Jerry Rubin (July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994) was an American radical social activist during the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s, he became a successful businessman.
Rubin played an instrumental role in the anti-war demonstrations that accompanied the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago by helping to organize the Yippie "Festival of Life" in Lincoln Park and speaking at an anti-war rally at the Grant Park bandshell on August 28, 1968. Violence between Chicago police and demonstrators (which an official government report called a "police riot") eventually led to the indictment of Rubin and seven others (Abbie Hoffman, Rennie Davis, John Froines, David Dellinger, Lee Weiner, Tom Hayden, and Bobby Seale) on several charges of conspiracy and incitement to riot.
The defendants were commonly referred to as the "Chicago Eight." Seale's trial, however, was severed from the others after he demanded the right to serve as his own lawyer and was sentenced to four years in prison for contempt of court, making the Chicago Eight the Chicago Seven. Rubin, along with the six other defendants, was found not guilty on the charge of conspiracy but guilty (with four other defendants) on the charge of incitement. He was also sentenced by the judge to more than three years in prison for contempt of court. All the convictions for incitement were later thrown out by an appeals court, who cited judicial and prosecutorial misconduct. Most of the contempt of court citations were also overturned on appeal.
After the Vietnam War ended, Rubin became an entrepreneur and businessman. He was an early investor in Apple Computer.
On November 14, 1994, Rubin jaywalked on Wilshire Boulevard, near UCLA in Los Angeles, California. It was a weekday evening and traffic was heavy, with three lanes in each direction. A car swerved to miss Rubin but a second car, immediately behind the first, was unable to avoid him. He was taken to the UCLA Medical Center, where he died 14 days later. He is interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.
Marc Lawrence (February 17, 1910 – November 28, 2005) was an American character actor who specialized in underworld types. He has also been credited as F. A. Foss, Marc Laurence and Marc C. Lawrence.[1]
Personal life
Lawrence was born as Max Goldsmith in New York City, the son of a Polish Jewish mother, Minerva Norma (née Sugarman), and a Russian Jewish father, Israel Simon Goldsmith.[2][3][4] He participated in plays in school, then attended the City College of New York. He married Odessa-born novelist and screenwriter Fanya Foss, with whom he had two children; she died on December 12, 1995. Lawrence died of heart failure on November 28, 2005 at the age of 95. He was buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.[5]
His son, Michael Lawrence, is a writer and artist based on the Greek island of Hydra, whose book, My Voyage In Art, details his meetings with various of his father's actor friends; while at UCLA he befriended the singer-songwriter James Douglas "Jim" Morrison. His daughter, actress Toni Lawrence, was once married to actor Billy Bob Thornton and starred in his film Daddy's Girl.
Career
In 1930, Lawrence befriended another young actor, John Garfield. The two appeared in a number of plays before Lawrence was given a film contract with Columbia Pictures. Lawrence appeared in films beginning in 1931. Garfield followed, starting his film career in 1938. Lawrence's pock-marked complexion, brooding appearance and New York street-guy accent made him a natural for heavies, and he played scores of gangsters and mob bosses over the next six decades.
Later, Lawrence found himself under scrutiny for his political leanings. When called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he admitted he had once been a member of the Communist Party. He was blacklisted and departed for Europe, where he continued to make films. Following the demise of the blacklist, he returned to America and resumed his position as a familiar and talented purveyor of gangland types.
He played gangsters in two James Bond movies: 1971's Diamonds Are Forever opposite Sean Connery, and 1974's The Man with the Golden Gun opposite Roger Moore. He also portrayed a henchman opposite Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man (1976) and a stereotypical Miami mob boss alongside Jerry Reed and Dom DeLuise in the comedy Hot Stuff (1979).
One of his last roles was as Mr. Zeemo in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang." Previously he played the elderly Gatherer Volnoth in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Vengeance Factor."
In 1991 Lawrence's autobiography was published entitled Long Time No See: Confessions of a Hollywood Gangster (ISBN 0-9636700-0-X). Lawrence was also the subject of a novel, The Beautiful and the Profane (ISBN 978-1-4107-0292-0) (published in 2002).
His final film role was in Looney Tunes Back in Action, appearing as an Acme Corporation vice president.
Partial filmography
White Woman (1933)
Night Waitress (1934)
Little Big Shot (1935)
The Final Hour (1936)
Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937)
Counsel for Crime (1937)
Racketeers in Exile (1937)
Murder in Greenwich Village (1937)
Motor Madness (1937)
I Promise to Pay (1937)
A Dangerous Adventure (1937)
The Spider's Web (1938 serial)
Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938)
Adventure in Sahara (1938)
Sergeant Madden (1939)
Blind Alley (1939)
The Housekeeper's Daughter (1939)
Invisible Stripes (1939)
Johnny Apollo (1940)
Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940)
The Monster and the Girl (1941)
The Shepherd of the Hills (1941)
Hold That Ghost (1941)
Sundown (1941)
Nazi Agent (1942)
This Gun for Hire (1942)
'Neath Brooklyn Bridge (1942)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
Submarine Alert (1943)
Tampico (1944)
The Princess and the Pirate (1944)
Dillinger (1945)
Flame of Barbary Coast (1945)
Don't Fence Me In (1945)
Cloak and Dagger (1946)
Inside Job (1946)
Captain from Castile (1947)
I Walk Alone (1948)
Key Largo (1948)
Jigsaw (1949)
Tough Assignment (1949)
Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
The Desert Hawk (1950)
Black Hand (1950)
My Favorite Spy (1951)
Vacation with a Gangster (1951)
La Tratta delle bianche (1952)
Funniest Show on Earth (1953)
Noi peccatori (1953)
New Moon (1955)
Helen of Troy (1956)
Kill Her Gently (1957)
Johnny Cool (1963)
Al Capone (1966)
Johnny Tiger (1966)
Savage Pampas (1966)
Custer of the West (1967)
Kong Island (1968)
Krakatoa, East of Java (1969)
The Kremlin Letter (1970)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Pigs (1972)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Marathon Man (1976)
A Piece of the Action (1977)
Foul Play (1978)
Hot Stuff (1979)
Super Fuzz (1980)
Cat and Dog (1982)
Night Train to Terror (1985)
The Big Easy (1987)
Blood Red (1989)
Ruby (1992)
Newsies (1992)
Four Rooms (1995)
From Dusk till Dawn (1996)
Gotti (1996)
End of Days (1999)
The Shipping News (2001)
Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)
References
1. "Marc Lawrence, 95, Actor Whose Specialty Was Tough Guys, Dies". New York Times. Associated Press. 2005-12-03. Marc Lawrence, whose pockmarked face and brooding mannerisms made him a natural for roles as the tough guy, gangster and undertaker in dozens of movies beginning in the 1930's, died on Monday at his home in Palm Springs. He was 95. ...
