African American Musicals
Musical shows utilizing black performers go back to the earliest stage entertainments in America. Minstrel shows were originally composed and performed by African American singers and musicians and ...
André Previn
(b Berlin, 1929).Ger.‐born pianist, conductor, and composer (Amer. cit. 1943). Went to USA 1939. Once a jazz pianist, he later worked as composer and arranger of film mus. in Hollywood. Début as ...
banjo
Instr. of the same general type as the guitar, but the resonating body is of parchment strained over a metal hoop and it has an open back. There are from 4 to 9 str. (usually 5 or 6), passing over a ...
Brock Peters
(1927–2005).Stage, television, and film performer. A muscular, rugged-looking African American actor–singer, his powerful presence was ideal for dramas and virile action movies but he was also ...
Cab Calloway
(1907–1994).Stage, film, and television musician, composer, and performer. The energetic African American scat-singing bandleader who flourished for decades in nightclubs and on television, he also ...
Cheryl Crawford
(1902–86)American producer. A rising star in the administration of the Theatre Guild, Crawford broke away to join Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg to found the Group Theatre in 1931. ...
Columbia Pictures
Founded in 1924 as a minor operation on Hollywood's “poverty row,” the studio emerged in the 1930s as one of the major league players and has remained so ever since. ...
Diahann Carroll
(1935– ).Stage, film, and television performer. The sleek, classy, African American beauty of concerts, nightclubs, and television made two memorable Broadway musical appearances: as the young ...
Dorothy Dandridge
(b. 9 November 1923; d. 8 September 1965), actor.Dorothy Dandridge was not the first black woman to star in Hollywood films. Nina Mae McKinney, Fredi Washington, and Ethel Waters ...
Douglas Schmidt
(b. 1942), scenic designer.He was born in Cincinnati and educated at Boston University before beginning his design career in regional theatre. Schmidt is known for his keen sense of ...
George Gershwin
1898–1937)US composer and pianist, known for his popular songs, musicals, and his folk opera Porgy and Bess.Born in Brooklyn of impoverished Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, he grew up on the tough ...
George White's Scandals
This series of revues, produced by White from 1919 through 1926, and then in 1928, 1929, 1931, 1935, and 1939, were given to elaborate show numbers much like the Ziegfeld ...
Great Performances
Television series. Music concerts, opera, ballet, classic and modern plays, and musicals have been broadcast on the PBS-TV series since it began in 1974. Perhaps the most famous presentation in ...
Ira Gershwin
(1896–1983),brother of George Gershwin, wrote lyrics for Lady, Be Good! (1924), Girl Crazy (1930), Of Thee I Sing (1931), and other musical comedies, as well as for Porgy and Bess (1935) and many ...
J. Rosamond Johnson
(1873–1954), and James Weldon JOHNSON (1871–1938), songwriting team.The brothers, born in Jacksonville, Florida, and educated at Atlanta University and Columbia, were pioneers scoring ...
Jack O'Brien
(b. 1939), director.He was born in Saginaw, Michigan, and educated at the University of Michigan before joining the Association of Producing Artists (APA) in 1969 where he served as ...
Larry Marshall
(1944– ).Stage, film, and television performer. An energetic African American singer–dancer–actor, he was featured in several Broadway musicals and plays but few ran very long and stardom eluded him. ...
Majestic Theatre
(New York).The musical house on West 44th Street has long been a particular favorite of producers because of its large capacity (1,800 seats when it opened, 1,655 today) and ...
Otto Preminger
(1906–1986)Austrian-born US film and theatre director and producer.The holder of a doctorate in law from the university in his native Vienna, Preminger did not pursue a legal career; instead, he ...
Pearl Bailey
(1918–90), actress and singer.A native of Newport News, Virginia, the African‐American singing comedienne, whose unique style was marked by an informal, broken delivery and sometimes slurred ...
