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Shelley Berman
Sheldon Leonard Berman (February 3, 1925 – September 1, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, writer, teacher, and lecturer. In his comedic career, he was awarded three gold records and he won the first Grammy Award for a spoken comedy recording in 1959. He played Larry David's father on ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', a role for which he received a 2008 Emmy Award nomination. Berman taught humor writing at the University of Southern California for more than 20 years. Early life and education Berman was born in Chicago, the son of Irene (née Marks) and Nathan Berman. He was Jewish. He had a younger brother, Ronald. He served in the Navy during World War II. He then enrolled in Chicago's Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago (now at DePaul University) as a drama student. There he met fellow student Sarah Herman; they married in 1947. His acting career began with an acting company in Woodstock, Illinois. Leaving Woodstock in 1949, the couple made their way to N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , subdivision_type2 = List of counties in Illinois, Counties , subdivision_name1 = Illinois , subdivision_name2 = Cook County, Illinois, Cook and DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage , established_title = Settled , established_date = , established_title2 = Municipal corporation, Incorporated (city) , established_date2 = , founder = Jean Baptiste Point du Sable , government_type = Mayor–council government, Mayor–council , governing_body = Chicago City Council , leader_title = Mayor of Chicago, Mayor , leader_name = Lori Lightfo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. The publication has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes. It is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by the Times Mirror Company. The newspaper’s coverage emphasizes California and especially Southern California stories. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades the paper's readership has declined, and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, and other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Damn Yankees
''Damn Yankees'' is a 1955 musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop, music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story is a modern retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League Baseball. It is based on Wallop's 1954 novel '' The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant''. The show ran for 1,019 performances in its original Broadway production. Adler and Ross's success with it and '' The Pajama Game'' seemed to point to a bright future for them, but Ross suddenly died of chronic bronchiectasis at age 29, several months after ''Damn Yankees'' opened. Plot NOTE: This is the plot of the 1994 Broadway revival of the show; there are differences from the original 1955 version. For the 1958 film version, see ''Damn Yankees'' (film). Middle-aged real estate agent Joe Boyd is a long-suffering fan of the pathetic Washington Senators baseball team. His wife, Meg, lam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Odd Couple (play)
''The Odd Couple'' is a play by Neil Simon. Following its premiere on Broadway in 1965, the characters were revived in a successful 1968 film and 1970s television series, as well as several other derivative works and spin-offs. The plot concerns two mismatched roommates: the neat, uptight Felix Ungar and the slovenly, easygoing Oscar Madison. Simon adapted the play in 1985 to feature a pair of female roommates (Florence Ungar and Olive Madison) in ''The Female Odd Couple''. An updated version of the 1965 show appeared in 2002 with the title ''Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple''. History Sources vary as to the origins of the play. In ''The Washington Post''s obituary of Simon's brother Danny, a television writer, Adam Bernstein wrote that the idea for the play came from his divorce. "Mr. Simon had moved in with a newly single theatrical agent named Roy Gerber in Hollywood, and they invited friends over one night. Mr. Simon botched the pot roast. The next day, Gerbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Family Affair (musical)
''A Family Affair'' is a musical with a book by James Goldman and William Goldman, lyrics by James Goldman and John Kander, and music by Kander. This was Kander's first show and his only one written without Fred Ebb in Ebb's lifetime. Synopsis In Chicago, Gerry Siegal and Sally Nathan, a young suburban Chicago couple, decide to marry. The bride's Uncle Alfie (her guardian) wants an intimate wedding and wages a war of words with the groom's entire family. The groom's brassy Jewish mother Tillie commandeers the planning, steering it towards a large country club wedding (despite her husband's scolding her for taking over). Caterers, dressmakers, band leaders, rabbis, florists, photographers and a bossy wedding planner are pushed to the limit by the madcap preparations. The bride and groom, who have retained their sanity, realize that their families have almost destroyed the wedding. They announce their intention to have a quiet family affair. Song list ;Act I *Anything for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago Tribune''. The modern paper grew out of the 1948 merger of the ''Chicago Sun'' and the '' Chicago Daily Times''. Journalists at the paper have received eight Pulitzer prizes, mostly in the 1970s; one recipient was film critic Roger Ebert (1975), who worked at the paper from 1967 until his death in 2013. Long owned by the Marshall Field family, since the 1980s ownership of the paper