2. Marc Lawrence Biography (1910-2005)
3. Vallance, Tom (2005-12-03). "Marc Lawrence". The Independent.
4. "Marc Lawrence". Telegraph. 2005-12-03.
5. Marc Lawrence at Find a Grave
Further reading
Names You Never Remember, With Faces You Never Forget, by Justin Humphreys. BearManor Media, Albany, 2006. ISBN 1-59393-041-0.
Laurence Harvey (October 1, 1928 – November 25, 1973) was a Lithuanian-born actor. In a career that spanned a quarter of a century, Harvey appeared in stage, film and television productions primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States. His performance in Room at the Top (1959) resulted in an Academy Award nomination. That success was followed by the role of the ill-fated Texan commander William Barret Travis in The Alamo (1960), produced by John Wayne, and as the brainwashed Raymond Shaw in The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
Early life
Harvey's civil birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. His Hebrew names were Zvi Mosheh. He was born in Joniškis, Lithuania, the youngest of three sons of Ella (née Zotnickaita) and Ber Skikne, Lithuanian Jewish parents. When he was five years old, his family emigrated to South Africa, where he was known as Harry Skikne. He grew up in Johannesburg, and was in his teens when he served with the entertainment unit of the South African Army during the Second World War.
Career
Early years
After moving to London, he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but left RADA after 3 months, and began to perform on stage and film.
Harvey made his cinema debut in the British film House of Darkness (1948), but its distributor British Lion thought someone named Larry Skikne (as he was then known) was not commercially viable. Accounts vary as to how the actor acquired his stage name of Laurence Harvey. One version has it that it was the idea of talent agent Gordon Harbord who decided Laurence would be an appropriate first name. In choosing a British-sounding last name, Harbord thought of two British retail institutions, Harvey Nichols and Harrods. Another is that Skikne was travelling on a London bus with Sid James who exclaimed during their journey: "It's either Laurence Nichols or Laurence Harvey." Harvey's own account differed over time.
Associated British Picture Corporation quickly offered him a two-year contract, which Harvey accepted, and he appeared in several of their lower budget films such as Cairo Road (1950). His career gained a boost when he appeared in Women of Twilight (1952); this was made by Romulus Films who signed Harvey to a long-term contract. He secured a supporting role in a Hollywood film, Knights of the Round Table (1953), which led to being cast with Rex Harrison and George Sanders in King Richard and the Crusaders (1954). That year he also played Romeo in Renato Castellani's adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, narrated by John Gielgud. He was now established as an emerging British star. According to a contemporary interview, he turned down an offer to appear in Helen of Troy (1955) to act at Stratford-upon-Avon.
Harvey was cast as the writer Christopher Isherwood in I Am A Camera (1955), with Julie Harris as Sally Bowles (Cabaret is a musical from the same source texts). He also appeared on American TV and on Broadway, making his Broadway debut in 1955 in the play Island of Goats, a flop which closed after one week, though his performance won him a 1956 Theatre World Award. Harvey appeared twice more on Broadway, in 1957 with Julie Harris, Pamela Brown and Colleen Dewhurst in William Wycherley's The Country Wife, and as Shakespeare's Henry V in 1959, as part of the Old Vic company, which featured a young Judi Dench as Katherine, the Daughter of the King of France.
International stardom
Harvey's breakthrough to international stardom came after he was cast by director Jack Clayton as the social climber Joe Lampton in Room at the Top (1959) produced by British film producer brothers John and James Woolf of Romulus Films. For his performance, Harvey received a BAFTA Award nomination and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Simone Signoret and Heather Sears co-starred as Lampton's married lover and eventual wife respectively. Harvey was cast in a role originally performed by Peter O'Toole in the West End for the film version of the play The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961).
Meanwhile, Harvey's career in America had begun to take off. He starred in John Wayne's epic The Alamo (1960). Harvey was John Wayne's personal choice to play Alamo commandant William Barret Travis. He had been impressed by Harvey's talent and ability to project the aristocratic demeanor Wayne believed Travis possessed. Harvey and Wayne would later express their mutual admiration and satisfaction at having worked together. Harvey also starred in two films with Elizabeth Taylor, BUtterfield 8 (1960) and, later, the suspense film Night Watch (1973). He co-starred with Geraldine Page in the film adaptation of Tennessee Williams's Summer and Smoke (1961).
