Steve Shagan obit

STEPHEN SHAGAN Obituary

 

He was not on the list.

SHAGAN--Stephen H.

"Steve," 88, passed away peacefully in his sleep on November 30, 2015, at his home in Los Angeles, CA. Born in 1927 in New York City to Barnet "Barney" and Rachel Shagan, Steve is survived by his son Robert (Paul). Beloved husband of 61 years of marriage to Elizabeth "Betty" F. Shagan (1930-2013), Steve will be remembered for his kindness, intelligence, creativity, honesty, strength, generosity, humor, integrity and perseverance; as well as the love he felt for the cats that he and Betty cared for over the years. When not dedicating time to his craft, Steve enjoyed traveling, keeping up with his favorite baseball and football teams' scores, horseracing, reading and spending quality time with his family and close friends. Steve's career as a best-selling author, film and television writer and producer spanned nearly six decades; including nominations for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 1974, Steve won the Writers Guild of America Award - Best Screenplay, Drama for "Save the Tiger," based upon his novel of the same name. Cumulatively, Steve published eight critically acclaimed novels, wrote 10 screenplays and produced over 48 films, television episodes and made for TV movies, combined. Private family services will be held at Newton Cemetery in Newton Center, MA. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the World Wildlife Fund.

Shagan came to Hollywood in 1958 with his wife, Elizabeth Florance "Betty" Ricker, whom he married on November 18, 1956, in Quincy, Massachusetts. At first he did odd jobs, for example working as a stagehand at a little theater and pulling cables at MGM Studios in the middle of the night. Eventually he started working on scripts and then produced the Tarzan television show on location in Mexico. It was believed that he had a relationship in Mexico with an actress and had son, but this was never confirmed. Betty talked him into quitting and concentrating on writing. Betty, a former fashion model, was the daughter of Philomena (née Pisano) and Al Ricker. Her mother, a dancer, later remarried, to Mayo J. Duca, a Boston jazz trumpet player. Philomena Pisano was the daughter of Katherine "Kitty" Bingham and Fred Anthony Pisano, of the musical-comedy vaudeville team of Pisano and Bingham.

Shagan wrote the screenplay for and co-produced the 1973 film Save the Tiger, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won a Writers Guild of America Award. His novelization of Save the Tiger, which was his first novel, was actually published a year prior to the film's release. He had written the script first, and while he was shopping it around Hollywood, he wrote the novel to help him deal with the stress of trying to sell the script, which took two years to get produced. As he was finishing the book his typewriter broke and author Harold Robbins loaned him his.

Shagan went on to write the novel City of Angels and its film adaptation, Hustle, both released in 1975. He then wrote the screenplay for and co-produced Voyage of the Damned, for which he received another Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Adapted Screenplay. This was followed by Nightwing, which he adapted from the novel of same name by Martin Cruz Smith. He then adapted his 1979 novel The Formula into a 1980 film of the same name, which he also co-produced and which reunited him with Save the Tiger director John G. Avildsen. Of the performances by Brando and Scott in The Formula, Steve Shagan reportedly stated: "I sensed a loss of purpose, a feeling that they didn't want to work any more and had come to think of acting as playing with choo-choo trains."

Subsequent films written by Shagan include The Sicilian, which he adapted from the novel by Mario Puzo, and Primal Fear, based on the novel by William Diehl. Shagan also wrote the teleplay for the made-for-television movie Gotti, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Special.

 

Novels

His novels include:

 

Save the Tiger (1972)

City of Angels (1975; filmed as Hustle)

The Formula (1979)

The Circle (1982)

The Discovery (1984)

Vendetta (1986)

Pillars of Fire (1990)

A Cast of Thousands (1994)

 

Producer

Marlon Brando and George C. Scott in The Formula (1980)

The Formula

5.6

producer

1980

 

The House on Garibaldi Street (1979)

The House on Garibaldi Street

6.7

TV Movie

executive producer

1979

 

W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975)

W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings

5.9

executive producer

1975

 

Brigitte Fossey and Stuart Whitman in The Man Who Died Twice (1973)

The Man Who Died Twice

7.0

TV Movie

producer

1973

 

Save the Tiger (1973)

Save the Tiger

6.9

producer

1973

 

Tarzan and the Perils of Charity Jones (1971)

Tarzan and the Perils of Charity Jones

6.7

producer

1971

 

River of Mystery

7.7

TV Movie

producer

1971

 

A Step Out of Line (1971)