has changed hands numerous times, including twice in the late 2010s. History The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' claims to be the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city. That claim is based on the 1844 founding of the '' Chicago Daily Journal'', which was also the first newspaper to publish the rumor, now believed false, that a cow owned by Catherin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Founded in 1956 by Norman Granz, the label is home to the world's largest jazz catalogue, which includes recordings by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Stan Getz, Bill Evans, Billie Holiday, and Oscar Peterson, among others. It absorbed the catalogues of Granz's earlier label, Clef Records, founded in 1946; Norgran Records, founded in 1953; and material which was previously licensed to Mercury Records. Verve also served as the original home of rock acts such as The Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. The restructured Verve Records is now part of the Verve Label Group (VLG), a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. This company is also home to historic imprints including Verve Forecast, Impulse! and Decca Records. History Norman Granz created Verve to produce new recordings by Ella Fitzgerald, whom he managed; the first album the label released was ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mister Kelly's
Mister Kelly’s was a nightclub on Rush Street in Chicago which existed from 1953 to 1975. From around 1956 until its demise, it was a springboard to fame for many entertainers, especially jazz singers and comedians. As reported in the ''Chicago Tribune'', "It was a supernova in the local and national nightlife firmament." Mister Kelly’s was owned and operated by brothers Oscar and George Marienthal, whose Chicago empire included the London House, an upscale jazz supper club, and the theatrically oriented Happy Medium. Early days Mister Kelly’s opened on November 24, 1953 on Rush Street in Chicago as a restaurant featuring steaks and Green Goddess salad as a house special. In 1954, entertainment was added with two singer-pianists, Buddy Charles and Audrey Morris, as the first entertainers. The nightclub was destroyed on December 8, 1955 when a fire started in a grease chute and spread through a ventilator into the club.2 Mister Kelly’s was rebuilt and reopened on August ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Second City
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959, and has since become one of the most influential and prolific comedy theatres in the English-speaking world. In February 2021, ZMC, a private equity investment firm based in Manhattan, purchased the Second City. The Second City has produced television programs in both Canada and the United States, including '' SCTV'', ''Second City Presents'', and '' Next Comedy Legend''. Since its debut, The Second City has consistently been a starting point for many comedians, award-winning actors, directors, and others in show business, including Del Close, Alan Alda, Alan Arkin, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, John Candy, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compass Players
The Compass Players (or Compass Theater) was an improvisational theatre revue active from 1955 to 1958 in Chicago and St. Louis. Founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, it is considered to be the first improvisational theater in the United States. History Shepherd and Sills The Compass Players, founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, was the first Improvisational Theatre in America. It began July 8, 1955 as a storefront theater at 1152 E. 55th near the University of Chicago campus. They presented improvised plays. Shepherd, in Mark Siska's documentary ''Compass Cabaret ’55'', about the birth of modern improvisation, stated his reasons for founding the Compass Players, “Theater in New York was very effete and based on three-act plays and based on verbiage and there was not much action,” he said. “I wanted to create a theater that would drag people off the street and seat them not in rows but at tables and give them something to drink, which was unheard of in merican ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Steve Allen Plymouth Show
''The Steve Allen Show'' was an American variety show hosted by Steve Allen from June 1956 to June 1960 on NBC, from September 1961 to December 1961 on ABC,The Steve Allen Show from the and in first-run from 1962 to 1964. The first three seasons aired on Sunday nights at 8:00pm Eastern Time, directly opposite '' |
Arthur Murray
Arthur Murray (born Moses Teichman, April 4, 1895 – March 3, 1991) was an American ballroom dancer and businessman, whose name is most often associated with the dance studio chain that bears his name. Early life and start in dance Arthur Murray was born in 1895 as Moses Teichman in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, to a family of Jewish background. In August 1897, he was brought to America by his mother Sarah on the ''S.S. Friesland'', and landed at Ellis Island. They settled in Ludlow Street, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan with his father, Abraham Teichmann. He soon began teaching ballroom dancing to patients from the greater Boston, area, at the Devereux Mansion Physical Therapy Clinic in Marblehead, Massachusetts, before moving to Asheville, North Carolina. Murray arrived at the Battery Park Hotel November 28, 1914, at age 19 and began teaching dance there. At the outbreak of World War I, under the pressure of the anti-German sentiment prevalent in the U.S., Murray cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