Harvey appeared as the brainwashed Raymond Shaw in the Cold War thriller The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Film critic David Shipman wrote: "Harvey's role required him to act like a zombie and several critics cited it as his first convincing performance." In Walk on the Wild Side (also 1962), he was cast along with Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Fonda and Capucine. Fonda was not positive about the experience of working with him: "There are actors and actors – and then there are the Laurence Harveys. With them, it's like acting by yourself." The same year, he recorded an album of spoken excerpts from the book This Is My Beloved by Walter Benton, accompanied by original music by Herbie Mann. It was released on the Atlantic label. Harvey's portrayal of Wilhelm Grimm in the film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) earned him a nomination for Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.
Harvey played King Arthur in the 1964 London production of the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical Camelot, at Drury Lane.
Later years
Harvey and Kim Novak took an almost instant dislike to each other when they first met to work on a remake of W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (1964). Their acting styles were found to be incompatible, which caused problems for director Henry Hathaway. During filming, kidnap threats were made against both Harvey and Novak. The Outrage (1964) was director Martin Ritt's remake of Akira Kurosawa's Japanese film Rashomon (1950). Besides Harvey, the film starred Paul Newman and Claire Bloom, but was unsuccessful. Harvey reprised his role as Joe Lampton in Life at the Top (1965).
Harvey starred in Darling (1965) and co-starred with Julie Christie and Dirk Bogarde. While his role in the film is short, his involvement enabled director John Schlesinger to gain financial backing for the project. Harvey co-starred with Israeli actress Daliah Lavi in the comedy The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966), a parody of the James Bond films.
Harvey owned the rights to the book on which John Osborne's early script for the film The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) was partially based, Cecil Woodham-Smith's book The Reason Why (1953). He intended to make his own version. A lawsuit was filed against director Tony Richardson's company Woodfall Film Productions on behalf of the book's author. There was a monetary settlement, and Harvey insisted on being cast in a cameo role (being cast as Prince Radziwell) as part of the agreement for which he was paid £60,000. Charles Wood was brought in to re-write the script. Harvey's scenes were cut from the movie at Richardson's insistence, except for a brief glimpse as an anonymous member of a theatre audience which, technically, still met the requirements of the legal settlement. John Osborne asserted in his autobiography that Richardson shot the scenes with Harvey "French," which is film jargon for a director going-through-the-motions because of some obligation, but with no film in the camera.
Harvey completed direction of the spy thriller A Dandy in Aspic (1968) after director Anthony Mann died during production. The film co-stars Mia Farrow. Harvey provided the narration for the Soviet film Tchaikovsky (1969), directed by Igor Talankin. Harvey had a cameo role in The Magic Christian (also 1969), a film based on the Terry Southern novel of the same name. His character gives a rendition of Hamlet's soliloquy that develops unexpectedly into a striptease routine. He was also guest murderer of the week on Columbo: The Most Dangerous Match in 1973 as a chess champion who murders his opponent.
Joanna Pettet and her husband Alex Cord had been friends of Harvey's since the 1960s. They were both fond of Harvey and enjoyed his sense of humour, but Cord also acknowledged Harvey could be cruel with anyone he didn't like. Pettet appeared with Harvey in an episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery ("The Caterpillar," 1972), in which Harvey's character attempts to assassinate a romantic rival by having a burrowing insect dropped in the man's ear. Harvey directed and starred in his final film Welcome to Arrow Beach, which co-starred his friend Joanna Pettet, John Ireland and Stuart Whitman. The film deals with a type of war-related Post-traumatic stress disorder that turns a military veteran to cannibalism.
Just before Harvey died he was planning to star and direct two films, one on Kitty Genovese, the other a Wolf Mankowitz comedy called Cockatrice. Harvey's death in 1973 ultimately put an end to any hope that Orson Welles's The Deep would ever be completed. With Harvey and Jeanne Moreau in the leading roles, Welles worked on the film in between his other projects, although the production was also hampered by financial problems.
Personal life
Early in his career, Harvey had a live-in relationship with Hermione Baddeley. A British stage actress who appeared on Broadway in several productions and became known to American audiences by playing Nell Naugatuck in the Maude TV series, she was twenty-two years older than Harvey. Although Harvey proposed marriage to her, Baddeley thought the age difference was too great.
He left Baddeley in 1951 for actress Margaret Leighton, who was six years older than Harvey and at the time was married to the publisher Max Reinhardt. Leighton and Reinhardt divorced in 1955, and she married Harvey in 1957 off the Rock of Gibraltar. The couple divorced in 1961.
In 1968 he married Joan Perry Cohn, seventeen years his senior. Although often referred to as the widow of film mogul Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures, she had a brief post-widowhood marriage to shoe store magnate Harry Karl that lasted for three weeks in 1959.[36] Her marriage to Laurence Harvey lasted until 1972.
Harvey's third marriage was to British fashion model Paulene Stone. She gave birth to his only child Domino in 1969 while he was still married to Cohn. In 1972, Harvey and Stone married at the home of Harold Robbins.
In his account of being Frank Sinatra's valet, Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra (2003), George Jacobs writes that Harvey often made passes at him while visiting Sinatra. According to Jacobs, Sinatra was aware of Harvey's sexuality. In his autobiography Close Up (2004), British actor John Fraser claimed that Harvey was gay and that his long-term lover was Harvey's manager James Woolf, who had cast Harvey in several of the films he produced in the 1950s.
After working in two films with her, Harvey remained friends with Elizabeth Taylor for the rest of his life. She visited him three weeks before he died, but Harvey's wife Paulene felt the visit tired him and was counterproductive. Upon his death, Taylor issued the statement, "He was one of the people I really loved in this world. He was part of the sun. For everyone who loved him, the sun is a bit dimmer." She and Peter Lawford held a memorial service for Harvey in California.
Harvey once responded to an assertion about himself: "Someone once asked me, 'Why is it so many people hate you?' and I said, 'Do they? How super! I'm really quite pleased about it."