A Step Out of Line

7.5

TV Movie

producer

1971

 

Sole Survivor (1970)

Sole Survivor

7.4

TV Movie

executive producer

1970

 

Tarzan (1966)

Tarzan

7.1

TV Series

producer

1966–1968

37 episodes

 

Tarzan and the Four O'Clock Army (1968)

Tarzan and the Four O'Clock Army

6.3

producer

1968

 

Tarzan's Jungle Rebellion (1967)

Tarzan's Jungle Rebellion

5.2

producer

1967

 

Mike Henry and Diana Millay in Tarzan and the Great River (1967)

Tarzan and the Great River

5.3

associate producer

1967

 

Mike Henry in Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966)

Tarzan and the Valley of Gold

5.8

associate producer

1966

 

Sylvia (1965)

Sylvia

6.6

assistant producer

1965

 

Writer

Gotti (1996)

Gotti

7.2

TV Movie

teleplay (as Steven Shagan)

1996

 

Richard Gere in Primal Fear (1996)

Primal Fear

7.7

screenplay

1996

 

Christopher Lambert in The Sicilian (1987)

The Sicilian

5.4

screenplay

1987

 

Marlon Brando and George C. Scott in The Formula (1980)

The Formula

5.6

novel

screenplay

1980

 

Nightwing (1979)

Nightwing

5.2

screenplay

1979

 

The House on Garibaldi Street (1979)

The House on Garibaldi Street

6.7

TV Movie

screenplay

1979

 

Voyage of the Damned (1976)

Voyage of the Damned

6.4

screenplay

1976

 

Hustle (1975)

Hustle

6.2

novel "City of Angels"

written by (uncredited)

1975

 

Save the Tiger (1973)

Save the Tiger

6.9

written by

1973

 

A Step Out of Line (1971)

A Step Out of Line

7.5

TV Movie

Writer

1971

 

Actor

Tarzan (1966)

Tarzan

7.1

TV Series

(uncredited)

1967

1 episode

Marjorie Lord - # 118

Marjorie Lord, Sitcom Wife of Danny Thomas, Dies at 97

She was number 118 on the list.

Marjorie Lord, who starred as the cheery and supportive wife Kathy Williams on the showbiz-centered hit sitcom Make Room for Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show, has died. She was 97.

Lord, who joined the comedy in 1957 near the end of its fourth season and stayed through its finish in April 1964, died of natural causes on Nov. 28 at her home in Beverly Hills, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Survivors include her daughter, the Oscar-nominated actress Anne Archer (Fatal Attraction), from a marriage to actor John Archer (White Heat).

A former contract player at RKO and Universal with a long list of B-movies and TV shows to her credit, Lord was hired as Thomas’ second wife on the show (known as Make Room for Daddy for its first four seasons). Jean Hagan played his first wife, Margaret, who died between seasons three and four.

Lord’s Kathy was a widowed Irish nurse with a daughter, Linda (Angela Cartwright). She wed Thomas’ character — a nightclub singer-comic who spends a lot of time on the road — on the series’ fourth-season finale and always handled her spouse’s showbiz hyperactivity with aplomb.

The series, which aired on ABC and CBS, also co-starred Rusty Hamer as Thomas’ son, Rusty. (Hamer, who joined the show at age 6, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 42 in 1990.) Sherry Jackson, who played Thomas’ oldest child Terry, departed early in the sixth season.

Lord and everyone else got back together for the 1970-71 ABC revival Make Room for Granddaddy.

While making Make Room for Daddy, Lord put her movie career on the back burner. She made just one feature after the show ended, playing Bob Hope’s wife in the screwball comedy Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number (1966), but worked often in the theater as an actress and director.

Earlier, Lord played the deadpan lead in two Bert Wheeler-Robert Woolsey comedies — On Again-Off Again and High Flyers, both released in 1937. She also appeared in Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) opposite her husband John, who played her fiance in the movie; Johnny Come Lately (1943) with James Cagney; and Riding High (1950), a Bing Crosby musical.

Marjorie Wollenberg was born on July 26, 1918, in San Francisco. She came to New York when her father, a cosmetics executive, was transferred, and at age 16 she landed a role on Broadway in The Old Maid, co-starring Judith Anderson and Helen Menken, Humphrey Bogart’s first wife.

She bounced back and forth between New York and California working in films and theater; at one point, she spent a year touring in Springtime for Henry with Edward Everett Horton.

