Louis Teicher, Pianist (Ferrante & Teicher) (1924-2008)

Regular blog contributor (and my gorgeous esteemed colleague) Evelyn Gibbons left an article from this morning's Citizens' Voice on my shelf this afternoon; the article announced the passing of Louis Teicher, a pianist best known as one half of the legendary piano duo Ferrante & Teicher. My parents had several of the duo's LPs in their collection when I was a child (including an album with a sexy 1960s era model posed against a gold background on the cover and a killer samba-like version of Chopsticks on the vinyl), so I have known of them as a child in the 1970s. But I have absolutely no idea that Louis Teicher was a Wilkes-Barre native until I read that he passed away this past Sunday (August 3rd) of heart failure.

Louis Teicher was born in Wilkes-Barre on August 24, 1924; he lived there until he was 5 years old, but he continued to spend his summers and even took his first piano lessons in W-B. Furthermore, his first concert was at the age of 8 at what is now Wyoming Seminary.

A child prodigy, Teicher attended the Juilliard School of Music at a mere 6 years of ageand receivied his diploma at the age of 16. He joined the Juilliard faculty when he was a mere 20 years old.

Teicher met his musical partner Arthur Ferrante (b. September 7, 1921) at Juilliard and began performing together while still in school, where Ferrante also became a faculty member.

The two pianists officially launched their professional partnership as Ferrante & Teicher in 1947. They became famous for their film themes (such as The Apartment and Exodus) and toured extensively for over 50 years, even playing several concerts in Scranton.

Sadly, Louis Teicher passed away on Sunday, August 3, 2008 from heart failure at his summer home in Highlands, North Carolina. He was 83 years old.

To read the article from the Citizens Voice, click here. For the article in the Times Leader, click here. Click here to read his obituary from the New York Times.

The Lackawanna County Library System includes 2 CDs by Ferrante & Teicher in our collection. Feel free to place holds on either 1990's The Greatest Love Songs of All or 1997's reissue of their 1959 album Blast Off! (featuring another sexy version of Chopsticks).

A great big THANK YOU to the incandescent Evelyn Gibbons for this reference.

Also, a special thank you to Mark Anthony Ferrante for clarifying via email the place where Mr. Teicher passed away.

www.ferranteandteicher.com/

David Lepore, Set Designer and Emmy Winner for "Come On Over"

David Lepore of Wilkes-Barre recently won an Emmy Award from the Michigan Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The Emmy was for Best Graphic Arts-Set Design for the regional children's show Come On Over, filmed and televised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Lepore shares the award with co-set designer Bob Phillips.

Come On Over won a total of 5 Emmy Awards on June 7th,

Click here to read the article from the Citizens' Voice.

Congratulations, David. Well done!

Thank you to Evelyn Gibbons for this reference.

Crawford O. "Bob" Swartz, Composer of "Home on the Range" (1855-1932)

It's a piece of American music that brings back memories of a nostalgic time and a simpler life. It was President FDR's favorite song. You may know this timeless tune as Home on the Range, but the original title was "Colorado Home" (Prospectors' Song)--and the composer was Scranton native Crawford O. "Bob" Swartz.

Crawford O. "Bob" Swartz was born in Scranton on March 26, 1855 and lived with his family (his parents and his sister Laura) on Grandview Street. In his late teens/early twenties, Swartz set out for Leadville, Colorado to seek his fortune as a gold prospector.

During a stormy winter in 1885, Swartz would gather with a group of friends and musically-inclined fellow prospectors at a local shanty he nicknamed the Junk Lane Hotel. It was there where Swartz composed the music and lyrics for a song he titled Colorado Home, or Prospector's Song. The song began with the lyrics "Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam, and the deer and the antelope play."

In a letter to his folks back home in Scranton, Swartz wrote how excited he was of his composition; he also admitted that "everyone helped make it up. If it keeps on going, it will become a popular western song." This letter, which included the lyrics to the first verse of the new song, would become a significant piece of evidence years later when the song's authorship came into question.

Swartz returned east a few years later and resided on Grandview Street in Scranton; he also worked for several years at the Lackawanna Round House. and sang Prospectors' Song to his parents and sister. Though all loved the song, nothing more was thought of it--that is until a few years later when a new and very familiar-sounding melody titled Home on the Range began to become a fixture on a brand new invention called radio. Though the melody and the lyrics of the first verse was exactly the same as Shwartz's Colorado Home, the remaining lyrics of the song were completely changed from the perspective of a gold prospector to a cowboy's point-of-view.

