Marvin Hamlisch obit

Broadway to dim in honor of composer Marvin Hamlisch; dead at 68

 

He was not on the list.

Broadway’s bright glow will dim for a moment on Wednesday in memory of the late Marvin Hamlisch, a prolific American composer who died this week after a more than four-decade long career that spanned film, music, television and theater.

Manhattan’s 40 Broadway theaters are expected to turn down their lights at 8 p.m. ET for a total of 60 seconds in symbolic tribute to the man who composed acclaimed scores for the Pulitzer Prize-winning “A Chorus Line,” as well as “They’re Playing Our Song” and “The Goodbye Girl.”

His musical ensembles and “old-fashioned” style made him a favorite with Hollywood elites, theater-goers and dignitaries, and earned him three Oscars, four Grammys, four Emmys, a Tony and three Golden Globe awards – one of only 11 people ever to do so, according to The Broadway League, a trade group for the industry.

On the silver screen, Hamlisch composed more than 40 scores for films like “The Way We Were” and “The Sting.”

“His legacy leaves us with a treasury of songs and stories that will always be familiar to theater-goers as they stir up meaningful and heartfelt emotions,” said Charlotte St. Martin, League Executive Director.

He died Monday at the age of 68.

“Music is truly an international language,” Hamlisch said on his official website. “And I hope to contribute by widening communication as much as I can.”

Social media was abuzz Tuesday with reflections of the legendary composer and his legacy.

“The evenings we spent with you and the Pittsburgh Pops are memories that will last forever,” Jean Elliot Boyer wrote on his official Facebook page.”Your banter with the audience and your down-to-earth style will stay with me forever.”

“The world will miss your gift,” wrote Gail Dwyer.

Lauded as a child prodigy, Hamlisch was the youngest student ever accepted into Manhattan’s prestigious Juilliard School of Music at the age of 7. Later in life, he held principal pops conductor positions at various American orchestras, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Pasadena, San Diego and Seattle Symphonies.

His passing drew comments Tuesday from a galaxy of Hollywood stars and others who sought to pay him tribute.

“I will miss his talent, our laughter (and) friendship, but mostly I will miss Marvin,” said actress and singer Liza Minnelli. “My heart is with his wife Terre always.”

Nancy Reagan said she had been shocked to learn of his death, calling Hamlisch “a dear friend” whom she and her late husband, President Ronald Reagan, were drawn to by way of his “old fashioned” charm.

“I’ll never forget that he wrote a special song for Ronnie’s surprise 77th birthday party in 1988. My heart goes out to Terre at this difficult time,” said the former first lady.

“I’m devastated,” said singer Barbra Streisand. “He was my dear friend. He’s been in my life ever since the first day I met him in 1963, when he was my rehearsal pianist for ‘Funny Girl.’ ”

“He was a true musical genius,” she said. “But above all that, he was a beautiful human being. I will truly miss him.”

Hamlisch ‘a trouper to the end’

Hamlisch was a musical director and arranger of Streisand’s 1994 concert tour and television special, and had recently worked on a musical adaption of the production of “The Nutty Professor,” a musical comedy directed by Jerry Lewis.

Theatre

Year       Title       Role(s) Notes

1973      Seesaw Dance Arrangements    

1975      A Chorus Line     Music by              Pulitzer Prize for Drama & Tony Award for Best Score

1978      They're Playing Our Song              Music by             

1983      Jean Seberg        Music by             

1986      Smile     Music by             

1993      The Goodbye Girl             Music by             

2002      Sweet Smell of Success Music by             

2002      Imaginary Friends            Music by             

2012      The Nutty Professor        Music by             

 

Film

Title       Year       Role(s) Notes

1968      The Swimmer                   

1969      Take the Money and Run                             

1969      The April Fools                 

1970      Move                   

1970      Flap                       

1971      Something Big                  

1971      Kotch                   

1971      Bananas                              

1972      The War Between Men and Women                       

1973      The World's Greatest Athlete                    

1973      Save the Tiger                   

1973      The Way We Were                         

1973      The Sting                            

1975      The Prisoner of Second Avenue                

1977      The Spy Who Loved Me                                

1977      The Absent-Minded Waiter                        

1978      Same Time, Next Year                   

1978      Ice Castles                          

1979      Starting Over                     

1979      Chapter Two                     

1980      Seems Like Old Times                    

1980      Ordinary People                              

1980      Gilda Live                            

1982      Sophie's Choice                                

1982      I Ought to Be in Pictures                               

1983      Romantic Comedy                          

1984      A Streetcar Named Desire                           

1985      D.A.R.Y.L.                            

1985      A Chorus Line                    

1987      When the Time Comes                  

1988      Sam Found Out: A Triple Play                     

1988      Little Nikita                        

1988      David                    

1989      The January Man                             

1989      Shirley Valentine                             

1989      The Experts                       

1990      Women and Men: Stories of Seduction                  

1991      Switched at Birth                             

1991      Missing Pieces                  

1991      Frankie and Johnny                        

1994      Seasons of the Heart                      

1996      The Mirror Has Two Faces                           

2003      How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days                    

2009      The Informant!                

2013      Behind the Candelabra                 

Arnie Risen obit

Basketball great Arnie Risen had died.