Lord was active during the early days of live TV and guest-starred on such shows as The Lone Ranger, The Adventures of Kit Carson, Ramar of the Jungle and Hopalong Cassidy.

After her 14-year marriage to Archer ended in divorce in 1955, she starred in the play Anniversary Waltz, produced by Randolph Hale, who in 1958 would become her second husband. Thomas and producer Sheldon Leonard saw her in the play in Los Angeles and signed her to play a nurse for four weeks on Make Room for Daddy. It took just one episode for them to realize they had the next Mrs. Williams.

On the big screen, Lord also appeared in the serial The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack, based on the popular comic-book flying ace. Her other film credits include Forty Naughty Girls (1937), Moonlight in Havana (1942), The Argyle Secrets (1948), The Strange Mrs. Crane (1948), Masked Raiders (1949), The Lost Volcano (1950) and Rebel City (1953).

In 1957, Lord guest-starred on the first episode of the Western series Wagon Train, and years later she appeared with her daughter Anne in the 1978 CBS telefilm The Pirate, based on a Harold Robbins novel. Her last onscreen appearance came in a 1988 CBS telefilm, Side by Side, with her old friend Thomas.

Lord and Hale opened and ran Valley Music Theater in Los Angeles, but that business went under and he died of lung cancer in 1974.

She was married to L.A. banker Harry Volk, who helped found many cultural institutions in town, including the Music Center, from 1976 until his death in 2000.

Lord published a memoir, A Dance and a Hug, in 2004.

 

Filmography

Film

Year       Title       Role       Notes    Ref

1937      High Flyers          Arlene Arlington               Musical comedy film directed by Edward F. Cline.             

On Again-Off Again          Florence Cole     Musical comedy film directed by Edward F. Cline.             

Forty Naughty Girls         June Preston      American comedy directed by Edward F. Cline    

Hideaway            Joan Peterson    Comedy film directed by Richard Rosson               

Border Café        Janet Barry          Western film directed by Lew Landers    

1939      The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair          Babs      Directed by Robert R. Snody       

1942      Escape from Hong Kong                 Valerie Hale and Fraulein K          American comedy film directed by William Nigh.    

Moonlight in Havana      Patsy Clark          American romantic comedy film directed by Anthony Mann         

1943      Johnny Come Lately        Jane       Drama film directed by William K. Howard.          

Sherlock Holmes in Washington                 Nancy Partridge               

    The fifth film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes films.

    Directed by Roy William Neill.

Shantytown        Virginia Allen      Crime film directed by Joseph Santley    

Hi, Buddy             Mary Parker                      

The Adventures of Smilin' Jack    Janet Thompson               Serial based on comic strip directed by Lewis D. Collins and Ray Taylor          

1947      New Orleans      Grace Volcella    Musical romance film directed by Arthur Lubin  

1948      The Strange Mrs. Crane Gina Crane, alias of Jennie Hadley             Crime film-noir film directed by Sam Newfield                

The Argyle Secrets           Marta    Mystery romance directed by Cy Endfield             

1949      Masked Raiders                Gale Trevett aka Diablo Kid          Western directed by Lesley Selander      

Air Hostess          Jennifer White   Action drama directed by Lew Landers   

1950      Chain Gang         Rita McKelvey   American drama film directed by Lew Landers and written by Howard J. Green.

The Lost Volcano              Ruth Gordon      Adventure film directed by Ford Beebe

Riding High         Mary Winslow   Musical film directed by Frank Capra      

1951      Stop That Cab    Mary Thomas     Comedy, crime film directed by Eugenio de Liguoro         

Venture of Faith                               Drama directed by Frank R. Strayer         

1953      Mexican Manhunt           Sheila Barton     American crime film directed by Rex Bailey.         

Down Laredo Way           Valerie American western film directed by William Witney.         

1954      Port of Hell         Kay Walker         Drama directed by Harold D. Schuster    

1966      Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!               Mrs. Martha Meade        American comedy film directed by George Marshall.            

