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Art Follows Technology. The Metropolitan Opera House. To fill the house, you needed a BIG Voice. Enrico Caruso Luciano Pavarotti. To Play at Home You Needed. Enter This Man. Lee De Forest. invented. The Audion. Upon refinement. An early “Valve” Modern vacuum Tube.
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To fill the house, you needed a BIG Voice • Enrico Caruso Luciano Pavarotti
Lee De Forest invented The Audion
Upon refinement • An early “Valve” Modern vacuum Tube
This allowed a singer to sing softly and be heard throughout the concert hall Enter THE CROONER
Rudy Vallee 1901 - 1986
Enlisted in Army during WWI at age 16 • Discharged 41 days later • Graduated from Yale with a degree in philosophy • Began his band • Radio – The Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour • WWII – Led US Coast Guard Band
Recording Career • Many records in 1920’s and early 1930’s • Arguably he peaked before the technology really developed • Talkies • 1929 film – Vagabond Lover
Broadway Career • How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 1961 ran for 1,417 performances – also appeared in movie • Play won Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award
Film and TV • Appeared in over 2 dozen films • Appeared in over a dozen TV episodes
Bing Crosby 1906 - 1977
Recording Career Highlights • 1931 – Ten of top 50 songs were Bing’s • 1942 – White Christmas - #1 for 11 weeks This song ultimately sold 100 million records • Lifetime 338 Chart singles – 41 #1 songs • In his career, Bing sold 500 million records
Film Career • Started 1931 – The King of Jazz • 1944 - Going My Way – Oscar • Many other films • Sold 1 billion movie tickets #3 all time movie star behind only Clark Gable and John Wayne
Recording Career • Early Career in 1930’s with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey • Later career success due in part to arrangers Nelson Riddle, Billy May, and Gordon Jenkins • Sold 150 million albums
Film Career • Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in From Here to Eternity • Nomination for Best Actor in The Man with the Golden Arm • Emmy for A Man and His Music • 11 Grammys
1951 – Desert Inn • 1960s – resurrected his career and made Las Vegas ground zero for adult entertainment • Rat Pack • 1994 – MGM Grand Final Concert
Andy Williams Born 1927
Moon River Theatre in Branson • Started singing in 1953 • Opened Theatre 1992 – Won Architectural Digest award • Seats > 2,000 people, as big as the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall • Still going strong in 2011
Billy Eckstine 1914 to 1993
Billy Eckstine • The first Black star crooner • Had his own band but performed with virtually every notable band • Appeared on every big TV program and sang with every other notable singer • Gave start to Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Charlie Parker and many others
Recorded 37 albums form 1950 to 1995 • own TV program in 1956 • Appeared on virtually all variety programs • Sang title songs in films from An Affair to Remember to War and Peace (what WAS THAT song?)
“Spokesinger” for Ford Motor Company’s introduction of the 1963 models with The Lively Ones (only Bob Tarlton and Jim Graham will remember that)
The Velvet Fog • 1930’s – radio serials as in “Jack Armstrong, The All-American Boy” • Singing and movies in the 40’s • Own TV show 1951-52 • Resurgence of career as jazz became popular again in the 1970’s
Songwriter • Wrote 250 songs • Most popular “The Christmas Song” aka “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”
Nat King Cole 1919-1965
1956 –1st Black man to have own TV show • Amazing accomplishments for a short career
Perry Como 1912-2001
“The man who invented casual“ - Bing Crosby • The first crooner to “figure out” TV • His TV show was NBC’s biggest • Out ranked Jackie Gleason • Among the first color TV shows • 50 year career