Lucille Ball is widely praised for her comedic talent and influencing American comedy. However, she did not start off her career with ease. When she started drama school as a child, she was told she had no talent. (“Lucille Ball - Finding Lucy”) She was not recognized until the 1940s, which was in her thirties. Although it took her a long time to become successful, she kept persevering, and her hard work paid off. She married Puerto Rican, Desi Arnaz, and together they started the show, “I Love Lucy,” one of the most popular comedies in America. She became a powerful women within television, contributing to the increasing power women were beginning to receive. Ball’s hard work to success contributed to increasing power within women and her successful comedies influenced American television and actors for generations to come. She influenced many performers with the techniques her programs introduced, influenced performers with her personal image and great acting, and also became a source of inspiration for women that did not have many rights at the time due to her high amount of success.
Lucille Desiree Ball was born to Henry and Desiree Ball in Jamestown, New York on August 6, 1911 (“Lucille Ball - Finding Lucy”). They then moved to Michigan where Henry died while Desiree was pregnant with Frederick. Her grandfather encouraged her to audition for school plays, and her step-father, Edward, encouraged her to audition for female entertainers for the chorus line when she was fourteen. This introduced her to performing, and it was here where she found a passion for performing. The next year, Lucille attended the Robert Minton, John Murray Anderson School of Drama, where she was told that she would never make it by John Murray...
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...l shows in history. Also, she was bold enough to insist her pregnancy be written into the script; Another daring risk that proved to be widely successful (“Lucille Ball - Finding Lucy”).
A winner of many awards, a daring performer, a mother, and an actress with an original personal image, she was loved by her wide audience. She influenced many other comedians, including Robin Williams with her absurd facial expressions and her comic acting. She pushed her boundaries and limits and got farther than many women in the television industry. After being told she would never make it, being a model, and receiving minor roles for decades, she was able to reach the success she earned. Lucille Ball has not only influenced the television industry for decades, but she also influenced the way performers approach things and influenced women to fight for their rights.
With all that Ethel Waters has contributed to music and film, it is surprising that she is often forgotten. She was a talented blues singer whose unique style distinguished her from other blues singers and she was a jazz vocalist as well. Her talent extended beyond singing, when she became a dramatic actress who earned award nominations for her performances. What was most remarkable about Waters' performances was how she reconstructed the mammy character into one that challenged stereotypes.
“A well dressed woman, even though her purse is painfully empty, can conquer the world.” This quote from actress and women’s rights inspiration and icon, Louise Brooks, accurately describes her life. The quote means being independent and relying on your own ability is what will get you ahead in life. This is how Brooks lived her seventy nine year life. She is best known for her many films in Hollywood. Between the years 1925 and 1938 she was in twenty four films. Not only was she a Hollywood actress, she was also a dancer and a Broadway performer. But, Louise Brooks is also known for other things beside her performing. Louise Brooks was the most influential person of all on
Shirley Temple Black continues to inspire children today. She has achieved great accomplishments in the world of politics and in the world of childhood fame. She was the world’s most popular star in the worst of times, and always brought smiles and happiness where ever she went, in her life and in her movies. Her name is still connected with fame, although it has been over 50 years since she has appeared in a movie, much less been a star. However, Shirley Temple Black continues to be a household name in homes across the world. The little girl with curls, who radiated enough happiness to bring a smile to everyone who saw her, even during the darkest days of the Depression, will never be forgotten.
Such is the case with the actress Lucille Ball most known for the hit I Love Lucy and
Born Gertrude Pridgett in Georgia in 1886 to parents who had both performed in the minstrel shows, she was exposed to music at a very early age. At the age of fourteen, she performed in a local talent show called “The Bunch of Blackberries,” and by 1900 she was regularly singing in public.2 Over the next couple of decades, she worked in a variety of traveling minstrel shows, including Tolliver's Circus and Musical Extravaganza, and the Rabbit Foot Minstrels; she was one of the first women to incorporate the blues into minstrelsy. It was while working with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels that she met William Rainey, whom she married in 1904; together, they toured as “Ma and Pa Rainey: Assassinators of the Blues.” By the early 1920s, she was a star of the Theater Owners' Booking Agency (TOBA), which were white-...