Television

Year       Title       Role       Notes    Ref

1949      Your Show Time                Guest    Episode: "The Real Thing" (S 1:Ep 8)        

1950      The Lone Ranger               Kitty McQueen Episode: "Bullets for Ballots" (S 1:Ep 35)                

1951      Hollywood Opening Night             Guest    Episode: "Hand on My Shoulder" (S 1:Ep 9)          

1952      Fireside Theatre                Sue Brown          Episode: "Brown of Calaveras" (S 4:Ep 33)            

Gwen    Episode: "Mirage" (S 4:Ep 41)     

China Smith        Ruth Cotton        Episode: "Devil-In-The-Godown" (S 1:Ep 6)           

Fireside Theatre                Catherine            Episode: "Visit from a Stranger" (S 5:Ep 5)            

Ford Theatre: All Star Theatre     Guest    Episode: "Edge of the Law" (S 1:Ep 6)     

1953      Fireside Theatre                Guest    Episode: "The Return" (S 5: 19)  

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars              Guest    Episodew: "The Devil's Other Name" (S 2:Ep 25)

Ford Theatre: All Star Theatre     Guest    Episode: "The Jewel" (S 1:Ep 35)               

Hallmark Hall of Fame    Sarah McCoy      Episode: "McCoy of Abilene" (S 3:Ep 4)  

Ramar of the Jungle        Lylia Webley       Episode: "Call to Danger" (S 2:Ep 6)         

1954      Ramar of the Jungle        Lylia Webley       Episode: "Blind Peril" (S 2:Ep 12)               

Four Star Playhouse        Bessie   Episode: "Operation In Money" (S 2:Ep 25)          

General Electric Theater                Millie     Episode: "That Other Sunlight" (S 2:Ep 17)            

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars              Guest    Episode: "Her Kind of Honor" (S 3:Ep 29)               

Hopalong Cassidy             Adele Keller        Episode: "Tricky Fingers" (S 2:Ep 26)       

Fireside Theatre                Guest    Episode: "Trial Period" (S 6:Ep 35)            

Cavalcade of America     Mrs. Field            Episode: "The Great Gamble" (S 3:Ep 20                

The Lone Wolf   Lori Race              Episode: "The Malibu Story (a.k.a. Malibu-Laguna)" (S 1:Ep 9)      

Ford Theatre: All Star Theatre     Liz           Episode: "Shadow of Truth" (S 3:Ep 3)    

Climax! Guest    Episode: "Epitaph For a Spy" (S 1:Ep 8)   

1955      Cavalcade of America     Lee Powell Coleman        Episode: "Take Off Zero" (S 3:Ep 14)        

Guest    Episode: "Decision For Justice" (S 3:Ep 15)            

The Lone Ranger               Clare Lee              Episode: "The Law Lady" (S 4:Ep 25)        

Henry Fonda Presents the Star and the Story       Joan       Episode: "Newspaper Man" (S 1:Ep 19)  

Loretta Young Show        Miss Cook            Episode: "A Shadow Between" (S 3:Ep 16)            

1956      TV Reader's Digest           Guest    Epispde: "Lost, Strayed, and Lonely" (S 2:Ep 21)

Wire Service       Phyllis Holley      Episode: "Hideout" (S 1:Ep 3)     

1957      Zane Grey Theater           Amy Marr           

    Episode: "Decision At Wilson's Creek" (S 1:Ep 28)

    Rerun as Frontier Justice (S 1:Ep 6) in 1958 with the same episode title.

               

Wagon Train      Mary Palmer      Episode: "The Willy Moran Story (Pilot)" (S 1:Ep 1)            

1957–64               The Danny Thomas Show              Kathy 'Clancey' O'Hara Williams                 Main cast            

1958      The Ed Sullivan Show      Kathy Williams Episode: "September 21, 1958: CBS's Stars of the 1958-59 TV Season" (S 11:Ep 2)          

Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse                Kathy Williams

    Episode: "Lucy Makes Room for Danny" (S 1:Ep 9)

    Also listed under The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour with the same episode title. (S 2:Ep 2)

               

1961      The Joey Bishop Show    Kathy Williams

    Episode: "This Is Your Life" (S 1:Ep 4)

    A spin-off of The Danny Thomas Show.

               

1967      The Danny Thomas Hour               Kathy Williams Episode: "Make More Room for Daddy" (S 1:Ep 9)            

1969      Love, American Style      Guest    Episode: "Love and the Single Couple" (S 1:Ep 13)             

1970–71               Make Room for Granddaddy       Kathy Williams

    Main cast

    Sequel to Make Room for Daddy (1953–1956)

    Make Room for Daddy changed its name to The Danny Thomas Show (1956–1964)

               

1975      The Missing Are Deadly Mrs. Robertson Television movie directed by Don McDougall.     

1978      Fantasy Island    Beth Shane         Episode: "Family Reunion / Voodoo" (S 1:Ep 4)   

The Pirate            Mrs. Mason       

    Made-for-television film directed by Ken Annakin.

