Joe Venuti – Italian American Musician

Joe Venuti – Italian American Musician

by | Oct 9, 2020 | Blog, Musicians

Giuseppe “Joe” Venuti  was an Italian-American jazz musician and pioneer jazz violinist. He was born in Philadelphia in 1903.

Considered the father of jazz violin, he pioneered the use of string instruments in jazz along with the guitarist Eddie Lang, a friend since childhood. Through the 1920s and early 1930s, Venuti and Lang made many recordings, as leader and as featured soloists. He and Lang became so well known for their ‘hot’ violin and guitar solos that on many commercial dance recordings they were hired to do 12- or 24-bar duos towards the end of otherwise stock dance arrangements. In 1926, Venuti and Lang started recording for the OKeh label as a duet (after a solitary duet issued on Columbia), followed by “Blue Four” combinations, which are considered milestone jazz recordings. Venuti also recorded commercial dance records for OKeh under the name “New Yorkers”.

He worked with Benny Goodman, Adrian Rollini, the Dorsey Brothers, Bing Crosby, Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, Frank Signorelli, the Boswell Sisters, and most of the other important white jazz and semi-jazz figures of the late 1920s and early 1930s. However, following Lang’s death in 1933, Venuti’s career began to wane, though he continued performing through the 1930s, recording a series of commercial dance records (usually containing a Venuti violin solo) for the dime store labels, OKeh and Columbia, as well as the occasional jazz small group sessions. He was also a strong early influence on western swing players like Cecil Brower. Many of the 1920s OKeh sides continued to sell and remained in print through 1935 when ARC discontinued the OKeh label and reissued selected sides on the 35-cent Vocalion label (the OKeh label was revived by CBS in 1940).

After a period of relative obscurity in the 1940s and 1950s, Venuti played violin and other instruments with Jack Statham at the Desert Inn Hotel in Las Vegas. Statham headed several musical groups that played at the Desert Inn from late 1961 until 1965, including a Dixieland combo. Venuti was with him during that time, and was active with the Las Vegas Symphony Orchestra during the 1960s. He was ‘rediscovered’ in the late 1960s. In the 1970s, he established a musical relationship with tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims that resulted in three recordings. In 1976, he recorded an album of duets with pianist Earl Hines entitled Hot Sonatas. He also recorded an entire album with country-jazz musicians including mandolinist Jethro Burns (of Homer & Jethro), pedal steel guitarist Curly Chalker and former Bob Wills sideman and guitarist Eldon Shamblin.

In 1970 Venuti was diagnosed with cancer. He died on August 14, 1978 in Seattle, Washington.

Source: Wiki

Kelly Ripa – Italian American Actress

Kelly Ripa – Italian American Actress

by | Oct 8, 2020 | Blog, Film, Television

Kelly Maria Ripa was born in 1970 and raised in Berlin, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Esther, a homemaker, and Joseph Ripa, a labor union president and bus driver. She has three-quarters Italian and one-quarter Irish ancestry. During her high school years she was a cheerleader and was encouraged by her drama teacher to pursue acting. She starred in local theater productions and was discovered while performing in The Ugly Duckling during her senior year. She attended Camden County College studying psychology, but dropped out and moved to New York City to pursue an acting career.

Aside from local TV gigs, Ripa’s first national television exposure came in 1986 when she appeared as a regular dancer on Dancin’ On Air, leading into Dance Party USA. Her career goal at the time was to be a newscaster and she often did the cast news reports. Ripa was cast in her first major acting role in 1990 as Hayley Vaughan, a troubled party girl, on All My Children. She concluded her 12-year stint in 2002, but returned for two episodes in 2010 to help celebrate the soap opera’s 40th anniversary.

In Feb 2001, Ripa replaced co-host Kathie Lee Gifford on Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee. The chemistry between Philbin and Ripa (or “Pippa” as he nicknamed her), their banter, interviews, and conversations about their families, personal lives, and New York City attracted a successful, strong, and loyal viewership averaging 6 million viewers daily. In January 2011, Philbin announced that he would be retiring from Live! at the end of the year. Ripa replaced Philbin as the head of the show, which was re-titled Live! with Kelly. Michael Strahan was announced as the new co-host and Live! with Kelly and Michael premiered September 4, 2012. Live! won its first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show on June 23, 2012. After Strahan left Live! for Good Morning America, Ryan Seacrest took over as the new co-host. 