Death
A heavy smoker and drinker, Harvey died from stomach cancer on Sunday, November 25, 1973 at the age of 45. His daughter, Domino, who later became a bounty hunter, was only 4 when he died, and only 35 when she died in 2005. They are buried together in Santa Barbara Cemetery in Santa Barbara, California.
Appraisal
According to his obituary in the New York Times:
With his clipped speech, cool smile and a cigarette dangling impudently from his lips, Laurence Harvey established himself as the screen's perfect pin-striped cad. He could project such utter boredom that willowy debutantes would shrivel in his presence. He could also exude such charm that the same young ladies would gladly lend him their hearts, which were usually returned utterly broken... The image Mr Harvey carefully fostered for himself off screen was not far removed from some of the roles he played. "I'm a flamboyant character, an extrovert who doesn't want to reveal his feelings", he once said. "To bare your soul to the world, I find unutterably boring. I think part of our profession is to have a quixotic personality."
Joseph Vernon "Joe" Turner, Jr. (May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985),[1] best known as Big Joe Turner, was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri, United States.[2] According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him."[2] While he had his greatest fame during the 1950s with his rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and Roll," Turner's career as a performer endured from the 1920s into the 1980s.[2] Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, with the Hall lauding him as "the brawny voiced 'Boss of the Blues.'"[2]
Career
Early days
Known variously as The Boss of the Blues, and Big Joe Turner (due to his 6'2", 300+ lbs stature), Turner was born in Kansas City. His father was killed in a train accident when Joe was only four years old. He first discovered a love of music in his involvement at church. He began singing on street corners for money, quitting school at age fourteen to work in Kansas City's nightclubs, first as a cook, and later as a singing bartender. He became known eventually as The Singing Barman, and worked in such venues as The Kingfish Club and The Sunset, where he and his piano playing partner Pete Johnson became resident performers.[2] The Sunset was managed by Piney Brown. It featured "separate but equal" facilities for caucasian patrons. Turner wrote "Piney Brown Blues" in his honor and sang it throughout his entire career.
At that time Kansas City nightclubs were subject to frequent raids by the police, but as Turner recounts, "The Boss man would have his bondsmen down at the police station before we got there. We'd walk in, sign our names and walk right out. Then we would cabaret until morning."
His partnership with boogie-woogie pianist Pete Johnson proved fruitful.[2] Together they went to New York City in 1936, where they appeared on a playbill with Benny Goodman, but as Turner recounts, "After our show with Goodman, we auditioned at several places, but New York wasn't ready for us yet, so we headed back to K.C." Eventually they were witnessed by the talent scout, John H. Hammond in 1938, who invited them back to New York to appear in one of his "From Spirituals to Swing" concerts at Carnegie Hall, which were instrumental in introducing jazz and blues to a wider American audience.[2]
Due in part to their appearance at Carnegie Hall, Turner and Johnson had a major success with the song "Roll 'Em Pete."[2] The track, basically a collection of traditional blues lyrics featured one of the earliest recorded examples of a back beat. It was a song that Turner recorded many times, with various combinations of musicians, over the ensuing years.
1939 to 1950
In 1939, along with boogie players Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis, they began a residency at Café Society, a nightclub in New York City, where they appeared on the same playbill as Billie Holiday and Frank Newton's band.[2] Besides "Roll 'Em, Pete," Turner's best-known recordings from this period are probably "Cherry Red," "I Want A Little Girl," and "Wee Baby Blues." "Cherry Red" was recorded in 1939 for the Vocalion label, with Hot Lips Page on trumpet and a full band in attendance.[3] The next year Turner contracted with Decca and recorded "Piney Brown Blues," with Johnson on piano.[3]
In 1941, he went to Los Angeles and performed in Duke Ellington's revue Jump for Joy in Hollywood. He appeared as a singing policeman in a comedy sketch called "He's on the Beat." Los Angeles was his home for a time, and during 1944 he worked in Meade Lux Lewis's Soundies musical movies. Although he sang on the soundtrack recordings, he was not present for filming, and his vocals were mouthed by comedian Dudley Dickerson for the camera. In 1945 Turner and Pete Johnson established their bar in Los Angeles, The Blue Moon Club.
That same year he contracted with National Records company, and recorded under Herb Abramson's supervision. His first hit single was a cover of Saunders King's "S.K. Blues" (1945).[4] He recorded the songs "My Gal's A Jockey" and the risqué "Around The Clock" the same year, and the Aladdin company released "Battle of the Blues," a duet with Wynonie Harris. Turner stayed with National until 1947, but none of his recordings were great sellers.[3] In 1950, he released the song "Still in the Dark" on Freedom Records.[4]
Turner made many albums with Johnson, Art Tatum, Sammy Price, and other jazz groups.[5] He recorded with several recording companies and also performed with the Count Basie Orchestra.[2] During his career, Turner was part of the transition from big bands to jump blues to rhythm and blues, and finally to rock and roll. Turner was a master of traditional blues verses and at Kansas City jam sessions he could swap choruses with instrumental soloists for hours.
Success during the 1950s
In 1951, while performing with the Count Basie Orchestra at Harlem's Apollo Theater as a replacement for Jimmy Rushing, he was spotted by Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün, who contracted him to their new recording company, Atlantic Records.[2] Turner recorded a number of successes for them, including the blues standards, "Chains of Love"[6] and "Sweet Sixteen."[3] Many of his vocals are punctuated with shouts to the band members, as for the songs "Boogie Woogie Country Girl" ("That's a good rockin' band!," "Go ahead, man! Ow! That's just what I need!" ) and "Honey Hush" (he repeatedly sings "Hi-yo, Silver!," probably in reference to The Treniers singing the phrase for their Lone Ranger parody "Ride, Red, Ride"). Turner's records scored at the top of the rhythm-and-blues charts; although they were sometimes so risqué that some radio stations would not play them, the songs received much play on jukeboxes and records.
