|
Richard Lane (announcer)
Richard Lane (May 28, 1899 – September 5, 1982), sometimes known as Dick Lane, was an American actor and television announcer/presenter. In movies, he played assured, fast-talking slickers: usually press agents, policemen and detectives, sometimes swindlers and frauds. He is perhaps best known to movie fans as "Inspector Farraday" in the Boston Blackie mystery-comedies. Lane also played Faraday in the first radio version of ''Boston Blackie'', which ran on NBC from June 23, 1944 to September 15, 1944. Lane was an early arrival on television, first as a news reporter and then as a sports announcer, broadcasting wrestling and roller derby shows on KTLA-TV, mainly from the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Biography Early years Lane was born in 1899 in Rice Lake, Wisconsin to a farm family. Early in life he developed talents for reciting poetry and doing various song-and-dance acts. By his teenage years, Lane was doing an " iron jaw" routine in circuses around Europe and wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Admiral Was A Lady
''The Admiral Was a Lady'' is a 1950 American comedy film directed by Albert S. Rogell and starring Edmond O'Brien, Rudy Vallée and Wanda Hendrix. It was an independent film, independent production distributed by United Artists. The working title of the film was ''Once Over Lightly'', taken from one of the film's songs. Plot After the end of World War II, Jean Madison, a former WAVES, WAVE ensign, meets the former aircrew of an United States Army Air Corps, Army Air Corps A-20 Havoc light bomber named "Sinful Sinthia" when they go to collect their unemployment benefits. They are all members of the 52-20 Club, a government program that pays unemployed American veterans $20 a week for 52 weeks. The men take Jean, whom Jimmy dubs the Admiral, under their wing, showing her how to save money. For example, they open bank accounts in order to receive a free ceramic piggy bank and get their $20 checks cashed, then close their accounts without having to pay a fee. They sell the piggy b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Everybody's Dancin'
''Everybody's Dancin''' is a studio album by the American band Kool & the Gang, released in 1978. It peaked at No. 71 on ''Billboards Top Black Albums chart. Reception In 1978, despite their music's recent feature in ''Saturday Night Fever'', Kool & the Gang were "at a low point" of commercial decline. The ''Rolling Stone'' wrote that the band struggled to maintain its relevance in the disco world, despite a prominent horn section. Speaking of the circa-1978 era, drummer George "Funky" Brown stated, "We tried our version of disco. It didn't work." The ''Detroit Free Press'' opined that "Kool and the Gang have gone bland," noting that "they've joined the disco lemmings...The edge has gone". Predecessor to commercial success The year of its release, the band played at a record store to promote ''Everybody's Dancin. When nobody showed up for the performance, the band was "humiliated". Ronald Bell recalled that a teenager visiting the store told the band "something they all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spade Cooley
Donnell Clyde "Spade" Cooley (December 17, 1910 – November 23, 1969) was an American Western swing musician, big-band leader, actor, television personality, and convicted murderer. In 1961, he was tried and convicted for the murder of his second wife, Ella Mae Evans. Early life Donnell Clyde Cooley was born in Grand, Oklahoma. Being part Cherokee, he was sent to the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon, in his youth. In 1930, during the Dust Bowl, Cooley's family moved to California. There, he took the nickname "Spade" after he played a poker game and won three straight flush hands, all in spades. Music career Cooley joined a big band led by Jimmy Wakely, who played at the Venice Pier Ballroom in Venice, California, playing fiddle. Several thousand dancers would turn out on Saturday nights to swing and hop: "The hoards (sic) of people and jitterbuggers loved ooley" When Wakely got a movie contract at Universal Pictures, Cooley replaced him as bandleader. To capitalize ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keith Jackson
Keith Max Jackson (October 18, 1928 – January 12, 2018) was an American sports commentator, journalist, author, and radio personality, known for his career with ABC Sports (1966–2006). While he covered a variety of sports over his career, he is best known for his coverage of college football from 1952 until 2006, and his distinctive voice, "a throwback voice, deep and operatic. A voice that was to college football what Edward R. Murrow's was to war. It was the voice of ultimate authority in his profession." Biography Early life A farmer's son, Jackson was born in Roopville, Georgia and grew up on a farm outside Carrollton, near the Alabama state line. He was the only surviving child in a poor family and grew up listening to sports on the radio. After enlisting and serving as a mechanic in the United States Marine Corps, he attended Washington State University in Pullman under the G.I. Bill. Jackson began as a political science major, but he became interested in b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tor Kamata
McRonald Kamaka (March 9, 1937 – July 23, 2007) was an American-Canadian professional wrestler known by the ring name Tor Kamata. He won several heavyweight and tag team championships, most notably the PWF World Heavyweight Championship in All Japan Pro Wrestling and the AWA World Tag Team Championship in the American Wrestling Association. He was a classic heel, reviled for dirty tricks in the ring, included rubbing salt in his opponent's eyes. Professional wrestling career After returning to Hawaii after leaving the United States Air Force, 50th State Big Time Wrestling promoter Ed Francis convinced Kamaka to try professional wrestling. He was given the name Tor Kamata in reference to Tomas De Torquemada of the Spanish Inquisition. He also worked as Dr. Moto, holding the American Wrestling Association's AWA World Tag Team Championship with Mitsu Arakawa. One of his signature moves, the "judo chop" became a popular phrase for all types of martial arts strikes in the 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorgeous George