Crawford O. Swartz died in Scranton on March 12, 1932.

Though he never enjoyed any success or credit for Colorado Home during his lifetime, his sister Laura published the song in 1934 as Swartz originally penned it. After an Arizona couple, William and Mary Goodwin, filed lawsuit against use of what they considered their composition of Home on the Range, Laura (with the letters Swartz send in the late 1800s as proof), won the lawsuit, thus giving Swartz credit for the music of the song, as well as for co-writing the lyrics to what we now know as Home on the Range (with Swartz sharing lyric credit with Bill McCabe, Bingham Graves, et. al. for the additional and/or verses not originally included in Colorado Home).

However, controversy over the authorship of Home on the Range is still disputed today. The song, which is the state song of Kansas, is often solely credited to Dr. Brewster M. Higley.

The Mineral Information Institute also includes information about Swartz and Home on the Range on their website. To read more, click here.

Click on any of the following links to reserve CDs by a variety of artists that have recorded Home on the Range: Frank Sinatra; Peter, Paul & Mary; Roy Rogers; Mannheim Steamroller; and local recording artists The Lyric Consort.

A GREAT BIG THANKS to B.R. Francis from Broomfield, Colorado. B.R. is a relative of the late Crawford O. Shwartz, and she visited Scranton a few months back to do research on him.

In addition, much information for this blog entry is credited to an article titled "Scranton Man Wrote Familiar Melody," which appeared on the front page of Section II of the Wednesday, March 18, 1936 edition of The Scranton Republican. A copy of the article is in the "Music" Local History Vertical File in the Reference Department.

Dallas native Robert May's Latest Film "Bonneville" Released on DVD

The latest film by producer and Dallas, Pennsylvania native Robert May, whose previous films include the critically acclaimed The Station Agent and The Fog of War, has just been released on DVD.

May's most recent film is Bonneville and stars Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, Tom Skerritt and Christine Baranski. Originally released in 2006, Bonneville tells the story of three friends who come of age for a second time on a trip across the great American West.

To place a hold on the DVD of Bonneville, click here.

To read a previous entry on Robert May, click here.

Scranton Native Lauren Weisberger's New Novel: "Chasing Harry Winston"

Scranton native and bestselling author Lauren Weisberger (The Devil Wears Prada; Everyone Worth Knowing) has a new novel titled Chasing Harry Winston. The book tells the story of a trio of best friends in Manhattan who agree to change their lives in the most personal and dramatic way possible -- and within one calendar year.

To place a hold on Chasing Harry Winston, click here.

Lauren visited Scranton last year and was a presenter as part of the Lackawanna County Library System Lecture Series.

For more information, check out Lauren's official website and a previous blog entry.

www.LaurenWeisberger.com

Wilkes-Barre native Douglas Carter Beane nominated for "Best Book of a Musical" Tony Award for Xanadu

Updated Monday, May 19th, 2008

Congratulations to playwright and Wilkes-Barre native Douglas Carter Beane, who was nominated this morning for a Best Book of a Musical Tony Award for the surprise hit Xanadu.


Xanadu was nominated for a total of 4 Tonys, including Best Actress (Kerry Butler), Best Choreography (Dan Knechtges), and Best Musical.


The Tony Awards air Sunday, June 15th at 8 PM on CBS. For a complete list of 2008 Tony nominees, click here.


For more information on Douglas Carter Beane from a previous blog entry, click here.


Good luck, Douglas!!!!! We're all rooting for you.


And don't miss Xanadu on Broadway! It's an excellent show (I'm going to see it for the THIRD time at the end of May--YES, IT'S THAT GOOD!!!).

www.XanaduOnBroadway.com

Updated Monday, May 19th, 2008: Last night, Douglas Carter Beane won the award for Outstanding Book of a Musical for Xanadu at the 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards. For a complete list of last night's winners, check out the Official Drama Desk Awards site. Congratulations, Douglas!!!!

