 | ||
As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history,
the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.
July 21, 1951
Robin Williams was born Robin McLaurin Williams at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.
July 24, 1956bn
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perbform their last comedy
show together at New York's Copacabana Club.
Born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio, Martin started a
nightclub act after working as a prizefighter and a steelworker in the 1940s.
Lewis, the son of performers, debuted in comedy acts with his parents at age
five and was working steadily as a comic by 1946, when he met Dean Martin. The
pair performed an act in which screwball Lewis constantly interrupted straight
man Martin's singing. They made their first appearance in 1946 at a club in
Atlantic City and were an instant hit, soon in demand for radio and movie
performances. The pair made 16 movies together, starting with My Friend Irma
in 1949. By 1956, though, the pair decided to call it quits.
After the duo split up,
Martin launched his own TV variety show, which ran from 1965 to 1974. In the
late 1950s and early 1960s, Martin teamed up with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis,
Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop to perform in Las Vegas. The group quickly
became known as the Rat Pack, a suave group of young, fast-living entertainers.
The group made several movies together in the early 1960s, including Ocean's
Eleven (1960), Sergeants Three (1962), and Robin and the Seven
Hoods. Martin died in 1995.
Lewis
went on to sign one of the most lucrative film contracts of the day, a $10
million deal for 14 films with Paramount. Lewis' films, including Cinderfella
(1960) and The Nutty Professor (1963), failed to attract much praise
from American critics but made him a star in France, where he has long been
considered a comic genius. After a long absence from film, he gave an acclaimed
performance in the 1986 film The King of Comedy, co-starring Robert De
Niro.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was". Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
I represent the first generation who, when we were born, the television was now a permanent fixture in our homes. When I was born people had breakfast with Barbara Walters, dinner with Walter Cronkite, and slept with Johnny Carson. Read the full "Pre-ramble"
Monday, July 18, 2016
This Week in Television History: July 2016 PART IlI
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