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De Passe Entertainment
de Passe Jones Entertainment (dJE) is an American entertainment content provider led by Suzanne de Passe and Madison Jones (producer), Madison Jones that sources, develops, acquires, and produces a variety of television, motion picture, theater, new media, and print content. The company was founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr., in 1968, as Motown Productions, the film and television arm of Gordy's Motown, Motown Records label. It became de Passe Entertainment in 1992, then in 2008, joining forces with Jones, ''de Passe Jones Entertainment''. History Motown Productions Motown Productions' original focus was on the production of television specials for its star recording artists. These included ''TCB (TV program), TCB'' (1968) and ''G.I.T. on Broadway'' (1969), starring The Supremes, Diana Ross & the Supremes with The Temptations, ''The Temptations Show'' (also 1969), ''The Smokey Robinson Show'' (1970), ''Diana!'' (1971) starring Diana Ross, and ''Goin' Back to Indiana'' (al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Company
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equity, company's stock is offered, owned, traded or exchanged privately, also known as "over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter". Related terms are unlisted organisation, unquoted company and private equity. Private companies are often less well-known than their public company, publicly traded counterparts but still have major importance in the world's economy. For example, in 2008, the 441 list of largest private non-governmental companies by revenue, largest private companies in the United States accounted for $1.8 trillion in revenues and employed 6.2 million people, according to ''Forbes''. In general, all companies that are not owned by the government are classified as private enterprises. This definition encompasses both publ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diana!
''Diana!'' is the first solo television special of American singer Diana Ross and aired on ABC on April 18, 1971. The special was choreographed by David Winters of ''West Side Story'' fame, who at that time choreographed all of Ross' stage and television shows. The special featured performances by The Jackson 5, and also included Jackson 5 lead singer Michael Jackson's solo debut. Michael Jackson performed Frank Sinatra's " It Was a Very Good Year", which drew laughter as its adult-themed lyrics were changed to fit his age. Other guests included Danny Thomas and Bill Cosby, who would be featured on a similar television special by the Jackson 5 ('' Goin' Back to Indiana'') a few months later. Since this was right at the beginning of her solo career, she took the opportunity to promote the two hits from her debut, the gold audience participant " Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and the number 1 song " Ain't No Mountain High Enough". She also performed a cover of The Carpe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady Sings The Blues (soundtrack)
''Lady Sings the Blues'' is the soundtrack to the Billie Holiday biopic of the same name, which starred Diana Ross in her 1972 screen debut. It became Ross' first number 1 album (eventually selling over 2 million US copies), though the only one as a solo artist. It was certified gold in the UK for sales of over 100,000 copies. It was the fourth best-selling R&B album and fifth best-selling Pop album of 1973 in the US. Music writers said Ross emulated Billie Holiday's voice while retaining her own individual sound. This soundtrack album was the only Motown album to have a special designed label to match the album cover on the vinyl release, rather than Motown's usual "Map of Detroit" design. This label design would also turn up on the single releases from the soundtrack. Track listing Side one #"The Arrest" – 0:15 #" Lady Sings the Blues" – 1:03 #"Baltimore Brothel" – 0:25 #"Billie Sneaks into Dean and Dean's/Swinging Uptown" – 0:49 #" 'Taint Nobody's Bizness If I D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mahogany (1975 Film)
''Mahogany'' is a 1975 American romantic drama film directed by Berry Gordy and produced by Motown Productions. The Motown founder Gordy took over the film direction after British filmmaker Tony Richardson was dismissed from the film. ''Mahogany'' stars Diana Ross as Tracy Chambers, a struggling fashion design student who rises to become a popular fashion designer in Rome. It was released on October 8, 1975. The soundtrack included the single " Theme from ''Mahogany'' (Do You Know Where You're Going To)", which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 1976. Plot Tracy Chambers dreams of becoming a fashion designer and has worked her way up to assistant to the head buyer at a luxury department store (modeled after and filmed at Marshall Fields on State Street) in Chicago. Her supervisor, Miss Evans, believes that Tracy's night school courses will interfere with her responsibilities at the store. Her aunt, however, encourages her and visits prospective buye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements as assessed by the Academy's voting membership. The Oscars are widely considered to be the most prestigious awards in the film industry. The major award categories, known as the Academy Awards of Merit, are presented during a live-televised Hollywood ceremony in February or March. It is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony. The 1st Academy Awards were held in 1929. The second ceremony, in 1930, was the first one broadcast by radio. The 1953 ceremony was the first one televised. It is the oldest of the four major annual American entertainment awards. Its counterparts—the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music—are modeled after the Academy Aw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Dee Williams