Michael Patrick King, Sex & The City (Director/Writer/Producer) (1954- )

Scranton native Michael Patrick King, center, is the Director/Writer/Executive Producer of the highly anticipated summer movie Sex & the City: The Movie. The film stars (from left) Kim Cattrall, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon. Sex & the City: The Movie opens nationwide May 30th.

This reference is from my longtime friend and colleague Evelyn Gibbons, who called me tonight all excited to give me this info:

Check out the Summer Movies (MT) section of this past Sunday's (May 4, 2008) New York Times and, on page 4, you will find a lengthy profile of the upcoming Sex and the City: The Movie. The article features both a profile of and an extensive interview with the movie's director/writer/producer Michael Patrick King, a native of Scranton.

Michael Patrick King was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania on September 14th, 1954. In the 1980s he moved to New York City, where he worked as a playwright and stand-up comedian.

King's impressive career in television spans over two decades. He first worked as executive producer of a 1989 show called The Sweet Life, which featured host Rachel Sweet introducing short clips of movie comedies. Of interesting note is that The Sweet Life aired on a new and fledgling network called The Comedy Channel, which only years later morphed into Comedy Central.

In the early 1990s, King served as writer for the hit sitcom Murphy Brown. He went on to write and executive produce several episodes of Will & Grace. He also served as writer/director/executive producer of the short-lived HBO show The Comeback starring Lisa Kudrow.

King is best known for his work on the smash HBO series Sex & the City, which he served as writer/director/executive producer from 1999 to 2004. He was won a Best Director Emmy Award for the episode The Reel Me in 2002.

Sex & the City: The Movie, one of the most highly-anticipated movies of the Summer 2008 movie season, opens nationwide Friday, May 30th, 2008.

The New York Times article, written by Ginia Bellafante, is titled Back to the City, for More Than Just Sex. To read the article, click here.

Also of note is that the bottom of the first page of the Summer Movies section reads:

4

HIS OWN VELVET ROPE

How Michael Patrick King got

himself from Scranton

to "Sex and

the City."

Seasons 1-6 of Sex & The City are available to borrow from libraries throughout the Lackawanna County Library System.

Muchos gracias to the phenomenally groovy Evelyn Gibbons for this reference.

UPDATED May 10th: Someone Meeboed me a question regarding Mr. King:

" I just found your blog after reading the NY Times article about Sex and the City. Do you know which "small college in Pennsylvania" Michael Patrick went to?"

After a little digging, I discovered that Michael Patrick King attended Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA, according to GoErie.com

Marion Lorne, Actress (1883-1968)

West Pittston native Marion Lorne appears as Aunt Clara opposite Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York in an episode of the classic 1960s sitcom Bewitched. Lorne won a posthumous Emmy Award for her role 10 days after her death in 1968.

She was a gifted and lovable star of the Broadway stage, the "brand new box" called television, and the silver screen. She was directed by Hitchcock in her film debut. She was the aunt of a loveable witch on one of TV's best-loved sitcoms. And to top it all off, she was a friend of that infamous cougar Mrs. Robinson in a film classic. She is Marion Lorne and she's a native of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area.

Marion Lorne MacDougall was born in West Pittston on August 12, 1883.

After studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, she made her Broadway debut as Marion Lorne in 1905's Mrs. Temple's Telegram. She appeared in many other plays in the early days of Broadway.

She married playwright Walter Hackett (Captain Applejack; The White Sister) and moved to London, where they founded the Whitehall Theater. Following Hackett's death in 1944, she returned to the US and starred as Vera in the original Broadway production of Harvey.

Lorne's film debut came at the young age of 68 in 1951's Strangers On A Train, directed by legendary Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock; her character was Mrs. Anthony. Following the film's success, she turned to television in the recurring role as the lovable-but-hopelessly-confused Mrs. Gurney on the sitcom Mister Peepers from 1952 to 1953. She also appeared in the 1955 Rosiland Russell vehicle The Girl Rush, also starring Fernando Lamas.

Follwoing a number of guest appearances on various television shows, Lorne was cast as the doorknob-obsessed, lovable witch Aunt Clara on the wildly popular 1960s sitcom Bewitched, co-starring Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York. The show was a phenomenal success and helped Lorne reach a whole new audience.

In 1967, Lorne appeared as Miss Dewitte, a friend and party guest of Mrs. Robinson's in Mike Nichols's 1967 film debut The Graduate, starring Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman. The film was a huge hit and ushered in the "film school generation" of directors.