Turner had a great success during 1954 with "Shake, Rattle and Roll," which seriously enhanced his career, turning him into a teenage favorite, and also helped to transform popular music.[2] During the song, Turner yells at his woman to "get outa that bed, wash yo' face an' hands" and comments that she's "wearin' those dresses, the sun comes shinin' through!, I can't believe my eyes, all that mess belongs to you."[7] He sang the number on film for the 1955 theatrical feature Rhythm and Blues Revue.
Although the cover version of the song by Bill Haley and His Comets, with the risqué lyrics partially omitted, was a greater sales success, many listeners sought out Turner's version and were introduced thereby to rhythm and blues. Elvis Presley's version of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" combined Turner's lyrics with Haley's arrangement, but was not a successful single.
"The Chicken and the Hawk," "Flip, Flop and Fly,"[6] "Hide and Seek," "Morning, Noon and Night," and "Well All Right" were successful recordings from this period.[3] He performed on the television program Showtime at the Apollo and in the movie Shake Rattle and Rock! (1956).[3]
The song "Corrine, Corrina" was another great seller during 1956.[3] In addition to the rock music songs, he released Boss of the Blues album in 1956.[5] "(I’m Gonna) Jump for Joy," his last hit, reached the US R and B record chart on May 26, 1958.[2]
Returning to the blues
After a number of successes in this vein, Turner quit popular music and resumed singing with small jazz combos, recording numerous albums in that style during the 1960s and 1970s.[2] During 1966, Bill Haley helped revive Turner's career by lending the Comets for a series of popular recordings in Mexico.[3] In 1977 he recorded a cover version of Guitar Slim's song, "The Things That I Used to Do."
During the 1960s and 1970s he resumed performing jazz and blues music, performing at many music festivals and recording for Norman Granz's company Pablo Records.[3][5] He also worked with Axel Zwingenberger.[5] Turner also participated in a 'Battle of the Blues' with Wynonie Harris and T-Bone Walker.[8]
During 1965 he toured in England with trumpeter Buck Clayton and trombonist Vic Dickenson, accompanied by Humphrey Lyttelton and his Band. Part of a studio concert was televised by the BBC and later issued on DVD. A sound recording of a club appearance made during this tour is not thought of sufficient sound quality to justify commercial issue. He also toured Europe with Count Basie and his Orchestra.
He won the Esquire magazine award for male vocalist in 1945, the Melody Maker award for best 'new' vocalist during 1956, and the British Jazz Journal award as top male singer during 1965. In 1977, Turner recorded "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" for Spivey Records, featuring Lloyd Glenn on piano. Turner's career endured from the bar rooms of Kansas City in the 1920s (when at the age of twelve he performed with a pencilled moustache and his father's hat), to European jazz music festivals of the 1980s.
In 1983, only two years before his death, Turner was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.[9] That same year, the album Blues Train was released by Mute Records company; the album had Turner paired with the team Roomful of Blues.[2] Turner received top billing with Count Basie in the Kansas City jazz reunion movie The Last of the Blue Devils (1979) featuring Jay McShann, Jimmy Forrest, and other players from the city.
Death
Big Joe Turner died in Inglewood, California, in November 1985, at the age of 74 of heart failure, having suffered the earlier effects of arthritis, a stroke and diabetes. He was buried at Roosevelt Memorial Park, in Gardena, California.
Tributes
Big Joe Turner was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.[10]
The New York Times music critic Robert Palmer said: "...his voice, pushing like a Count Basie solo, rich and grainy as a section of saxophones, which dominated the room with the sheer sumptuousness of its sound."
In announcing Turner's death in their December 1985 edition, the British music magazine, NME, described Turner as "the grandfather of rock and roll."[11]
Bob Dylan referenced Turner in the song "High Water (For Charley Patton)," from his 2001 album Love and Theft. Songwriter Dave Alvin wrote a song about an evening he spent with Turner titled "Boss Of The Blues." It was on his 2009 release, Dave Alvin and The Guilty Women. Alvin discussed the song in Issue 59[12] of The Blasters Newsletter.[13]
Dave Alvin would later collaborate on a second reunion album released in 2015 with his former Blaster's brother Phil Alvin featuring four Big Joe covers. Lost Time covers songs such as "Cherry Red," "Wee Baby Blues," and "Hide and Seek." The brothers met Big Joe Turner in Los Angeles while he was playing the clubs on Central Ave. and living in the Adams district between tours in the 1960's. Phil Alvin even opened for Turner a few times with his first band, Delta Pacific and Turner continued mentoring the Alvin brothers till his death in 1985. Big Joe Turner is pictured on the back cover of Lost Time.[14][15][16]
The biographical film The Buddy Holly Story refers to Turner as well as contemporaries Little Richard and Fats Domino as major influences on Buddy Holly, with Holly collecting their vinyls.
Most famous recordings
"Roll 'Em Pete" (1938) (available in many versions over the years. Used for the million-dollar first scene in Spike Lee's film, Malcolm X)[17]
"Chains of Love" (1951) * (this was Turner's first million seller. The song was written by Ahmet Ertegun using the pseudonym Nugetre, (words) and Van "Piano Man" Walls (music), and the disc reached the million sales mark by 1954.)[18]
"Honey Hush" (1953) * (Turner's second million-seller; written by Turner, it was credited to Lou Willie Turner.)[18]
"Shake, Rattle and Roll" (1954)
"Flip, Flop and Fly" (1955) * (Has sold a million over the years. The song was written by Charles Calhoun and Turner, but was credited to Lou Willie Turner.)[18]
"Cherry Red" (1956)
"Corrine, Corrina" (1956) * (his fourth million seller; with adaption by J. Mayo Williams, Mitchell Parish and Bo Chatmon in 1932. This disc reached No. 41, and spent 10 weeks in the Billboard record chart)[18]
"Wee Baby Blues" (1956) (a song Turner had been singing since his Kingfish Club days)
"Love Roller Coaster" (1956), with new lyrics to the Kansas City classic, "Morning Glory."
