The 1950s were a time of great racial inequities and overt racial discrimination, but legendary jazz singer Pearl Bailey proved that love conquers all. In 1952, the African American Bailey married her third husband, Louie Bellman. It wasn’t the number of marriages that raised some eyebrows; it was the fact that Bailey’s new husband was…
Category: Music
Disney’s First Academy Award Winning Song
In recent years, it surprises no one when a song from a Disney animated feature film is awarded an Academy Award for Best Original Song. “Let It Go” from Frozen, “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King, “A Whole New World” from Aladdin, and “Remember Me”…
Perry Como, the Crooning Craze, and 1950s Bobby Soxers
The 1950s gave rise to a new era of music – one that was more romantic and nostalgic than ever before. This era, commonly known as the “crooning craze,” saw the emergence of a new style of singing that would become iconic in the decades to follow. Though many legendary crooners emerged during that era,…
Eleanor Powell: MGM’s Queen of Tap
According to insider talk, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was in danger of bankruptcy as the 1930s were drawing to a close, but the studio was saved thanks in part to the tap-dancing talents of Eleanor Powell, one of the greatest dancers of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Powell’s performance in Broadway Melody of 1936, her first starring role, was such…
Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife”
On December 19, 1958, singer Bobby Darin made the unusual decision to record his version of the theme song for The Threepenny Opera, a German musical play that debuted in 1928, for his upcoming album, That’s All. Not everyone agreed with Darin’s move. According to legend, Dick Clark warned Bobby Darin not to include the…