laying out a route for the train line. The city of Kirkwood, named after the chief engineer, was platted in 1852. Kirkwood was the first suburban municipality built outside of the St. Louis city boundaries. When the railroad reached the community in 1853, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth register may by that fact alone become the person's legal name. The assumption in the Western world is often that the name from birth (or perhaps from baptism or ''brit milah'') will persist to adulthood in the normal course of affairs—either throughout life or until marriage. Some possible changes concern middle names, diminutive forms, changes relating to parental status (due to one's parents' divorce or adoption by different parents). Matters are very different in some cultures in which a birth name is for childhood only, rather than for life. Maiden and married names The French and English-adopted terms née and né (; , ) denote an original surname at birth. The term ''née'', having feminine grammatical gender, can be u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Traviata
''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on '' La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own 1848 novel. The opera was originally titled ''Violetta'', after the main character. It was first performed on 6 March 1853 at La Fenice opera house in Venice. Piave and Verdi wanted to follow Dumas in giving the opera a contemporary setting, but the authorities at La Fenice insisted that it be set in the past, "c. 1700". It was not until the 1880s that the composer's and librettist's original wishes were carried out and " realistic" productions were staged. ''La traviata'' has become immensely popular and is among the most frequently performed of all operas. Composition history For Verdi, the years 1851 to 1853 were filled with operatic activity. First, he had agreed with the librettist Salvadore Cammarano on a subject for what ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orpheus In The Underworld
''Orpheus in the Underworld'' and ''Orpheus in Hell'' are English names for (), a comic opera with music by Jacques Offenbach and words by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux, Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy. It was first performed as a two-act "opéra bouffon" at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris, on 21 October 1858, and was extensively revised and expanded in a four-act "opéra féerie" version, presented at the Théâtre de la Gaîté (rue Papin), Théâtre de la Gaîté, Paris, on 7 February 1874. The opera is a lampoon of the ancient legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. In this version Orpheus is not the son of Apollo but a rustic violin teacher. He is glad to be rid of his wife, Eurydice, when she is abducted by the god of the underworld, Pluto (mythology), Pluto. Orpheus has to be bullied by Public Opinion into trying to rescue Eurydice. The reprehensible conduct of the gods of Mount Olympus#Name and mythological associations, Olympus in the opera was widely seen as a veil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madama Butterfly
''Madama Butterfly'' (; ''Madame Butterfly'') is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is based on the short story " Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther Long, which in turn was based on stories told to Long by his sister Jennie Correll and on the semi-autobiographical 1887 French novel '' Madame Chrysanthème'' by Pierre Loti.Chadwick Jenna"The Original Story: John Luther Long and David Belasco" on columbia.edu Long's version was dramatized by David Belasco as the one-act play '' Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan'', which, after premiering in New York in 1900, moved to London, where Puccini saw it in the summer of that year. The original version of the opera, in two acts, had its premiere on 17 February 1904 at La Scala in Milan. It was poorly received, despite having such notable singers as soprano Rosina Storchio, tenor Giovanni Zenatello and baritone Giuseppe De Luca in l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Bohème
''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on ''Scènes de la vie de bohème'' (1851) by Henri Murger. The story is set in Paris around 1830 and shows the Bohemian lifestyle (known in French as "") of a poor seamstress and her artist friends. The world premiere of ''La bohème'' was in Turin on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio, conducted by the 28-year-old Arturo Toscanini. Since then, ''La bohème'' has become part of the standard Italian opera repertory and is one of the most frequently performed operas worldwide. In 1946, fifty years after the opera's premiere, Toscanini conducted a commemorative performance of it on radio with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. A recording of the performance was later released by RCA Victor on vinyl record, tape and compac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