"Midnight Special" (1957)
Tracks marked as * were million selling discs.[18]
Discography
Chart singles
Year Single Chart Positions US Pop[19] US
R and B[4]
1945 "S.K. Blues - Part 1"
Joe Turner with Pete Johnson's All-Stars - 3
1946 "My Gal's A Jockey" - 6
1950 "Still In The Dark" - 9
1951 "Chains of Love" - 2
"The Chill Is On" - 3
1952 "Sweet Sixteen" - 3
"Don't You Cry" - 5
1953 "Honey Hush" - 1
1954 "TV Mama" - 6
"Shake, Rattle and Roll" - 1
"Well All Right" - 9
1955 "Flip Flop And Fly" - 2
"Hide And Seek" - 3
1956 "The Chicken And The Hawk (Up, Up And Away)" /
"Morning, Noon And Night" -
- 7
8 "Corrine, Corrina" 41 2
"Lipstick, Powder And Paint" /
"Rock A While" -
- 8
12
1957 "Love Roller Coaster" - 12
1958 "Jump For Joy" - 15
1960 "Honey Hush" (re-recording) 53 -
Studio albums
The Boss of the Blues (1956)
Joe Turner (1958)
Rockin' The Blues (1958)
Big Joe is Here (1959)
Big Joe Rides Again (1960)
Singing The Blues (1967)
Texas Style (1971)
Life Ain't Easy (1974)
The Midnight Special (1976)
Things That I Used to Do (1977)
In the Evening (1977)
Kansas City Here I Come (1984)[20]
Collaborations
The Bosses (1973, with Count Basie)
The Trumpet Kings Meet Joe Turner (1974, with Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Harry "Sweets" Edison and Clark Terry)
Everyday I Have the Blues (1975, with Pee Wee Crayton and Sonny Stitt)
Kansas City Shout (1980, with Count Basie)
Nobody in Mind (1982, with Milt Jackson and Roy Eldridge)
Blues Train (1983, with Roomful of Blues)
Shake, Rattle and Blues (2011, with Mike Bloomfield)[21]
Compilations
Rock andRoll (1957)
Have No Fear, Joe Turner is Here (1978)
Bibliography
The Encyclopedia of Jazz and Blues - ISBN 1-86155-385-4
Jumpin' the Blues - Joe Turner with Pete Johnson's Orchestra - Arhoolie Records - Liner notes
Rocks in my Bed - Big Joe Turner - International Music Co. - Liner notes
The Chronological Joe Turner - 1949–1950 - Big Joe Turner - Classics Records - Liner notes
Rock and Roll - Big Joe Turner - Atlantic Records - Liner notes
Shout, Rattle and Roll - Big Joe Turner - Proper Records (Four CD boxed set - 2005) - Liner notes
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter - Big Joe Turner - Spivey Records - 1977 - Liner notes
References
1. "Big Joe Turner". IMDb.com.
2. "Big Joe Turner Biography | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum". Rockhall.com.
3. "Biography by Bill Dahl". Allmusic.com.
4. Whitburn, Joel (1996). Top R and B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-1995. Record Research. p. 453.
5. Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books Limited. pp. 178–79. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
6. Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 3 - The Tribal Drum: The rise of rhythm and blues. [Part 1]" (audio). Pop Chronicles. Digital.library.unt.edu.
7. "Shake Rattle And Roll". History-of-rock.com. 1954-04-28.
8. Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books Limited. p. 117. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
9. "Blues Foundation Hall of Fame". Infoplease.com.
10. "Big Joe Turner | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum". Rockhall.com. 2013-04-15.
11. Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'N' Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. p. 413. CN 5585.
12. "Blasters Newsletter Issue #59". Blastersnewsletter.com.
13. "Blasters Newsletter". Blastersnewsletter.com.
14. "Phil and Dave Alvin uncover more common ground on 'Lost Time'". LA Times.
15. "Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin: Lost Time". American Songwriter. 2015-09-15.
16. "New Album ‘Lost Time’ Out September 18 On Yep Roc Records — Dave Alvin". Davealvin.net. 2015-09-18.
17. "Malcolm X: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack: Various Artists: Music". Amazon.com.
18. Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (Second ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 57. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
19. Whitburn, Joel (2003). Top Pop Singles 1955-2002 (1st ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. p. 726. ISBN 0-89820-155-1.
20. "Big Joe Turner | Discography". AllMusic.
21. "Shake, Rattle and Blues - Michael Bloomfield,Big Joe Turner | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic.
Merle Oberon (February 19, 1911 – November 23, 1979) was an Anglo-Indian actress.[1] She began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). After her success in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), she travelled to the United States to make films for Samuel Goldwyn. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Dark Angel (1935). A traffic collision in 1937 caused facial injuries that could have ended her career, but she soon followed this with her most renowned performance in Wuthering Heights (1939).
Throughout her adult life, in order to conceal her Indian heritage she maintained the fiction that she was born in Tasmania, Australia; she concocted a story that all her school records had been destroyed in a fire, which meant it could be neither proven nor disproven. She maintained these fictions throughout her professional life. The year before she died she finally admitted this story was not true, and records located since her death have confirmed her true origin.