Ripa ventured into primetime in September 2003 on Hope & Faith, playing Faith Fairfield, an unemployed ex-soap star. The half-hour sitcom, co-starring Faith Ford, Ted McGinley, and Megan Fox, gave ABC its best Friday premiere score since 1996. The show ended in May 2006 with Ripa declaring she “never wanted to work that hard again.”

In 2007, Ripa and her husband Mark Consuelos founded Milojo, the production company, named for their children Michael, Lola, and Joaquin. On October 12, 2015, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honored Kelly Ripa with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Teddy Randazzo – Italian American Musician

Teddy Randazzo – Italian American Musician

by | Oct 7, 2020 | Blog, Musicians

Alessandro Carmelo “Teddy” Randazzo was born in New York City in 1935. In the early years of rock and roll, Randazzo played accordion with a group called The Three Chuckles and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show numerous times. Their first hit “Runaround”, was a top 20 hit in 1954. The following year, he became the group’s lead singer, and sang on their hits “Times Two, I Love You” and “And the Angels Sing”. The records’ success brought him to the attention of disc jockey Alan Freed, who featured him in the movie Rock, Rock, Rock.

As a solo artist, he had three singles that made the Billboard Hot 100: “Little Serenade” (#66) in 1958, “The Way of a Clown” (#44) in 1960, and “Big Wide World” (#51) in 1963. He co-starred in rock revues staged by Freed, appearing with such artists as Chuck Berry and LaVern Baker. He also had roles in such rock films as Hey, Let’s Twist!, The Girl Can’t Help It, Rock, Rock, Rock and Mister Rock and Roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Randazzo wrote a string of major hits for other artists with composing partner, Bobby Weinstein, including “Pretty Blue Eyes”, a top ten hit for Steve Lawrence. He wrote many songs for Little Anthony and the Imperials, producing and arranging several albums for the group in the mid-60s. The hit songs included “Goin’ Out of My Head” (1964, #6 Pop, #22 R&B), which was subsequently recorded by numerous artists including the Zombies; “Hurt So Bad” (1965, #10 Pop, #3 R&B), which was recorded four years later by the Lettermen (#12 in 1969), and then by Linda Ronstadt who took it to #8 in 1980; and the Imperials’ Top 20 hits, “I’m On The Outside (Looking In)” and “Take Me Back”. The Lettermen combined “Goin’ Out of My Head” with Frankie Valli’s hit, “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” in a medley which reached #7 in 1968. Randazzo also wrote Little Anthony and the Imperials’ “Yesterday Has Gone”, which was recorded by UK band Cupid’s Inspiration in 1968 and climbed to #4 in the UK pop chart; the song was also recorded in 1996 by Marc Almond and P. J. Proby.

Many of Randazzo’s tunes became pop classics, recorded by a gamut of industry giants from Ella Fitzgerald to Frank Sinatra. “I’ve lost count on how many versions there are”, Randazzo once said of “Goin’ Out Of My Head”. It is now included in the Top 50 most recorded songs with sales of over 100 million by over 400 artists, according to the Songwriters’ Hall Of Fame. Later, he provided several songs for albums by New York soul group, the Manhattans, during their 1970s’ hey-day, including the 1977 hit, “It Feels So Good To Be Loved So Bad” (#6 R&B, #66 Pop), “There’s No Good In Goodbye”, and “A Million To One”. He also wrote and produced for the Stylistics. 

Randazzo died at age 68 at his home in Orlando, Florida. Randazzo and his writing partner, Bobby Weinstein, were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007, fifty years after they first started writing songs together.

 

The Russo Brothers – Italian American Directors

The Russo Brothers – Italian American Directors

by | Oct 5, 2020 | Blog, Film, Television

Anthony Russo (born February 3, 1970) and Joseph Russo (born July 18, 1971), collectively known as the Russo Brothers, were born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, the sons of Patricia Gallupoli and attorney and judge Basil Russo. Their paternal and maternal families immigrated from Sicily and Abruzzo, fleeing poverty and settling in Ohio to work in its steel mills. Joe graduated from the University of Iowa and majored in English and writing, while Anthony graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and majored in business before switching to English.

The Russo brothers were graduate students at Case Western Reserve University when they began directing, writing, and producing their first feature, Pieces. They financed the film with student loans and credit cards. After viewing Pieces at the Slamdance Film Festival, Steven Soderbergh approached the duo and offered to produce their next film, along with his producing partner George Clooney. This project was the crime comedy Welcome to Collinwood, starring William H. Macy, Sam Rockwell, and Clooney.