He was not on the list.

Hall of Fame center Arnie Risen died Saturday morning in Beachwood, Ohio, according to his son, Dennis. He was 87.

Risen was suffering from lung cancer, which was in remission, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He had retired and lived with his son's family for the past 27 years.

"We were a multi-generation family which is kind of unusual," Dennis said in a phone interview Sunday. "He had the opportunity to help raise his granddaughters, and he got a lot of enjoyment out of that. He enjoyed golf, and spectator sports and being with his family."

Risen was a 10-year standout with the Rochester Royals and Boston Celtics, playing from 1948-58. He won NBA titles with the Royals in 1950-51 and the Celtics in 1956-57.

The 6-foot-9 Risen, who played in back-to-back Final Fours at Ohio State, was a four-time NBA All-Star. He scored 7,633 career points and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 1998.

Jimmy Jones obit

Jimmy Jones Remembered: We All Listened to What He Was Putting Down

 

 He was not on the list.

James "Jimmy" Jones, a singer, songwriter and entertainer with a smooth, soulful high-pitched singing voice, who is best known for his 1960 R&B smash hit "Handy Man," died on Aug. 2 in Aberdeen. He was 82.

 As a young, resourceful 6-year-old child in Birmingham, Ala., "Handy Man" Jones, as he would later be known, embarked on his career as an entertainer, said his son, James Jones Jr.

"He would take bottle tops, hold them between his toes and tap dance for money," Jones Jr. said.

Eight years later at the age of 14, Jones left home to join the circus as a tap dancer and performer, his son said.

"He had natural ability. He was made to do what he did," Jones Jr. said. "He was an entertainer's entertainer."

Already an accomplished tap dancer, Jones was discovered as a singer in 1952 during a stint in the U.S. Army.

During an audition for a talent show, Jones was asked to sing by a fellow officer, Jones Jr. said.

"He said, 'Hit this note,' and Dad did, and then he said, 'Hit this note,' and Dad did, and then he said, 'Hit this note,' and he did it again, and then they fired the whole group (of singers) and Dad replaced them," the younger Jones said.

While serving in the Army, Jones earned extra money by going from barracks to barracks and tapping in front of his fellow soldiers. But he realized singing was going to take him farther in life than tap dancing.

In 1954 he joined a doo-wop group, The Berliners. They later changed their name to Sparks of Rhythm.

He eventually decided to go solo in 1958. A year later, he wrote and recorded "Handy Man."

"It took it a while for it to become a hit," Jones Jr. said of his father's most well-known song.

The song, he said, "bombed" on "American Bandstand" in the summer of 1960, but became a hit in October thanks to a fortuitous flip by a disc jockey in Pittsburgh.

"Handy Man" was the "B" side of another recording that hit big when local radio personality Pughie Chadwick began playing it, Jones Jr. said.

Living in New York at the time, and with the memory of the song's first failed release, Jones didn't belive the numerous telegrams he started to receive telling him that his song was burning up the airwaves in Pittsburgh.

Eventually, he flew to Steel City to see for himself.

"He heard 'Handy Man' playing on the jukeboxes in the Pittsburgh airport," Jones Jr. said. "He said there was no place he could go that he didn't hear 'Handy Man.' He said he heard it so much that wax was running out his ears."

The song eventually topped out at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and remained there for 18 weeks.

The song would be remade and recorded several times. James Taylor's version became a huge hit again in 1977.

Jones was also a big hit in England. "Handy Man" peaked at No. 3 on the charts there and later that same year, "Good Timin" climbed to No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart and hit No. 3 in the U.S..

Over the next 12 months he would have three more songs make the British charts.

Jones landed in Aberdeen quite by accident, according to his family.

More than 20 years ago, Jones and his wife, Mattie, were planning to move to Fayetteville, but the entertainer, like so many who come to the Sandhillls, fell in love when he arrived.

The family saw a home in the area, and Jones decided right then that Aberdeen was home.

"He loved the area and when he saw this house, he said, 'That's my house,'" his son said.

Jones never stopped writing songs or performing, often singing at charity events and fundraisers.

His most memorable performance locally came in October 2000 during the "Raising the Roof" event for the Sunrise Theater.

That event was organized by writer, musician and long-time Pilot contributor Stephen Smith.

"I had the opportunity to interview him several times," Smith said of Jones. "He was gentle, kind, cooperative and humble. I liked him very much."

Smith said one of the things he appreciated about Jones was the fact that he continued to write songs "right up until the end."

"The beautiful thing about the position that Dad was in, was that he was able to work when and where he wanted to," said Jones Jr., who served as his father's music director for more than 30 years.

