Showing 372 results

Authority record

Sautter, Margaret Ann

  • SF2018MSRK
  • Person
  • 1924-04-04 - 2009-12-27

Margaret taught for 35 years in the Detroit Public School System and was considered an excellent and dedicated teacher. In addition to giving her very best to her students, parents and colleagues, nothing gave her more pleasure than providing others with entertainment and happy memories through singing, skits and plays. She belonged to First Bethany United Church of Christ and was active in the choir and other church activities. She was also a lifetime member of Wayne State University Alumni Association and Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority, and a regular contributor to many worthwhile charities. After retiring from teaching, she moved to California in 1985 to take care of her brother, Morey, Jr.

Perito, Nick

  • LC93076272
  • Person
  • 1924-04-07 - 2005-08-03

Nick Perito was an American composer, arranger, and band leader, and for 40 years the closest collaborator of singer Perry Como. Perito was nominated for a dozen Emmys, primarily for Como specials and televised presentations of the Kennedy Center Honors in the 1980s and early '90s. Perito joined Como in 1963 as the singer's long-running "The Perry Como Show" was ending, and stayed on as his music director and conductor for frequent television specials, tours and recording sessions. Perito also handled the music for television specials for Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, and Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. He played piano in recording sessions for Steve & Eydie and for Julius La Rosa, among others. For the big screen, Perito scored the 1968 comedy "Don't Just Stand There," starring Robert Wagner and Mary Tyler Moore.

He began playing the accordion at a young age and soon started performing at parties. He received a scholarship to the Lamont School of Music, studying at the University of Denver. Perito was drafted in 1943 and served as an Army medic in New York during World War II; he also played piano and did musical arrangements for the Army band. Perito remained in New York after World War II, entering the Juilliard School of Music and graduating from the college in 1949.

Perito returned to Denver in 1946 and worked at Denver's KOA with his own weekday radio program. After that, he went back to New York, where he worked as a songwriter, arranger, and accordion/piano session musician. Perito also had his own band that had a permanent spot at Jack Dempsey's Broadway Restaurant, owned by the boxer. His first association with Perry Como came through Como's arranger, Ray Charles, in the early 1950s. Como had recorded a novelty song, "Hoop-De-Doo", and Perito was hired to accompany him on accordion for television performances of the song. He also became the musical director of United Artists Records in 1961.
Perito's other credits include the Kennedy Center Honors, American Film Institute awards, The Don Knotts Variety Show, and the Andy Williams and Bing Crosby television specials. Perito wrote the music for the 1968 film, Don't Just Stand There! with Robert Wagner and Mary Tyler Moore. Perito was also an influential arranger of background music for Muzak in the late 1960s and early 70s. He became the musical director for Bob Hope in 1993 and worked with Hope's wife, Dolores, when she decided to pick up her singing career after 60 years. Perito, along with musicians Dick Grove and Allyn Ferguson, was a founder and partner of the Grove School of Music in Van Nuys, California; the school was accredited in 1979 but closed in 1991. His work earned Perito a dozen Emmy nominations a year before his death of pulmonary fibrosis at the age of 81 on August 3, 2005 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, CA.

Hummel, David

  • LC79011981
  • Person
  • 1955-05-05 -

David Hummel is an American composer and musician who has been writing music professionally for radio and television since he was 16 years old. He is also a proficient player of several musical instruments, as well as all musical computer programs. He was born on May 5, 1955, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and currently resides in Virginia. David is best known for his work on Ghostbusters II (1989), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). David moved his family from Los Angeles to Virginia after his brother-in-law was killed in action in Iraq in 2005. He continues to work with his clients across the country via the internet. Dave is married and has one son who was born in 2005.

Feinstein, Michael

  • LC88626481
  • Person
  • 1956-09-07 -

Michael Jay Feinstein (born September 7, 1956) is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist. He is an interpreter of, and an anthropologist and archivist for, the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. He currently serves as Artistic Director for The Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana.
Feinstein was born and raised in Columbus, OH, where he started playing the piano by ear at age 5. He worked in local piano bars after graduating from high school and moved to LA when he was 20, where he was introduced to Ira Gershwin in July 1977. Feinstein became Gershwin’s assistant for six years; this assignment led to six years of researching, cataloguing and preserving the unpublished sheet music and rare recordings in Gershwin's home which earned him access to numerous unpublished Gershwin songs, many of which he has since performed and recorded.
By the mid-1980s, Feinstein was a nationally known cabaret singer-pianist famed for being a dedicated proponent of the Great American Songbook. In 1986, he recorded his first CD, Pure Gershwin (1987), a collection of music by George and Ira Gershwin. He followed this in quick succession with Live at the Algonquin (1986); Remember: Michael Feinstein Sings Irving Berlin (1987); Isn't It Romantic (1988), a collection of standards and his first album backed by an orchestra; and Over There (1989), featuring the music of America and Europe during the First World War.
By 1988, Feinstein was starring on Broadway in a series of in-concert shows and in the early 1990s, Feinstein embarked on an ambitious songbook project wherein he performed an album featuring the music of a featured composer, often accompanied by the composer; he proceeded to release a number of albums on several labels through 1989. In 1999, Feinstein lent his name to a new nightclub in New York located in the Regency Hotel, as Feinstein's at the Regency became a venue for sophisticated cabaret entertainers including its namesake. In the late 1990s, Feinstein recorded two more albums of Gershwin music: Nice Work If You Can Get It: Songs by the Gershwins (1996) and Michael & George: Feinstein Sings Gershwin (1998).
In 2000, the Library of Congress appointed Feinstein to its newly formed National Recording Preservation Board, an organization dedicated to safeguarding America's musical heritage. Feinstein earned his fifth Grammy Award nomination in 2009 for The Sinatra Project, his CD celebrating the music of “Ol’ Blue Eyes.” His Emmy Award-nominated TV special Michael Feinstein – The Sinatra Legacy, which was taped live at the Palladium in Carmel, IN, aired across the country in 2011. Feinstein was named Principal Pops Conductor for the Pasadena Symphony in 2012 and made his conducting debut in June 2013 to celebrated critical acclaim. He launched an additional Pops series at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in Palm Beach, Florida in 2014. Feinstein's memoir The Gershwins and Me: A Personal History in Twelve Songs about working for Ira Gershwin was published in the fall of 2012, accompanied by a CD of Feinstein performing the Gershwin brothers' music discussed in the book. Feinstein opened his new nightclub, Feinstein's at the Nikko in San Francisco's Nikko Hotel in May 2013, Feinstein's/54 Below at New York's Studio 54 in 2015 and also plans for a future nightclub in London.