Sadly, during the fourth season of Bewitched, Marion Lorne suffered a heart attack and passed away in New York City on May 9, 1968 . She was 84 years old. Ten days after her death, Lorne was posthumously awarded the Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role on Bewitched--her friend and colleague Elizabeth Montgomery accected the award for the late actress.

Several items featuring Marion Lorne are available to borrow from the Lackawanna County Library System--including the first 3 seasons of Bewitched, the VHS or DVD of The Graduate, and the VHS or DVD of Strangers on a Train. Click on any of these links to place a reserve.

Much thanks to the savvy Michele L. for this reference. And thanks to Erin from Childrens for the correction :-) I originally incorrectly identified Elizabeth Montgomery as Barbara Montgomery :-(

Allan Jones, Actor and Singer (1907-1992)

John Fortuna, one of our library's patrons and a true movie aficionado of the lives of movie stars, recently inquired about an actor from the Golden Age of Hollywood named Allan Jones. To my surprise, I discovered that Allan Jones was not only a prolific actor and tenor, but he was also an Old Forge and Scranton native.

Allan Jones was born Ocotber 14, 1907 in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, the son of a coal miner. He grew up in Scranton, PA.

After moving to Hollywood in the 1930s, Jones starred in several Hollywood films now regarded as classics. His credits include the Marx Brothers comedies A Night at the Opera in 1935 (as Ricardo, he was the tenor in the performance of Il Trovatore which was the film's centerpeice opera referred to in the title) and 1937's A Day at the Races (where he played a race horse owner); 1937's The Firefly with Jeanette MacDonald (which introduced his tremendously popular rendition of the song Donkey Serenade); and 1940's The Boy From Syracuse with Martha Raye and Irene Hervey (who was his wife from 1936 to 1957).

Perhaps Jones's best and well-known performance was as gambler Gaylord Ravenal opposite Irene Dunne in the 1936 musical film Show Boat. In 1942 he co-starred with Scranton native Gloria Jean in When Johnny Comes Marching Home.

Jones continued to act and sing in films until 1970.

His son Jack Jones was also a popular singer in the 1960's, whose hits included Friends & Lovers.

Jones died of lung cancer in New York City on June 30, 1992.

Several films featuring Allan Jones are circulating throughout the Lackawanna County Library System: reserves may be placed on the VHS or DVD of A Day at the Races; the DVD of A Night at the Opera; and The Marx Brother Collection (featuring both A Day at the Races and A Night at the Opera) on DVD.

The Reference Department also includes Local History Newspaper Clippings Files on both Allan Jones and his son Jack Jones.

Thanks again to John Fortuna for this reference.

Local Resident Filmed for Upcoming "Daily Show" Interview

Producers from Comedy Central's The Daily Show With John Stewart recently visted Scranton and interviewed 82 year-old Hazel Price, who watched Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton grow up as a child.

Click here to read Scranton Times-Tribune writer Charles Schillinger's article "Price's Next Interview is on Comedy Central," which was published in this past Sunday's (April 23, 2008) Times.

No date has been announced for when the interview with Hazel Price will air.

Thanks to Evelyn Gibbons for this reference.

James Thomas Martin III (1985 - )

Yesterday's Citizens' Voice published an article about James Thomas Martin III, a Forty Fort native who recently appeared in the hit film Step Up 2 the Streets.

Martin was also featured in Flo Rida's music video for Low.

Click here to read the full article.

The video for Low is below via YouTube.

Dallas, PA Resident Wins $27,000 on NBC's Deal Or No Deal (March 5, 2008)

Congratulations to Dallas, PA resident Chris Higdon, who won $27,000 on Wednesday's episode of NBC's Deal Or No Deal.

To read the article from Citizens' Voice, click here.

Raye Hollitt, Actress and Bodybuilding Champion (1964 - )

I'd like to give a HUGE Thank You to Raye Hollitt for generously giving me permission to include photos from her awesome official website (www.rayehollitt.com) in our blog.

Everyone is entitled to be a little bit envious of Raye Hollitt. She's gorgeous, she's a champion bodybuilder, she was an original American Gladiator, and she continues a successful acting career in Hollywood that began 20 years ago. What's even more incredible is that Raye Hollitt is a native of the Wilkes-Barre area.

