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Leon Hefflin, Sr.
Leon Norman Hefflin Sr. (August 17, 1898 – November 20, 1975) was a pioneering African-American producer, director, business owner, furniture manufacturer, and entrepreneur. After losing his large and successful manufacturing business in the Depression he rebounded to produce the first and largest outdoor jazz entertainment event of its kind, the " Cavalcade of Jazz," in 1945. Held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, it was part of the Central Ave jazz scene, and showcased over 125 artists over 15 years. Early life Leon Hefflin was born in 1898 in Palestine, Texas. His father was a blacksmith and his mother was a cook. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was 2, shortly after the murder of their father. He began technical training in grammar school and found he had a gift for woodworking. He excelled above all other students at 14th Street Intermediate School and his handiwork was entered into the State Exposition in 1915. Entrepreneur Hefflin opened Hefflin Manufacturing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palestine, Texas
Palestine ( ) is a city in and the County seat, seat of Anderson County, Texas, Anderson County in the U.S. state of Texas. It was named after Palestine, Illinois, by preacher Daniel Parker (Baptist), Daniel Parker, who had migrated from that town. It is also contested that Micham Main named Palestine after his hometown, also Palestine, Illinois, when he and his family arrived here along with the Parker family and several others. The city had a 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census population of 18,544, making it the sixth-largest incorporated municipality in Northeast Texas by population. Palestine is a relatively small city located in the Piney Woods, equidistant from the major cities of Dallas, Houston, and Shreveport, Louisiana. It is notable for its natural environment, and has a notable Cornus (genus), dogwood blooming season. It has 23 historical sites on the National Register of Historic Places, and was the western terminus of the historic Texas State Railroad. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Avenue (Los Angeles)
Central Avenue is a major north–south thoroughfare in the central portion of the Los Angeles, California metropolitan area. Located just to the west of the Alameda Corridor, it runs south from the eastern end of the Civic Center, Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles Civic Center down to the east side of California State University, Dominguez Hills and terminating at East Del Amo Boulevard in Carson, California, Carson. From north to south, Central Avenue passes through Downtown Los Angeles, the areas of South Los Angeles (including Watts, California, Watts, Florence-Graham, Willowbrook, California, Willowbrook), the city of Compton, California, Compton, and the city of Carson, which is part of the 17-city South Bay area of Los Angeles County. History Central Avenue had two all-black segregated fire stations. Fire Station No. 30, Engine Company No. 30, Fire Station No. 30 and Fire Station No. 14 (Los Angeles), Fire Station No. 14 were segregated in 1924. They remained segrega ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Turner (singer)
Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner Jr. (May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985) was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him". Turner's greatest fame was due to his rock and roll recordings in the 1950s, particularly "Shake, Rattle and Roll", but his career as a performer endured from the 1920s into the 1980s. Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, with the Hall lauding him as "the brawny voiced 'Boss of the Blues. AllMusic called Turner "the premier blues shouter of the postwar era". Life and career Early days Turner was born May 18, 1911, in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. His father was killed in a train accident when Turner was four years old. He sang in his church, and on street corners for money. He left school at age fourteen to work in Kansas City's nightclubs, first as a cook and later as a singing bartender. He became known as "The Singing B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valaida Snow
Valaida Snow (June 2, 1904. Other presumed birth years are 1900, 1901, 1903, 1905, and 1907 – May 30, 1956) was an American jazz musician and entertainer who performed internationally. She was also known as "Little Louis" and "Queen of the Trumpet," a nickname given to her by W. C. Handy. Early life Snow was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her mother, Etta, was a Howard University-educated music teacher and her father, John, was a minister who was the leader of the Pickaninny Troubadours, a group mainly consisting of child performers. Raised on the road in a show-business family, where starting from the age of five, she began performing with her father's group. By the time she was 15, she learned to play cello, bass, banjo, violin, mandolin, harp, accordion, clarinet, trumpet, and saxophone. She also sang and danced. Career Her solo career began when she joined a popular revue called ''Holiday in Dixieland'', after exiting an abusive marriage. She then held a residency at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Honey Drippers (soul Band)
The Honey Drippers or The Honeydrippers may refer to: * The Honeydrippers, 1980s British-American rock band *The Honey Drippers, a soul band, led by Roy C, that recorded the 1973 song " Impeach the President" *Joe Liggins and his Honeydrippers, a jump band led by Joe Liggins, active during the 1940s and 1950s, that recorded the 1945 song "The Honeydripper" * (Jim Smoak &) The Louisiana Honeydrippers, a cajun/bluegrass band. See also *'' The Honeydrippers: Volume One'', a 1984 EP by the rock band * The Honeydripper (other) * ''Honeydripper'' (film), a 2007 film by John Sayles {{DEFAULTSORT:Honey Drippers, The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Count Basie