Early life
Estelle Merle Thompson was born in Bombay, British India on February 19, 1911.[1] According to some sources, her birth name was Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson.[2] Merle was given "Queenie" as a nickname, in honour of Queen Mary, who visited India along with King George V in 1911.[3]
Over the years, Oberon obscured her parentage. Some sources claim Merle's parents to have been Arthur Terrence O'Brien Thompson, a British mechanical engineer from Darlington, who worked in Indian Railways,[4] and Charlotte Selby, a Eurasian from Ceylon with partial Māori heritage.[5]
However, at the age of fourteen, Charlotte had in Ceylon given birth to her first child Constance, the result of a relationship with Henry Alfred Selby, an Irish foreman of a tea planter,[5] and Constance, twelve at the time of Merle's birth, was actually her biological mother. Despite this, Charlotte raised Merle as her own child and as Constance's sister.[6][7] Charlotte's partner, Arthur Thompson, was listed as the father in Merle's birth certificate, with the forename misspelled as "Arther"[1]
Constance eventually married and had four other children, Edna, Douglas, Harry and Stanislaus (Stan) with her husband Alexander Soares. Edna and Douglas moved at an early age to the UK and Harry later in life moved to Toronto, Canada and retained Constance's maiden name, Selby. Stanislaus was the only child to keep his father's last name of Soares and he currently resides in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. All the siblings reportedly believed Merle to be their aunt (the sister of their mother Constance), when in fact she was their half-sister.
When Harry Selby tracked down Merle's birth certificate in Indian government records in Bombay (Mumbai), he was surprised to discover he was in fact Merle's brother and not her nephew. He attempted to visit her in Los Angeles, but she refused to see him. Harry withheld this information from Oberon's biographer Charles Higham, only eventually revealing it to Maree Delofski, the creator of The Trouble with Merle, a 2002 documentary produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which investigated the various conflicting versions of Merle's origin.[7]
In 1914, Arthur Thompson joined the British Army and later died of pneumonia on the Western Front during the Battle of the Somme.[8] Merle, with Charlotte, led an impoverished existence in shabby Bombay flats for a few years. Then, in 1917, they moved to better circumstances in Calcutta.[9] Oberon received a foundation scholarship to attend La Martiniere Calcutta for Girls, one of the best private schools in Calcutta.[9] There, she was constantly taunted for her unconventional parentage and eventually quit school and received her lessons at home.[10]
Oberon first performed with the Calcutta Amateur Dramatic Society. She was also completely enamored of the films and enjoyed going out to nightclubs. Indian journalist Sunanda K. Datta-Ray claimed that Merle worked as a telephone operator in Calcutta under the name Queenie Thomson, and won a contest at Firpo's Restaurant there, before the outset of her film career.[11]
In 1929, Merle met a former actor named Colonel Ben Finney at Firpo's, and dated him.[12] However, when he saw Oberon's dark-skinned mother one night at her flat, and realised Oberon was mixed-race, he decided to end the relationship.[12] However, Finney promised to introduce her to Rex Ingram of Victorine Studios, if she was prepared to travel to France.[12] which she readily did.[12] After packing all their belongings and moving to France, Oberon and her mother found that their supposed benefactor avoided them,[13] although he had left a good word for Oberon with Ingram at the studios in Nice.[13] Ingram liked Oberon's exotic appearance and quickly hired her to be an extra in a party scene in a film named The Three Passions.[14]
Acting career
Oberon arrived in England for the first time in 1928, aged 17. Initially she worked as a club hostess under the name Queenie O'Brien and played in minor and unbilled roles in various films. "I couldn't dance or sing or write or paint. The only possible opening seemed to be in some line in which I could use my face. This was, in fact, no better than a hundred other faces, but it did possess a fortunately photogenic quality," she modestly told a journalist at Film Weekly in 1939.[15] In view of the information discovered since this 1939 article (see preceding section) this should be seen as part of a myth perpetrated by Oberon, since apparently she did not reach Europe until 1929.
Her film career received a major boost when the director Alexander Korda took an interest and gave her a small but prominent role, under the name Merle Oberon, as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) opposite Charles Laughton. The film became a major success and she was then given leading roles, such as Lady Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) with Leslie Howard, who became her lover for a while.[16]
Oberon's career benefited from her relationship, and later marriage, to Korda. He sold "shares" of her contract to producer Samuel Goldwyn, who gave her good vehicles in Hollywood. Her "mother" stayed behind in England. Oberon earned her sole Academy Award for Best Actress nomination for The Dark Angel (1935) produced by Goldwyn. Around this time she had a serious romance with David Niven, and according to his authorized biography, even wanted to marry him, but he wasn't faithful to her.[17]
She was selected to star in Korda's film I, Claudius (1937) as Messalina, but a serious car accident resulted in filming being abandoned. Oberon was scarred for life, but skilled lighting technicians were able to hide her injuries from cinema audiences. She went on to appear as Cathy in her most famous film, Wuthering Heights (opposite Laurence Olivier; 1939), as George Sand in A Song to Remember (1945) and as the Empress Josephine in Désirée (1954).
According to Princess Merle, the biography written by Charles Higham with Roy Moseley, Oberon suffered even further damage to her complexion in 1940 from a combination of cosmetic poisoning and an allergic reaction to sulfa drugs. Alexander Korda sent her to a skin specialist in New York City, where she underwent several dermabrasion procedures.[18] The results, however, were only partially successful; without makeup, one could see noticeable pitting and indentation of her skin.[18]
Charlotte died in 1937. In 1949 Oberon commissioned paintings of her mother from an old photograph.[19] The paintings hung in all her homes until Oberon's own death in 1979.[20]
Merle Oberon had a brief affair in 1941 with Richard Hillary, an RAF fighter pilot who had been badly burned in the Battle of Britain. They met while he was on a good-will tour of the United States. He later became well known as the author of a best-selling book, The Last Enemy.