    Based on the novel with the same name written by Harold Robbins.

1980      The Love Boat    Martha Rogers Episode: "April's Love/Happy Ending/We Three" (S 3:Ep 17)         

1987      Sweet Surrender              Joyce Holden     

    Main cast

    Short-lived American sitcom.

               

1988      Side by Side        Mrs. Hammerstein           Television movie directed by Jack Bender.            

Stage

Year       Title       Role       Theatre                Notes    Ref

1935      The Old Maid     Tina       Broadway            Replacement performer

1945      Signature             Nora Davisson   Original performer

1946      Little Brown Jug                Carol Barlow

1967      The Girl in the Freudian Slip         Paula Maugham               

Ronnie Bright obit

 

R&B and doo-wop singer Ronnie Bright Has Died

He was not on the list.

American Singer. Born Ronald David Bright, he was a prominent R&B and doo-wop singer from the 1950s to the 1970s. He started his first group, the Dreamers, in 1952 and they would sing on street corners in their neighborhood in Harlem. The group released their first single "Summer Love" in 1954 and a year later changed their name to the Valentines. They recorded several singles before breaking up in 1958, but none of them reached the charts. Bright then joined the group The Cadillacs before going to bass backup singing. Among the songs that he sang backup was Barry Mann's "Who Put the Bomp" and Jackie Wilson's "Baby Workout", but the song that made him most famous was Johnny Cymbal's hit "Mr. Bass Man". In 1968 Bright joined the Coasters and would stay with them until 2009.

Bright was the bass vocalist for doo-wop groups the Valentines, the Cadillacs, the Deep River Boys, and the Coasters. He did session work for artists such as Barry Mann, Jackie Wilson, Peter Gabriel, and Johnny Cymbal. His most recognizable vocals are from Johnny Cymbal's 1963 hit song "Mr. Bass Man." He sang with the Valentines (the group was previously called the Dreamers) from 1954 to 1957, briefly with the Cadillacs in 1960, and the Deep River Boys in the late 1960s. In 1965, Bright released a record for Coed Records as Ronnie and the Schoolmates. He joined the Coasters in April 1968, replacing Dub Jones, and left the group in 2009. He died on November 26, 2015, at the age of 77.

Guy Lewis obit

Guy V. Lewis, coach of Phi Slama Jama teams, dies at 93

He was not on the list.

Former University of Houston men's basketball coach Guy V. Lewis, best known for leading the Phi Slama Jama teams of the 1980s, has died. He was 93.

He died at a retirement facility in Kyle, Texas, on Thanksgiving morning surrounded by family, the school said Thursday.

Lewis coached the Cougars for 30 years. He guided Houston to back-to-back NCAA title games in 1983 and '84 but never won the national championship, losing to N.C. State in the 1983 final on Lorenzo Charles' last-second shot, one of the NCAA Tournament's greatest upsets and most memorable plays.

''It feels awful,'' Lewis said after that game. ''I've never lost a game that didn't feel that way, but this one was terrible.''

Lewis, who helped lead the integration of college basketball in the South by recruiting Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney to Houston, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.

Known for plaid jackets and wringing his hands with a red polka-dot towel during games, Lewis compiled a 592-279 record at Houston, guiding the Cougars to 27 consecutive winning seasons from 1959-85. He was honored as the national coach of the year twice (1968 and `83) and led Houston to 14 NCAA Tournaments and five Final Fours.

Lewis had mostly avoided the spotlight since retiring in 1986. He suffered a stroke in February 2002 and had used a wheelchair in recent years.

He was known for putting together the ''Game of the Century'' at the Astrodome in 1968 between Houston and UCLA. It was the first regular-season game to be broadcast on national television. Houston defeated the Bruins in front of a crowd of more than 52,000, which, at that time, was the largest ever to watch an indoor basketball game.

Lewis attended the introductory news conference in December 2007 for Kevin Sumlin, the first black football coach in Houston history. It was a symbolic, significant appearance because Lewis signed Houston's first two black basketball players and some of the first in the region in Hayes and Chaney in 1964, when programs were just starting to integrate.

Hayes and Chaney led the Cougars to the program's first Final Four in 1967 but lost to Lew Alcindor's UCLA team in the semifinal game.