William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, his minimalist piano style, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison, plunger trombonist Al Grey, and singers Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Dennis Rowland, Thelma Carpenter, and Joe Williams (jazz singer), Joe Williams. As a composer, Basie is known for writing such jazz standards as "Blue and Sentimental", "Jumpin' at the Woodside" and "One O'Clock Jump" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shrine Auditorium
The Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue in Los Angeles, California. It is also the headquarters of the Al Malaikah Temple, a division of the Shriners. It was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (No. 139) in 1975, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. History Opened in 1926, the current Shrine Auditorium replaced an earlier 1906 Al Malaikah Temple which had been destroyed by a fire on January 11, 1920. The fire gutted the structure in just 30 minutes, and nearly killed six firefighters in the process. In the late 1960s, the Shrine was referred to as "The Pinnacle" by the audiences of rock concerts. In 2002, the auditorium underwent a $15 million renovation that upgraded the stage with state-of-the-art lighting and rigging systems, and included new roofing and air conditioning for both the Auditorium and Expo Center, modernized concession stands, additional restrooms, repainting of the Expo Center, and a new performa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American singer and songwriter whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of " That's My Desire" in 2005. Often billed as "America's Number One Song Stylist", his other nicknames include "Mr. Rhythm", "Old Leather Lungs", and "Mr. Steel Tonsils". His hits included "That's My Desire", " That Lucky Old Sun", " Mule Train", " Jezebel", " High Noon", " I Believe", " Hey Joe!", " The Kid's Last Fight", " Cool Water", " Rawhide", and " You Gave Me a Mountain". He sang well known theme songs for many Western film soundtracks, including '' 3:10 To Yuma'', '' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral'', and '' Blazing Saddles'', although his recordings were not charted as country and western. Laine sang an eclectic variety of song styles and genres, stretching from big band crooning to pop, western-themed songs, gospel, rock, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Milton
Roy Bunny Milton (July 31, 1907 – September 18, 1983) was an American R&B and jump blues singer, drummer and bandleader. Career Milton's grandmother was Chickasaw. He was born in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, and grew up on an Indian reservation before moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma. He joined the Ernie Fields band in the late 1920s as singer and, later, drummer. After moving to Los Angeles, in 1933, he formed his own band, the Solid Senders, with Camille Howard on piano. He performed in local clubs and began recording in the 1940s, his first release being "Milton's Boogie" on his own record label. His big break came in 1945, when his "R.M. Blues", on the new Juke Box label, became a hit, reaching number 2 on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart and number 20 on the pop chart. The disc sold in excess of one million copies. Its success helped establish Art Rupe's company, which he shortly afterwards renamed Specialty Records. In 1950, Milton and his Orchestra performed at the sixth famed Caval ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington (; born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, one of the most popular black female recording artists of the 1950s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues". She was also known as "Queen of the Jukeboxes". She was a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Early life Ruth Lee Jones was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to Alice and Ollie Jones, and moved to Chicago as a child. She became deeply involved in gospel music and played piano for the choir in St. Luke's Baptist Church while still in elementary school. She sang gospel music in church and played piano, directing her church choir in her teens and was a member of the Sallie Martin Gospel Singers. When she joined the Sallie Martin group, she dropped ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toni Harper
Toni Harper (June 8, 1937 – February 10, 2023), also known as Toni Dunlap, was an American former child singer who retired from performing at the age of 29. After learning dance under Maceo Anderson, Harper was cast by the choreographer Nick Castle in ''Christmas Follies'', at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in 1945. She later went on to perform on stage with Herb Jeffries and Cab Calloway. Harper performed at the third annual Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles produced by Leon Hefflin Sr. on September 7, 1947. Woody Herman, The Valdez Orchestra, The Blenders, T-Bone Walker, Slim Gaillard, The Honeydrippers, Sarah Vaughan and the Three Blazers also performed that same day. She came back to perform for the eighth Cavalcade of Jazz concert on June 1, 1952. Also featured that day were Roy Brown and His Mighty Men, Anna Mae Winburn and Her Sweethearts, Jerry Wallace, Louis Jordan, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Josephine Baker. Harper recorded "Candy Store ... [...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] |