Death
Merle Oberon became Lady Korda when her husband was knighted in 1942. At the time, the couple were based at Hills House in Denham, England. She divorced him in 1945, to marry cinematographer Lucien Ballard. Ballard devised a special camera light for her to eliminate her facial scars on film. The light became known as the "Obie."[21]
She married twice more, to Italian-born industrialist, Bruno Pagliai (with whom she adopted two children; they lived in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico)[22] and Dutch actor Robert Wolders – later companion to actresses Audrey Hepburn and Leslie Caron – before her retirement in Malibu, California, where she died, aged 68, after suffering a stroke. She was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.[23]
Merle Oberon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard) for her contributions to Motion Pictures.
Michael Korda, nephew of Alexander Korda, wrote a roman à clef about Oberon after her death entitled Queenie. This was also turned into a television miniseries starring Mia Sara.
Disputed birthplace
Oberon claimed that she was born and raised in Tasmania, Australia. The story of her alleged Tasmanian connections was comprehensively debunked after her death.[24]
Oberon is known to have been to Australia only twice.[25] Her first visit was in 1965, on a film promotion. Although a visit to Hobart was scheduled, she became ill after journalists in Sydney pressed her for details of her early life, and she left for Mexico shortly afterwards.[25] In 1978, the year before her death, she agreed to visit Hobart for a Lord Mayoral reception. The Lord Mayor of Hobart became aware shortly before the reception that there was no proof she had been born in Tasmania, but went ahead with the reception to save face. However, shortly after arriving at the reception, Oberon denied she had been born in Tasmania, to the disappointment of many. She then excused herself, claiming illness; whether ill or not, this meant she was unavailable to answer any more questions about her background. On the way to the reception, she had told her driver that as a child she was on a ship with her father, who became ill when it was passing Hobart. They were taken ashore so he could be treated, and as a result she spent some of her early years on the island. This story, too, seems to have been a fabrication. During her Hobart stay, she remained in her hotel, gave no other interviews, and did not visit the theatre named in her honour.[25]
Filmography
Features
The Three Passions (1928)
A Warm Corner (1930)
Alf's Button (1930)
Never Trouble Trouble (1931)
The W Plan (1931)
Fascination (1931)
For the Love of Mike (1932)
Reserved for Ladies (1932)
Ebb Tide (1932)
Aren't We All? (1932)
Wedding Rehearsal (1932)
Men of Tomorrow (1932)
Strange Evidence (1933)
The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)
The Battle (1934)
The Private Life of Don Juan (1934)
The Broken Melody (1934)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
Folies Bergère de Paris (1935)
The Dark Angel (1935)
These Three (1936)
Beloved Enemy (1936)
I, Claudius (1937) (unfinished)
The Divorce of Lady X (1938)
The Cowboy and the Lady (1938)
Wuthering Heights (1939)
Over the Moon (1939)
The Lion Has Wings (1939)
'Til We Meet Again (1940)
That Uncertain Feeling (1941)
Affectionately Yours (1941)
Lydia (1941)
Forever and a Day (1943)
Stage Door Canteen (1943)
First Comes Courage (1943)
The Lodger (1944)
Dark Waters (1944)
A Song to Remember (1945)
This Love of Ours (1945)
Night in Paradise (1946)
Temptation (1946)
Night Song (1948)
Berlin Express (1948)
The Lady from Boston (1951) (French version was also filmed)
24 Hours of a Woman's Life (1952)
All Is Possible in Granada (1954)
Desirée (1954)
Deep in My Heart (1954)
The Price of Fear (1956)
Of Love and Desire (1963)
The Oscar (1966)
Hotel (1967)
Interval (1973)
Short subjects
Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 4 (1936)
Hollywood Goes to Town (1938)
Assignment: Foreign Legion (1956/7 TV episodes)
Radio appearances
Year Program Episode/source
1946 Screen Guild Players This Love of Ours[26]
References
Notes
1. Merle Oberon: Hollywood's Face of Mystery
2. Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 24.
3. Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 25.
4. Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 21.
5. Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 18.
6. "Merle Oberon." merleoberon.net.
7. "ABC TV documentary: The Trouble With Merle."
8. Higham and Moseley 1983, pp. 25–26.
9. Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 28.
10. Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 30.
11. Datta-Ray, Sunanda K. "More than skin-deep." Business Standard, New Delhi, 4 July 2009.
12. Higham and Moseley 1983, pp. 33–34.
13. Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 37.
14. Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 38.
15. Film Weekly, May 1939, p. 7.
16. Higham and Mosley 1983, P. 94.
17. Munn, Michael (2010). David Niven: The Man Behind the Balloon. London: JR Books. p. 70. ISBN 1906779678.
18. Higham and Moseley 1983.
19. Kahn, Salma. "Hollywood's first Indian actress: Merle Oberon." SAPNA Magazine, Winter 2009.
20. Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 100.
21. Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 161.
22. "Villa Arabesque", the luxurious house where Mohammed Reza Pahlevi didn't actually live (in Spanish)." exonline.com.
23. "Merle Oberon".
24. Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 291.
25. Pybus 1998, p. 161.
26. "Oberon, Cotten Star on "Guild"". Harrisburg Telegraph. December 14, 1946. p. 17.
Bibliography
Bowden, Tim. The Devil in Tim: Penelope's Travels in Tasmania. London: Allen and Unwin, 2008. ISBN 978-1-74175-237-3.
Casey, Bob. Merle Oberon: Face of Mystery. Hobart, Tasmania, Australia: Masterpiece@IXL, 2008. ISBN 978-0-98054-822-8.
Higham, Charles and Roy Moseley. Princess Merle: The Romantic Life of Merle Oberon. New York: Coward-McCann Inc., 1983. ISBN 978-0-69811-231-5.
Pybus, Cassandra. Till Apples Grow on an Orange Tree. St Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-70222-986-2.