Jones Jr., who sings and plays numerous musical instruments, credits his father for his love of music and performing.

"He gave me my first job in the industry when I was 3 years old," Jones Jr. said. "We would go into the studio and I would sit on my father's knee and listen to guys sing. When they would hit the wrong note, I would get down, go over to them and sing the right note.

Jones Jr. said his father was naturally gifted, but was also a dedicated, hard-worker who was self-taught.

"All I ever wanted to do is be like him," said Jones, who also taught himself to play multiple instruments. "I am still working to this day to be the great man that my father was."

Jones is survived by his wife, Mattie, two daughters, Jennifer Jones and Jilliann Jones-Hendricks, a son, James Jones Jr, a sister, Cleddie Barge, a brother, Willie Jones, four grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at First Baptist Church, Aberdeen. Family will receive family and friends from 4-8 p.m. Thursday at Purcell Funeral Home, Southern Pines.

Roy Steffens obit

Roy Steffens(1914-2012)

 He was not on the list.

Roy Steffens was born on July 29, 1914 in Palo Alto, California, USA. He was a writer and art director, known for Captain Z-Ro (1955), The Bionic Woman (1976) and Quincy, M.E. (1976). He was married to Kim. He died on August 2, 2012 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Captain Z-Ro was an American children's television show that ran locally on KRON-TV in San Francisco and KTTV in Los Angeles, from November 1951 through 1953, and was later nationally syndicated in the United States, beginning December 18, 1955, and ending its run of original episodes on June 10, 1956. It remained in syndication until 1960. Modeled on the science fiction space operas popular at the time (cf. Captain Video and Space Patrol), it featured sets and costumes emulating the futuristic designs of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.

Scientist Captain Z-Ro, working in his remote laboratory, safeguarded mankind and history from impending harm. He had a time machine, the ZX-99, both to view history and to send someone back in time. Each week, he and his teenage assistant Jet would view an episode in time and inevitably see that some event was unfolding contrary to history (e.g., King John not signing the Magna Carta). Captain Z-Ro would then send Jet back in time to intervene and ensure that history played out as originally recorded. Over the years, plots involved Z-Ro and Jet rescuing a wide range of historical figures, including Genghis Khan, Marco Polo, Magellan, William the Conqueror, Benedict Arnold, William Tell, Christopher Columbus, Blackbeard, Captain Cook, Leonardo da Vinci, Robin Hood, George Washington, Attila the Hun, Hernando Cortez and Daniel Boone.

Like early episodes of Doctor Who, which premiered in the UK more than a decade later, most episodes were melodramatic history lessons for children. No serious effort was made to explain how the time machine worked, and time travel conundra (such as the grandfather paradox) were likewise glossed over.

Each week after the last commercial, the announcer would intone: "Be sure to be standing by when we again transmit you to the remote location on planet Earth where Captain Z-Ro and his associates will conduct another experiment in time and space."

The special effect to represent time travel was a simple dissolve shot, set among flashing lights, blinking oscilloscopes and numerous levers and knobs.

Early episodes (1951-1953) were kinescope recordings (film shot off a TV monitor). Later shows for syndication (1955-1956) were shot directly to 16mm film at W.A. Palmer Film, as the show moved from a 15-minute kinescoped format on local stations KRON-TV in San Francisco & KTTV in Los Angeles to a 30-minute nationally syndicated film format distributed by the Atlas Television Corporation.

The kinescoped shows ended sometime in 1953. The 26 filmed episodes were aired from December 18, 1955, through June 10, 1956. There was a 2-year hiatus between the end of the 51-episode kinescope series and the 26 episodes later recorded on film and distributed by Atlas.

Writer

Captain Z-Ro (1955)

Captain Z-Ro

6.6

TV Series

creator

writer

1955–1956

26 episodes

 

Art Director

Harper Valley P.T.A. (1981)

Harper Valley P.T.A.

6.6

TV Series

Art Director (as Roy Steffensen)

1981

5 episodes

 

The Girl Who Saved the World (1979)

The Girl Who Saved the World

6.1

TV Movie

Art Director (as Roy Steffensen)

1979

 

High Midnight (1979)

High Midnight

6.7

TV Movie

Art Director (as Roy Steffensen)

1979

 

Shaun Cassidy, Pamela Sue Martin, and Parker Stevenson in The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977)

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries

7.3

TV Series

Art Director

1977–1978

34 episodes

 

Jack Klugman in Quincy, M.E. (1976)

Quincy, M.E.

7.3

TV Series

Art Director (as Roy Steffensen)

1977

2 episodes

 

The Bionic Woman (1976)

The Bionic Woman

6.7

TV Series

Art Director (as Roy Steffensen)

1976

1 episode

 

Actor

Captain Z-Ro (1955)

Captain Z-Ro

6.6

TV Series

Captain Z-Ro

British Officer

Soldier ...

1955–1956

26 episodes