Raye Hollitt was born in Wilkes-Barre on April 17, 1964. She grew up in the Harvey's Lake area of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

In 1982, at the age of 18, Hollitt moved to Los Angeles, where she became a competitive weighlifter and bodybuilder, competing in and winning numerous bodybuilding titles in Los Angeles, California and Reno, Nevada. Among her titles are 1988 Ms. Los Angeles Weightlifting and the 1989 Women's Extravaganza Strength title winner. She has also appeared on the cover of 14 national bodybuilding magazines throughout her career.

In 1987, Hollitt began her acting career in the action film Penitentiary III, playing a female boxer.

Hollitt gained worldwide recognition for her role as Lonnie Jones, a bodybuilder with a lust for womanizer John Ritter in Blake Edwards' 1989 comedy Skin Deep. Another interesting note: out of a cast of nine women who play girlfriends and ex-girlfriends of hard drinking, womanizing writer Zach Hutton (John Ritter), Hollitt was the only cast member besides Ritter featured in the trailer for the film's release. In the film's most famous scene, Zach strips and crawls into bed, waiting anxiously for his date Lonnie Jones to emerge from the bathroom. As Lonnie emerges, she states that she has worked 5 years to develop her body, "but for one night, it's...all...yours." Then Lonnie proceeds to flex and pose her incredible physique, asking Zach, "How do you feel about THAT?" Zach's response: "Like Mrs. Arnold Schwarzenegger."

Following Hollitt's success in Skin Deep, she continued to act in several Hollywood films (including 1991's The Last Hour, 1993's Hot Shots: Part Deux, and 1994's Cyborg III) and guest-starring on several popular television shows (from JAG to Baywatch to Manhunt--and even an episode of Muppets Tonight).

In 1989, Hollitt gained an extra massive fan following as Zap in the hugely successful show American Gladiators, in which professional athletes competed with average people in stamina-testing challenges such as Power Ball, Assault, The Wall and Hang Tough. Hollitt starred in the series from 1989 through 1994 and competed in almost 100 episodes of American Gladiators. The show remains a mainstay in popular culture and was even recently revived this past year on NBC.

During her time with American Galdiators, Hollitt became the official spokesperson for Ye Olde Clock & Gift Shoppe in Dallas, PA, and her commercials continue to air on local television stations to this day.

Hollitt contines to act in Hollywood, and she will next been seen in Nilanjan Neil Lahiri's upcoming drama The Ode.

Hollitt also continues her successful bodybuilding career in Los Angeles. She also operates her official website, http://www.rayehollitt.com/ and her MySpace page.

Skin Deep is available to borrow on DVD from the Lackawanna County Library System. To place a hold, click here.

Thank you again to the amazing Raye Hollitt for letting me use photos from her official website for this reference.

www.rayehollitt.com

www.myspace.com/Raye_Hollitt

"Nickelodeon's KaBlam!: A Girl Named Fuzzball" by Kevin Dougherty

Kevin Dougherty, a Wilkes-Barre resident and filmmaker, emailed me yesterday about an animated short he did that aired on Nickelodeon's KaBlam!:

"'Fuzzball' takes place in the mythical "West Valley, Pennsylvania" and features church carnivals, bowling alleys...most of the locations are directly based on local stuff. If you look closely, you can see flyers on telephone poles for Cafe Metropolis in Wilkes-Barre (where I work)."

Kevin also added: "And speaking of Wilkes-Barre natives, I am finishing up a 3-page comic strip bio of Ham Fisher, creator of Joe Palooka. It is scheduled to run in Electric City paper December 28th. Its an interesting tale."

The short is awesome, by the way, so check it out.

Thanks to Kevin Dougherty for this reference.

Stephen Karam, Playwright

In a letter published in the "Your Opinion" section of this morning's Scranton Times-Tribune, Vincent J. Vanston wrote a letter titled Rising Star about an off-Broadway play in New York titled Speech & Debate that he highly recommends. Of particular note is that the playwright, Stephen Karam, is a former Scranton resident.

A few weeks ago, one of our patrons, Gloria McDonough, also told me that Stephen Karam was a student at Scranton High School and his father was a principal. She also told me Mr. Karam went to Brown University and spend a semester at either Cambridge or Oxford University in the UK.