''Basketball in the state of Texas and throughout the South is all due to coach Guy V. Lewis,'' Hayes said in 2013. ''He put everything on the line to step out and integrate his program. Not only that, he had vision to say: `Hey, we can play a game in the Houston Astrodome.' Not only that, he just was such a motivator and such an innovator that created so many doors for the game of basketball to grow.''

Along with Hayes, Lewis also coached fellow All-Americans Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. The three were included on the NBA's Top 50 greatest players list in 1996. Lewis and North Carolina's Dean Smith were the only men to coach three players from that list while they were in college.

Players and CBS announcer Jim Nantz lobbied for years for Lewis to get into the Naismith Hall of Fame. When he finally received the honor in 2013 he made a rare public appearance. It was difficult for him to convey his thoughts in words in his later years because of aphasia from his strokes, so his daughter spoke on his behalf at the event to celebrate his induction.

''It's pure joy and we're not even upset that it took so long. ... Dad is used to winning in overtime,'' Sherry Lewis said.

Lewis announced his retirement during the 1985-86 season, and the Cougars finished 14-14, his first non-winning season since 1958-59.

Guy Vernon Lewis II was born in Arp, a town of fewer than 1,000 residents in northeast Texas. He became a flight instructor for the U.S. Army during World War II and enrolled at the University of Houston in 1946.

He joined the basketball team, averaged 21.1 points and led the Cougars to the Lone Star Conference championship. By the early 1950s, he was working as an assistant coach under Alden Pasche and took over when Pasche retired in 1956.

Cynthia Robinson obit

Sly and the Family Stone Co-Founder Cynthia Robinson Dead at 71

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame trumpeter succumbs to cancer after lengthy, influential career

She was not on the list.

Cynthia Robinson, a founding member for Sly and the Family Stone who played trumpet, has died after a battle with cancer. The musician’s Facebook page and Billboard confirmed the news Tuesday. She was 69.

The trumpeter was best known for her joyous melodies and inspired vocals and ad-libs on songs like “Dance to the Music” and “I Want to Take You Higher.” She commanded listeners to “get up and dance to the music” at the beginning of the former song and sang “hey, hey, hey” background vocals on the latter.

Robinson’s career with Sly Stone began in 1966 when the bandleader put together a group called the Stoners. They fell apart quickly, though, and she became a fixture of the Family Stone – a group whose members were male and female and represented different races, a novel idea at the time – alongside her cousin Larry Graham.



Although the ensemble’s A Whole New Thing was not a hit, its second LP Dance to the Music scored a hit in 1967 with the title cut, paving the way for a string of successful songs that included “Everyday People,” “Stand,” “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again),” “Family Affair” and many others. Trumpeter Miles Davis, deep into his fusion period, said at the time that he was a fan. The band fizzled in popularity by the mid-Seventies, with members leaving, but the trumpeter continued to record with Stone into the Eighties.

When not playing with the Family Stone, Robinson played in Graham’s Graham Central Station and worked with George Clinton and Prince. She was inducted into the 1993 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside her Family Stone bandmates.



Robinson was born on January 12th, 1944 in Sacramento, California. She played brass instruments in her high school marching band and participated in an all-faith church choir. She met Stone while still in high school and ran into him again when he was a radio DJ after moving to Oakland. Stone was so beholden to his longtime friend that at the peak of “Everyday People” popularity, he cancelled three months of booked appearances – including the Ed Sullivan Show – while he waited for Robinson to recover from an emergency gall bladder operation.



In recent years, after Stone disappeared from the public eye, Robinson continued to play with a group called simply the Family Stone. She appeared on “Do Yo Dance,” the group’ latest single released this past summer.



Earlier this year, she told Rolling Stone how committed the singer was to equality and feminism, citing “M’Lady” as an example. “You may think Sly’s talking about the ladies in the song, but he’s actually talking to the men,” she said. “He’s giving the ladies props. He’s telling the men that the ladies are cool, that they need to pay more attention to them! The repetitive line is, ‘Give her some time.’ He’s telling the guys to spend more time with their ladies. Give her some attention!”



When news of Robinson’s death broke, Questlove penned a loving tribute to her, calling her music’s original “hypeman” in an Instagram post. “She wasn’t just a screaming cheerleading foil to Sly and Freddie [Stone]’s gospel vocals; she was a kick ass trumpet player,” he wrote. “A crucial intricate part of Sly Stone’s utopian vision of MLK’s America: Sly and the Family Stone were brothers and cousins, friends and enemies, black and white, male and female. saint and sinner. … Cynthia’s role in music history isn’t celebrated enough.”