William December Williams Jr. (born April 6, 1937) is an American retired actor, novelist and painter. He has appeared in over 100 films and television roles over six decades. He is best known for portraying Lando Calrissian in the ''Star Wars'' franchise and has also appeared in critically acclaimed and popular titles such as ''Mahogany'' (1975), ''Scott Joplin'' (1977), and '' Nighthawks'' (1981), as Harvey Dent in ''Batman'' (1989) and '' The Lego Batman Movie'' (2017)'', The Last Angry Man'' (1959), '' Carter's Army'', '' The Out-of-Towners'' (1969), '' The Final Comedown'' and '' Lady Sings the Blues'' (both 1972), '' Hit!'' (1973), '' Fear City'' and '' Terror in the Aisles'' (both 1984), '' Alien Intruder'' (1993) and ''The Visit'' (2000). Raised in Harlem, Williams made his Broadway theatre debut at age seven in '' The Firebrand of Florence'' (1945). He later graduated from The High School of Music & Art, then won a painting scholarship to the National Academy of F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biographical Film
A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from Docudrama, docudrama films and Historical drama, historical drama films in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a single person's life story or at least the most historically important years of their lives. Context Biopic scholars include George F. Custen of the College of Staten Island and Dennis P. Bingham of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. Custen, in ''Bio/Pics: How Hollywood Constructed Public History'' (1992), regards the genre as having died with the Studio system, Hollywood studio era, and in particular, Darryl F. Zanuck. On the other hand, Bingham's 2010 study ''Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre'' shows how it perpetuates as a codified genre using many of the same tropes used in the studio era that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made significant contributions to jazz music and pop music, pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly influenced by jazz instrumentalists, inspired a new way of manipulating Phrase (music), phrasing and tempo. Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and Jazz improvisation, improvisational skills. After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem where she was heard by producer John Hammond (record producer), John Hammond, who liked her voice. Holiday signed a recording contract with Brunswick Records, Brunswick in 1935. Her collaboration with Teddy Wilson produced the hit "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", which became a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia Records, Columbia and Decca Records, Decca. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady Sings The Blues (film)
''Lady Sings the Blues'' is a 1972 American biographical musical drama film directed by Sidney J. Furie about jazz singer Billie Holiday, loosely based on her 1956 autobiography that, in turn, took its title from Holiday's song. It is produced by Motown Productions for Paramount Pictures. Diana Ross, in her feature film debut, portrays Holiday, alongside a cast that includes Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan and Scatman Crothers. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards in 1973, including Best Actress for Diana Ross. Plot In 1928 Baltimore, Eleanora Fagan, also known as Billie Holiday, works as a 15-year-old housekeeper in a brothel. A man who follows her from the brothel eventually rapes her. She flees to her mother Sadie, who sets her up a job cleaning for another brothel in Harlem. The brothel is run by Lorraine, a woman who pays little money to Billie. Billie tires of scrubbing floors and becomes a prostitute, but soon quits and returns to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rankin/Bass
Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City. It was known for its seasonal television specials, usually done in stop motion animation. Rankin/Bass's stop-motion productions are recognizable by their visual style of doll-like characters with spheroid body parts and ubiquitous powdery snow using an animation technique called Animagic. Nearly all of the studio's animation was outsourced to Japanese animation companies such as Toei Animation, MOM Production, Mushi Productions and Topcraft. Rankin/Bass was one of the first western studios to outsource their low-budget animated television and film productions to animation studios in foreign countries; the others that already practiced animation outsourcing include Total Television and King Features Syndicate TV in New York City; and Hanna-Barbera and Jay Ward Productions in Los Angeles, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saturday Morning Cartoon
"Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series and live-action programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre was a tradition from broadly the mid-1960s to mid-2010s; over time its popularity declined, in the face of changing cultural norms, increased competition from formats available at all times, and heavier media regulations. In the last years of the genre's existence, Saturday-morning and Sunday-morning cartoons were primarily created and aired on major networks to meet "educational and informational" (E/I) requirements. Minor television networks, in addition to the non-commercial PBS in some markets, continued to air animated programming on Saturday and Sunday while partially meeting those mandates. In the United States, the generally accepted times for these and other children's programs to air on Saturday mornings were from 8:00 a.m. to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Jackson 5ive (TV Series)
''Jackson 5ive'' is a Saturday morning cartoon series that aired for two seasons on ABC from September 11, 1971 to October 14, 1972. Produced by Rankin/Bass and Motown Productions, it is a fictionalized portrayal of the careers of Motown recording group the Jackson 5. The series was rebroadcast in syndication in 1984–85, during a period when Michael Jackson was riding a major wave of popularity as a solo artist. It also briefly re-aired in 1999 on TV Land as part of their "Super Retrovision Saturdaze" lineup. The series was animated mainly in London at the studios of Halas and Batchelor, and some animation done at Estudios Moro (Barcelona, Spain) and Topcraft (Tokyo, Japan). Overview Due to high demands on the group, the roles of Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael were played by voice actors, with records of the group's songs being used for the musical tracks of the show. The group did make some contribution to the cartoon in the form of live photographs of e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