Currently playing (and recently extended) until February 24, 2008 and presented by the Roundabout Underground Theatre Company, Speech & Debate is a black comedy that tells the story of three misfits in a Salem, Oregon high school who reluctantly form their school's first debate team--only after discovering they are all linked together by their small town's sex scandal.

Karam's previous plays include Columbinus, a drama (co-written with PJ Paparelli) inspired by the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School.

Much thanks to Gloria McDonough for this reference.

UPDATE 1/14/08 My new fantastic colleague in Reference, Michele L., told me tonight she went to Scranton High School with Stephen Karam and was even on the high school debate team AND in chorus with him. She also said that he is an incredibly funny person, even acting in the high school production in Once Upon A Mattress.

Bestselling Author Lauren Weisberger at The Scranton Cultural Center, Thursday, September 6, 2007

Blogger Bill C. with bestselling author (and Scranton native) Lauren Weisberger before her lecture Thursday night.

Photo by Mary Barna.
Bill C. and his brother JR with Lauren Weisberger.
Photo by Mary Barna

The extra-ultra-fantastic duo of Mary Garm and Mary Barna gave me the wonderful opportunity of meeting bestselling author and Scranton native Lauren Weisberger (The Devil Wears Prada, Everyone Worth Knowing) before her lecture Thursday night. Lauren was incredibly sweet and posed for pictures with me and my brother JR.

Over 400 people were in attendance at last night's event. The lecture itself was a Q&A between Lauren and Library System Administrator Mary Garm. Through Mary's question, plus questions that were submitted in advance by email, Lauren shared her experiences as a writer living in New York City, her similarities to her characters, and her experiences growing up in Scranton. The lively talk was followed by questions from the audience.

After the lecture, Lauren signed copies of her book for over an hour and kindly posed for pictures.

For more pictures of last night's event, click here.

A big thanks again to the incredibly groovy Mary Garm and Mary Barna.

FREE Tickets Now Available for 'Devil Wears Prada' Author Lauren Weisberger - September 6th

FREE tickets for bestselling author and Scranton native Lauren Weisberger's upcoming lecture (Thursday, September 6th at 7 PM at Scranton Cultural Center) are now available at Albright Memorial Library and other locations throughout Scranton. For more information, click here.

Photo of Lauren Weisberger courtesy of press page on Miss Weisberger's official web site.

'Mama' Cass Elliot (1941-1974)

While assisting a library patron today, who was looking for a football article from our microfilm of the Scranton Times on November 1, 1970, suddenly appearing on the screen was an article titled "Mama of Momma Cass Ex-Scranton Resident." Who knew that this larger-than- life vocalist of the legendary 60s group The Mamas and the Papas (and a gifted solo artist in her own right) had a connection to the Scranton area?

According to the Sunday Scranton Times article "Mama of Momma Cass Ex-Scranton Resident," written by Sid Benjamin (11/1/1970, pages B10 and B11), Cass Elliot's (AKA Mama Cass's) mother Bess Owen and grandmother Ida Benewitz were both originally from the Scranton area.

When the article was written nearly 37 years ago, Bess Owen was residing in Wilkes-Barre and beaming with pride at her daughter's triumphant October 24th appearance on the Andy Williams Show. Bess was then in Wilkes-Barre on temporary assignment by the U.S. Social Security Administration to help in the processing of the overwhelming number of "black lung" applications.

Also in the article, Cass's mother Bess Owen recalled her childhood living in Scranton with her father, Joseph Levine, who operated a tailor shop on Adams Avenue, and her mother Ida Benewitz .

In addition, the family also lived in Edwardsville, PA for a time, where Bess was a classmate of Scranton business and civic leader Vivian Edwards at Wyoming Seminary.

'Mama' Cass Elliot was born Ellen Naomi Cohen on September 19, 1941 in Baltimore, Maryland (where the Cohen family moved from Edwardsville, PA) and, as far as I know, has never lived in the Scranton area. Her singing career began as a member of the folk music group The Big 3, then exploded as a member of The Mamas and The Papas (California Dreamin'; Monday, Monday; I Saw Her Again Last Night; Creeque Alley; and Dream A Little Dream of Me--which served as a springboard for Elliot's solo career). As a member of the Mamas and the Papas, Cass also was instrumental in organizing 1967's legendary Monteray Pop Festival in San Francisco, CA.