George Raymond Wagner (March 24, 1915 – December 26, 1963) was an American professional wrestler known by his ring name Gorgeous George. In the United States, during the First Golden Age of Professional Wrestling in the 1940s–1950s, Gorgeous George was one of the biggest stars of the sport, gaining media attention for his outrageous character, which was described as flamboyant and charismatic. He was a major national celebrity at his peak, and was a pioneer of early entertainment television. He was posthumously inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum, Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2002 and the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2010. Early life Wagner, of German heritage, was born March 24, 1915, in Butte, Nebraska. For a time, his family lived on a farm near the village of Phoenix in Holt County and probably in Seward County, before they moved to Waterloo, Iowa and later Sioux City, Iowa, Sioux City. When he was 7 years old, Wagner's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roller Games
Roller Games was the name of a sports entertainment spectacle created in the early 1960s in Los Angeles, California, — This source is detailed but not neutral; better sources are needed for all of its claims. as a rival to the Jerry Seltzer-owned Roller Derby league, which had enjoyed a monopoly on the sport of roller derby — and its name — since its inception in 1935. Roller Games provided a mostly televised, increasingly theatrical version of the sport. Roller Games and its flagship team, the Los Angeles Thunderbirds (T-Birds) has endured several boom and bust cycles, including a roller derby attendance record in 1972, a major reorganization in 1975, appearances on ESPN in 1986, a TV series called '' RollerGames'' in 1989–1990 (and its corresponding arcade game by Konami and its video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System; there was also a pinball machine based on the show), and a small number of untelevised exhibition matches in 1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, and the earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount Global. It is the sixth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States (behind Universal Pictures), and the sole member of the Major film studio, "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor put 24 actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on the logo. In 1967, the number of stars was reduced to 22 and their hidden meaning was dropped. In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. The company's headquarters and studios are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California. The most commercially successful film franchises from Paramount Pictu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short-subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical, farce, and slapstick comedy. Six total Stooges appeared over the act's run (with only three working at any given time). The two constants were: * Moe Howard (born Moses Horwitz), 1922–1970, and *Larry Fine (born Louis Feinberg), 1925–1970 The "third stooge" was played in turn by: * Shemp Howard (born Samuel Horwitz), 1922–1932, 1947–1955 ** Joe Palma (born Joseph Provenzano), 1956; stand in for Shemp * Curly Howard (born Jerome Horwitz), 1932–1946 * Joe Besser (born Jessel Besser), 1956–1957 * "Curly Joe" DeRita (born Joseph Wardell), 1958–1970 The act began in 1922 as part of a vaudeville comedy act billed as "Ted Healy and His Stooges", consisting originally of Ted Healy and Moe Howard. Over time, they were joined by Moe's brother, Shemp Howard, and then La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gus Schilling
August "Gus" Schilling (June 20, 1908 – June 16, 1957) was an American film actor who started in burlesque comedy and usually played nervous comic roles, often unbilled. A friend of Orson Welles, he appeared in five of the director's films — ''Citizen Kane'' (first screen performance), '' The Magnificent Ambersons'', '' The Lady from Shanghai'', ''Macbeth'' and '' Touch of Evil'' (final performance, released posthumously). Career Born in New York City, Schilling had a rubber face and flustered gestures which made him a natural comedian and he began his career understudying comedy stars Bert Lahr and Joe Penner on Broadway. He soon became a favorite among burlesque comedians, who welcomed him into the burlesque profession. Schilling was in a relationship with burlesque star Betty Rowland and the couple toured in the Minsky burlesque troupe. Orson Welles saw Schilling in New York and followed him to Florida. There Welles hired Schilling to appear in a stage production fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jules White
Jules White (born Julius Weiss; 17 September 1900 – 30 April 1985) was an American film director and producer best known for his short-subject comedies starring The Three Stooges. Early years White began working in motion pictures in the 1910s, as a child actor, for Pathé Studios. He appears in a small role as a Confederate soldier in the landmark silent feature ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915). By the 1920s, his brother, Jack White (film producer), Jack White, had become a successful comedy producer at Educational Pictures, and Jules worked for him as a film editor. Jules became a film director, director in 1926, specializing in comedies such as ''The Battling Kangaroo'' (1926). In 1930, White and his boyhood friend Zion Myers moved to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio. They conceived and co-directed M-G-M's gimmicky Dogville Comedies, which featured trained dogs in satires of recent Hollywood films (like ''The Dogway Melody'' and ''So Quiet on the Canine Front''). White an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