FX network executive Kevin Reilly hired the Russos to direct the pilot for the series Lucky, having liked the pair’s work on Collinwood. Ron Howard was a fan of the pilot, and he had a hand in hiring the brothers to direct the pilot for Fox’s Arrested Development. The brothers won a Primetime Emmy Award for their work on the episode.

In 2006, the Russo brothers returned to film, directing the Owen Wilson comedy You, Me and Dupree. By June 2013, the Russos were in final talks to direct Marvel Studios’ second Captain America movie. In July 2013, the brothers wrapped principal production on Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the film was released on April 4, 2014. In January 2014, the brothers signed on to return to direct the third Captain America film, Captain America: Civil War, which was released on May 6, 2016. 

The Russo brothers directed Avengers: Infinity War (2018), which became the first superhero movie to gross over $2 billion at the box office. They are the third directors to make a $2 billion movie after James Cameron’s films Avatar and Titanic and J. J. Abrams’s film Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Its sequel, Avengers: Endgame, was released on April 26, 2019, broke numerous box office records, and became the second superhero movie to gross over $2 billion. They join James Cameron as the only directors to make two $2 billion films. 

The Russos are developing a spy series called Citadel for Amazon Prime, which will star Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden. In April 2020, it was announced that they would be producing a live-action film adaptation of Disney’s Hercules. By July 2020, the Russos were hired to direct an adaptation of The Gray Man for Netflix, from a screenplay by Joe Russo.

 

Richard Jeni – Italian American Comedian

Richard Jeni – Italian American Comedian

by | Oct 1, 2020 | Blog, Comedy, Television

Richard John Colangelo, better known by his stage name Richard Jeni, was born in 1957. Jeni was raised in an Italian-American Roman Catholic family in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. He graduated with honors from Hunter College, earning a bachelor’s degree in comparative politics. After graduating, Jeni went on to do public relations work, but was let go from five different firms in two years before doing an open-mic night in Brooklyn and deciding to pursue standup comedy as a career in 1982.

Jeni first received recognition through a series of Showtime stand-up specials and frequent appearances on The Tonight Show. After making his The Tonight Show debut in 1988 with Johnny Carson, Jeni would return often and later made appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, with more appearances than any other stand-up comedian. In 1989, he won Comedy USA’s Best Nightclub Comedian, as voted by comedy club owners and comedians, and his first Showtime special Richard Jeni: The Boy From New York City won a CableACE Award.

Top executives at HBO picked up his first appearance on The HBO Comedy Hour in 1992, titled Richard Jeni: Platypus Man. The show was well received, and Jeni returned for two more shows, going on to receive another CableACE Award for one of his HBO specials. Jeni starred in the short-lived 1995 UPN sitcom Platypus Man and appeared in the Jim Carrey film The Mask. He appeared in The Aristocrats, Dad’s Week Off, An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, and Chasing Robert. 

In 2004, Jeni was ranked #57 on Comedy Central’s list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time. Jeni passed away on March 10, 2007.

Beverly D’Angelo – Italian American Actress

Beverly D’Angelo – Italian American Actress

by | Sep 30, 2020 | Blog, Film, Television

Beverly Heather D’Angelo was born in 1951 in Columbus, Ohio. Her parents were Priscilla and Eugene Constantino “Gene” D’Angelo, a bass player and television station manager at WBNS-TV in Columbus. 

D’Angelo worked as an illustrator at Hanna-Barbera Studios and as a singer before pursuing acting. While living for a period in Canada, she was a backup singer for American-born rockabilly singer Rompin’ Ronnie Hawkins’ band The Hawks. After going out on their own they became The Band.

D’Angelo began acting in the theatre, appearing on Broadway in 1976 in Rockabye Hamlet, a musical based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. She made her television debut in the first three episodes of the TV mini-series Captains and the Kings in 1976.

After gaining a minor role in Annie Hall in 1977, D’Angelo appeared in a string of hit movies in the late 1970s including Every Which Way But Loose, Hair, and Coal Miner’s Daughter, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Patsy Cline. 

Her biggest break came in 1983 starring with Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Vacation in the role of Ellen Griswold. She reprised this role in four Vacation sequels and a short film between 1985 and 2015. In the 1980s she starred in many other major comedy films; in the mid-1990s she acted primarily in independent movies. In 1994 D’Angelo returned to the stage and won a Theatre World Award for her performance in the Off-Broadway play Simpatico.

She received an Emmy Award nomination for her performance as Stella Kowalski in the 1984 TV movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire. From 2005–11 D’Angelo appeared in the HBO series Entourage playing the role of agent Barbara “Babs” Miller.