Résultats Éditeur "Charles River Editors" dans Divertissement et célébrités

Americans have loved traveling circuses for generations, and none represents the country's love of entertainment quite like the most famous of them all, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Circus promoters have long been viewed as somewhat shady hucksters, but none could top Phineas Taylor Barnum, who used a blend of traditional circus entertainment, freak show exhibits, and outright hoaxes to create "The Greatest Show on Earth".

Since Woody Allen has been prolific in his output and transparent in his presentation to the public, it is easy to lose sight of the remarkable breadth of his career. Indeed, over his career, Woody has excelled at slapstick humor while also tackling philosophical themes, often in the same films. His films have appealed to both a mass audience as well as an international art house audience.

While performing, Louis Armstrong appeared lost in a reverie. It was a condition that imbued his performances with a kind of mythical flair, as if one were watching a man consumed by a moment of transcendence.

No history of American pop culture in the 1940s would be complete without mention of Betty Grable, the most popular pinup girl of the World War II era. Grable possessed the outstanding fortune of not only having an ideal body, but of arriving at the most fortuitous time imaginable. Not only were her legs famously adored by American soldiers, they were actually insured to the tune of one million dollars. Meanwhile, Rita Hayworth's life and career remain fascinating to both the general public and avid movie fans alike.

The first 40 years of Van Dyke's career would be impressive enough, but Van Dyke has also appeared in hit films, most notably Mary Poppins, over a span of about 50 years. Van Dyke has noted over the course of a career now spanning eight decades that he's "retired so many times now it's getting to be a habit," but as he once joked, "I've won several Emmys, a Tony and a Grammy, so maybe somebody will let me have an Oscar, and then I'll have a full set."

No history of American pop culture in the 1940s would be complete without mention of Betty Grable, the most popular pin-up girl of the World War II era. Grable possessed the outstanding fortune of not only having an ideal body but arriving at the most fortuitous time imaginable; the famous pin-up photo of her, taken by Frank Powolny, made her the highest-earning actress in Hollywood from 1943 to 1951.

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees?

Over the course of a career that spanned several decades and ranged from the stage to movies and television, Shirley MacLaine has been one of the most critically acclaimed actresses in America.

Hollywood has produced no shortage of famous movie stars, but none have been as culturally significant as John Wayne. Marion Morrison was born in a quintessentially quaint Midwestern town, but he eventually grew up to become John Wayne, the legend of the silver screen who embodied the Western frontier.

If one assembled a list of the most iconic actors of the film noir genre, Robert Mitchum would surely rank at the top of the list. With his deadpan façade and slow, monotone verbal delivery, Mitchum encapsulated the disillusioned hero of the postwar crime genre.

Johnny Cash, "The Man in Black", is among the most recognized and iconic vocal artists in the history of blues, country and gospel singing. His trademark bass-baritone voice is instantly identifiable to listeners today, and his "parlando" style (combining an unaffected singing tone with a speech-like rhythm and pacing) has been taken up by the generation following his death in the early 21st century.

In the 1940s, film noir was at its peak, and Hollywood was churning out dark, mysterious, exotic and erotic classics. In 1944, the premiere femme fatale was Barbara Stanwyck, who was the highest paid woman in America that year, thanks to roles in films like Double Indemnity (1944), in which she uses her persuasive powers to convince a man to commit murder. That film would earn Stanwyck the first of her four Academy Award nominations. After a nearly 60-year career in acting, the American Film Institute would recognize her as the 11th greatest female screen legend of the 20th century.

Bette Davis presided over Hollywood at a time in which the film industry was at its most influential. Every actress, from Katharine Hepburn to Ingrid Bergman and Ginger Rodgers, themselves now considered among Hollywood's greatest icons, lived in the shadow of Bette Davis.

Of all the show business icons in American history, one of the most beloved was Bob Hope, whose career spanned over six decades across film, television, vaudeville, comedy, and touring and earned him too many accolades to count. On the day of his 100th birthday, more than half of the states in America declared it "Bob Hope Day", a sign of just how monumental and influential he was as an entertainer.

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, listeners can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. In 1969, things were looking up for one of Hollywood's most marketable actresses.

Sir Paul may have never topped the highs established by the Beatles, but he has gone on to have the longest and most productive solo career of the four. While that was helped in part by the tragic murder of Lennon in 1980, McCartney has nonetheless remained at the forefront of pop culture since 1970, and the Guinness Book of World Records has recognized him as the most successful recording artist of all time. Indeed, McCartney wrote or co-wrote over 30 #1 hits and has sold over 100 million albums and 100 million singles in his music career.

By the 1920s English comic Stan Laurel had been in dozens of films, and American Oliver Hardy had appeared in hundreds, but it was not until they formed a duo together in 1926 that they began to be noticed. Once they did, however, Laurel & Hardy became one of the most famous comedy teams in American history, with a career that spanned four decades and included over 100 combined shorts and feature films.

In the 1960s, the most popular actor in the world was Richard Burton, a hard-drinking Welshman who was nevertheless so professional that he was one of the preeminent stage performers of his day. In fact, he performed Shakespeare so magnificently that he was compared to British legend Laurence Olivier, and that success ultimately led to a film career that earned him seven Academy Award nominations, as well as BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actor.

The 1930s were, without a doubt, the height of the classical Hollywood era. It is no accident that 1939 has historically been designated as the pinnacle of Hollywood film history. The era was known for its lavish studio productions, with MGM, RKO, Warner Brothers, Paramount, and 20th Century Fox all operating at the height of their powers.

Although she came of age in an era when Hollywood studios were looking for blonde bombshells like Marilyn Monroe, and she followed that path to instant stardom, Jayne Mansfield had one of the most unique Hollywood careers in the 1950s and 1960s.