After the group disbanded in 1968, Cass Elliot (she hated being called Mama Cass) embarked on a successful solo career with such hits as It's Getting Better, California Earthquake, and Make Your Own Kind of Music. She also hosted two of her own prime time television specials (1969's The Mama Cass Television Program and 1973's Don't Call Me Mama Anymore--which featured an appearance by her mother Bess); Cass also made numerous guest appearances on talk shows (she even guest hosted The Tonight Show for Johnny Carson) and variety shows in the early 1970s. Additionally, Cass had a featured role as Witch Hazel in the 1970 film Pufnstuf and played an "animated" version of herself (as a candy factory owner) in a memorable episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies (October 20, 1973).

Cass Elliot tragically died of a heart attack in London on July 29, 1974, following a two week engagement of sold out concerts at the London Palladium. She was only 33 years old. Unfortunately, to this day, there is a persistant (and false) story that Cass Elliot died choking on a ham sandwich, which her autopsy proved was an incorrect assumption.

An excellent biography of Cass Elliot titled Dream A Little Dream of Me: The Life of Cass Elliot, written by Eddi Fiegel, was published in 2005.

Several CDs by the Mamas and the Papas, Cass's solo anthology Dream A Little Dream: The Cass Elliot Collection (which was produced by her daughter Owen) as well as DVDs of The Complete Monteray Pop Festival and the documentary California Dreamin': The Songs of the Mamas and the Papas, are available to borrow from several libraries throughout the Lackawanna County Library System. In addition, our library also has the soundtrack to the film Beautiful Thing, which is comprised completely of Cass Elliot's solo hits and songs from the Mamas and the Papas (her solo songs play an intregal part to the film).

www.casselliot.com

Frankie Valli (1934 - )

Legendary singer Frankie Valli was profiled in the Scranton Times/Tribune in a article titled "Jersey Boy Done Good," published in the June 26, 2007 (Section C, p. C1; C3) .

According to the article and interview, Frankie Valli (born Francis Castelluccio on May 3, 1934 in Newark, NJ) spent most of his childhood summers in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, where his mother Mary was born and raised before moving with her husband to Newark. He recalled with fondness of taking the train from Newark to Scranton to spend his Christmas vacations with his extended family back in Dunmore. He calls his time he spent at his mother's house on Oak Street in Dumore as "some of the best times of my life."

Valli first gained fame as the lead singer of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons; their numerous hit songs (starting in 1962) include Sherry, Walk Like A Man, Rag Doll, Let's Hang On, Dawn, Big Girls Don't Cry, December 1963 (Oh What A Night) . The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Valli's so hits include My Eyes Adored You, Can't Take My Eyes Off You and the title track of 1978's classic movie musical Grease.

In addtion to currently touring with the Four Seasons, Valli's music can be heard eight performances a week in the smash Tony-winning Broadway musical Jersey Boys, which dramatizes the beginnings of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Since opening night on November 6, 2005, Jersey Boys has been playing to capacity audiences at the August Wilson Theatre in New York City and remains one of the hottest tickets on Broadway.

Several CDs featuring the music of Frankie Valli -- including 20 Greatest Hits of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, My Eyes Adored You and Other Hits, and the soundtracks to 1978's Grease and Jersey Boys -- are available to borrow in many libraries throughout the Lackawanna County Library System.

To read the full article "Jersey Boy Done Good," from the Scranton Times/Tribune, click here.

Douglas Carter Beane, Playwright and Screenwriter

UPDATED JUNE 18TH, 2007,

JULY 12th, 2007 & MAY 13, 2008

The "culturally with-it" Evelyn Gibbons emailed me this morning and told me of a local resident who was profiled in Sunday's Citizens' Voice for his nomination for Best Play at the 2007 Tony Awards. His name is Douglas Carter Beane, and he has lived in both the Wilkes-Barre and Tunkhannock areas of Pennsylvania.

According to the article "Tony Nominee Recalls Summers at Lake Carey," (published in the Sunday Voice on Sunday, June 10th, 2007, page A5), Douglas Carter Beane was born spent part of his childhood in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and at a summer cottage on Lake Carey in Wyoming County.

