Bing Crosby

The one and only story that I have heard about my great grandfather has been retold to me so many times that it is almost thought of as a fond, personal memory, despite the fact that I was not even born when it took place. It was the day of my mother and father’s wedding, and the entire small town of Daingerfield, Texas had shown up. The wedding was an outdoor affair, complete with a local band and a homemade dance floor. The air was full of the sound of live music, the tap dancing feet of the…

On the first day of Dance 101 we were asked to write down what dance meant to us, my response was that dance was a personal expression through movement and a way to honor, and keep traditions alive. When I registered for this course I knew I would enjoy it because I love dance but what I got was an amazing journey without going anywhere that has increased my desire to travel the world and explore for myself. While taking this course my view of what dance is has expanded from my initial response…

sell their artists on. Much of Elvis Presley's success was thanks to RCA's major label level of marketing capabilities (Covach). The media an artist is featured on can catapult an artist to success. In the nineteen-fifties, the song “True Love” by Bing Crosby was catapulted to the top of the charts after being featured in the movie High Society. Instances such as this occur way more often today, with mediums such as commercials providing a…

Roseland in New York were common venues for the latest Big Band tunes. The Big Band Boom also brought together the greatest jazz musicians (Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and the most famous Glenn Miller) and singers (Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra). The Big Band Era started seeing a decline in its popularity during the Postwar Big Band Era of the 1940s-present. It stilled remained popular but in 1950 the sheer number of big bands saw a dramatic decline. Big Bands…

greatest musicians. Genres of music have always been developed and formed with the help of other genres. From Country to R&B, these genres have helped form rock as we know it today. Frank Sintra got into music after listening to a recording by Bing Crosby, and he was inspired to take up singing as a teenager. He joined a local singing group and won an amateur radio show in 1935. Sintra had no formal musician training and couldn't even read sheet music. Frank Sintra had not written any of his…

The Great Depression,1929 through 1939, made the most people in history be unemployed, helpless, and in desperate need of more jobs, food,clothing, and supplies. This disastrous event was also the longest lasting economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world. The Great Depression plays a part and emphasizes the hardships in Mildred Taylor’s historical-fictional novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry because the Logan family loses their jobs, they do not have a lot of money, and the…

The Jazz Age: Prevailing Opportunities for African Americans During the Jazz Age, jazz music, primarily dominated by African Americans before 1920, began to gain popularity among whites and transformed into an important aspect of American culture. The increased popularity of jazz music led to a growing acceptance of African American culture and presented African Americans with the opportunity to gain social status. Music has always played an essential part in African American life and its…

CTCS 469: The Genius of Billy Wilder Part 2 of Notebook (due July 1st) Professor: Dr. Drew Casper TA: Isaac Rooks Jinghan Mao Tel: 608-770-1992 5) The Lost Weekend (1945) shows six “noir” style thematic and formal components that are discussed by Professor Casper in his book Postwar Hollywood 1946—1962. First of all, there are two visual narrative flashbacks in the film. According to Casper, the narrative flashback is “an indication not only of the use of the past to explain the present…