Shirley Walker Boles

  • Person
  • 1935-12-19 -

Shirley Ann Walker Boles was born in Indianapolis, IN, on December 19, 1935 to Roger and Leona (Wall) Walker. She is the great granddaughter of Edna and Frank Harrison of Noblesville, IN. Frank Harrison is a distant relative of both William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison. She was married in 1956 to John Curtis Boles, formally of Robbins, TN. Mrs. Boles currently resides in Venice, Florida.

She is a graduate of Shortridge High School and a former employee of Indiana Bell. Her community activities included membership in Job’s Daughters, performing as a clogging dancer with Circle City Cloggers, and being a long-time member of Epworth United Methodist Church.

Mrs. Boles studied piano at Welking Music on Pennsylvania Street in Indianapolis; she also gave private home lessons. She studied on a “Hamilton” upright piano which was a gift from nearby neighbors, the Eller brothers. While she was a student of piano for eight years her favorite style of music was contemporary music, but she also loved studying the classics. Much of her older music was gifted to her from Johnnie Johnson, an older piano student in her neighborhood.

Mrs. Boles has four children: Mike Boles of Poland, IN; Karen Ortega of Evanston, IL; Steve Boles of Noblesville, IN; and Julie Blanchard of Phoenix, AZ. She also has 15 grandchildren.

Mercer, Johnny

  • LC82078485
  • Person
  • 1909-11-18 - 1976-06-25

Johnny Mercer (John Herndon Mercer) was a native of Savannah, Georgia, who began writing songs at the age of fifteen and eventually became one of the foremost figures of 20th century American popular music. His catalog includes many numbers that have become American classics, and his activities as lyricist, composer, performer and businessman span a period of nearly five decades.

Mercer was born on November 18, 1909 to real estate investor George A. Mercer, Jr. and his wife Lillian. He spent his childhood and youth in Savannah, growing up in a household where music was much in evidence and in a region where the local culture combined the rich literary and language traditions of the South.

He left school in 1927 and worked in his father's business before traveling to New York as an actor where he received favorable notices for his performances. Mercer returned the following year trying to establish himself as an actor. He continued writing songs during this time (he had written his first song at age 15). When told that casting for the Garrick Gaieties of 1930 was complete but that the show still needed songs, he supplied "Out of Breath And Scared To Death of You." The song was included in the show, marking the start of his career as a professional songwriter.

From there Mercer went on to become one of America's major songwriters of the 1930s to the 1960s, despite his lack of formal musical training. He worked primarily in New York through the early 30s, producing the hit "Lazybones" with songwriter Hoagy Carmichael in 1933, and collaborating with various other writers including Harold Arlen and "Yip" Harburg.

Mercer's work in Hollywood resulted in a remarkable record of hit songs. During the decade between 1936 and 1946 his catalog grew to such songs as "Hooray for Hollywood," "Jeepers, Creepers," "Day In-Day Out," "Blues In The Night," "That Old Black Magic," "Tangerine," "Accentuate The Positive," "Dream," "On the Atchison, Topeka And The Santa Fe" (Academy Award winner, 1946), and "Come Rain Or Come Shine." His film scores included Daddy Long Legs (1955), and stage productions included Top Banana (1951) and Li'l Abner (1956). Mercer attained distinction as a songwriter by receiving Oscars for three more of his songs between 1951 and 1962, namely "In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening" (1951), "Moon River" (1961) and "Days of Wine and Roses" (1962). Other songs from the period include "Glow-Worm," "Something's Gotta Give" and "Satin Doll."

In the end his catalog included over 1,400 songs, created over a period of 45 years, written by himself and in partnership with a remarkable number of America's most prominent popular composers. Mercer died from an inoperable brain tumor on June 25, 1976, in Los Angeles, CA.

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