However, in another interview, this one with Oasis Magazine, Beane confirms he was actually born in Wilkes-Barre--in General Hospital, to be precise.

Beane was nominated for a 2007 Tony Award for Best Play for The Little Dog Laughed, starring Tom Everett Scott (That Thing You Do!, Dead Man On Campus) and Julie White (who won a Best Actress Tony Award for her role). The Little Dog Laughed tells the story of an up-and-coming Hollywood actor whose budding homosexuality potentially threatens his career. The play ran for 122 performances at Broadway's Colt Theatre in New York City.

Beane also wrote the screenplay for the 1995 comedy To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar; the film starred Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo as three transvestives whose car breaks down in a small town on their way to a drag queen beauty contest in Los Angeles.

Beane's most recent work was writing the book for Broadway's upcoming musical Xanadu, based on the 1980 film starring Olivia Newton-John as a muse who inspires an aspiring artist to create a rollerdisco. In previews now (in fact, I have a ticket for this upcoming Sunday's preview), Xanadu on Broadway is scheduled to officially open June 26th, 2007 at the Helen Hayes Theatre in New York City. To watch a short video of rehearsals for the show, featuring Douglas Carter Beane, click here.

Beane also serves as Writer/Artistic Director of the Drama Dept., a non-profit theater collective of actors, writers, directors, designers and stage managers--its rouster of members includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Peter Gallagher and Patricia Clarkson.

Douglas Carter Beane was also profiled in this past Sunday's Times-Tribune. The article titled, "Playwright With Local Ties Nominated for Tony Award," can be read online by clicking here.

To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar is available to borrow on both DVD and VHS from libraries throughout the Lackawanna County Library System. To place a hold on the DVD, click here; to reserve the VHS, click here.

Much thanks to Evelyn Gibbons for this reference.

www.XanaduOnBroadway.com

UPDATED 6/18/07 I attended a preview of Xanadu yesterday afternoon in New York City - and it was FANTASTIC!!!! If you're familiar with the 1980 film version of Xanadu, you'll be happily surprised that Beane only kept the songs and characters, and wrote a funny-as-heck musical comedy in place of the original film script. In addition, the Helen Hayes Theatre is a smaller Broadway theater, so every seat has a GREAT view of the stage. In additon, the theatre also offers a limited number of ON-STAGE SEATING available at the box office.

Unfortunately Douglas Carter Beane wasn't in attendence at Sunday's show, but I did have the pleasure of meeting cast members Kerry Butler (who played Kira, originated in the film version by Olivia Newton-John), Mary Testa (who plays a new character not in the original film, a muse named Melpomene) and the wonderful Jackie Hoffman (who plays another new Muse character, Calliope)--Hoffman was kind enough to pose for a picture with me and even humorously jibed me with a "YOU IDIOT!!!!" when a shaking-and-nervous me had a problem accessing the camera on my cellphone (click here to see it). I told all three actors that I hope Xanadu will be a HUGE hit.

SOME XANANEWS: The official opening date for Xanadu has been changed from from June 26th, 2007 to July 10th, 2007 due to an foot injury by lead actor James Carpinello - he has been replaced by Cheyenne Jackson.

Douglas Carter Beane was profiled in yesterday's New York Times in an article titled "Returning to Broadway on Celestial Roller Skates." The full article can be read online by clicking here. In addition, he also narrates the article in a slideshow of photos from Xanadu exclusively on the New York Times website. You can access the slideshow by clicking here. In addition, to view another rehearsal video for Xanadu, click here.

In summary---if you happen to be in NYC, have 90 minutes (with no intermission) to kill, and want to have a really great time - not to mention see a really fun piece of theatre by an alumni of this area, check out Xanadu on Broadway!

UPDATED AGAIN JULY 12TH, 2007: Xanadu had its offical opening Tuesday, July 11th and received a rave review in Wednesday's New York Times. To read the review, click here.

UPDATED May 13th, 2008: Congratulations to Douglas for earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical for Xanadu. For more info, click here.

Also, to see the infamous "You Idiot!" photo of me and Jackie Hoffman described above, it's posted on the offical Xanadu photo blog. Click here to see it (I look like a deer crossed in the headlights, but Jackie looks awesome!).