Not many know how to achieve success in all categories, but Tina Fey didn’t have any problems figuring that out. Tina fey, television writer, screenwriter, actress, comedian, and mother, has taken the world by storm. Tina Fey has a powerful influence on our world today and she has become a worldwide icon in the eyes of many young women. Tina Fey may have been THE woman to make it stylish to wear glasses in the mid-2000s, but there is more to this multi-talented woman then those trademark black-rimmed spectacles.
I love Lucy was a very popular sitcom in the 1950s. Through humor and plot it brings out more of positive aspects and less of negative aspects for the 1950's that Coontz described in `What we really missed about the 1950s.'
Marilyn Monroe (Monroe) was an image of fashion and beauty in the 20th century. Overcoming a traumatic childhood to become one of the most confident women. Making bold provocative, but, fashionable statements about how women should be confident about their own body image. Without the help of others, she would not have become the person she is known as today. Marilyn Monroe, a famous actress, who has influenced the rest of the world.
Marilyn Monroe is an icon that is idolized by many and had a great impact on pop culture. She didn’t have the best childhood and had a lot of up and downs in her life. Marilyn Monroe was born in California in 1926. She was named Norma Jeane Mortenson after a popular actress at the time. Her mother Gladys Baker was mentally ill, so she had to put Monroe in foster care. She lived in a foster home until she was seven years old. She had two other siblings from her mother’s first marriage. She never met them because her mom’s first husband took them to live with him in Kentucky.
People still remember Bessie Coleman today for her bravery, courage, and her leadership. Bessie showed these outstanding traits she had, by not always thinking of herself. She did not go with the flow as we say it in the year 2014. She did what she believed was right. She stood up and told the person who was in charge to let the colored or Native Americans watch her perform. That is why Bessie Coleman is important in the world.
Lucille Mulhall was born on October 21, 1885 in Oklahoma and died December 21, 1940 in Oklahoma when she got in a terrible vehicle accident. She is the first born child of Zach (1847-1931) and Mary Agnes Mulhall (1859-1931). Her sister’s name is Margaret Reed (1906-1925) and she was the last child born. She married her first husband in 1916 and his name was Martin Van Bergen. Lucille then divorced this man and married a man named Thomas Loyd Burnett (1871-1939). He was born in Denton County, Texas and died in Wichita County, Texas on December 26, 1938. Lucille Mulhall was a soft spoken and beautiful young lady. She was very feminine and had a very good education. When she was a teenager, she was known as one of the top cowboy performers in
Singer/actress Lena Horne's primary occupation was nightclub entertaining, a profession she pursued successfully around the world for more than 60 years, from the 1930s to the 1990s. In conjunction with her club work, she also maintained a recording career that stretched from 1936 to 2000 and brought her three Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989; she appeared in 16 feature films and several shorts between 1938 and 1978; she performed occasionally on Broadway, including in her own Tony-winning one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music in 1981-1982; and she sang and acted on radio and television. Adding to the challenge of maintaining such a career was her position as an African-American facing discrimination personally and in her profession during a period of enormous social change in the U.S. Her first job in the 1930s was at the Cotton Club, where blacks could perform, but not be admitted as customers; by 1969, when she acted in the film Death of a Gunfighter, her character's marriage to a white man went unremarked in the script. Horne herself was a pivotal figure in the changing attitudes about race in the 20th century; her middle-class upbringing and musical training predisposed her to the popular music of her day, rather than the blues and jazz genres more commonly associated with African-Americans, and her photogenic looks were sufficiently close to Caucasian that frequently she was encouraged to try to "pass" for white, something she consistently refused to do. But her position in the middle of a social struggle enabled her to become a leader in that struggle, speaking out in favor of racial integration and raising money for civil rights causes. By the end of the century, she could look back at a life that was never short on conflict, but that could be seen ultimately as a triumph.
Ethel Merman is described by PBS as the most successful musical comedy performer of her generation. Merman is known for contributing her loud and clear vocals to the Broadway stage and changing the way that people observed women on Broadway as well (PBS). Appearing and starring in several Broadway blockbusters, her acting career appeared to go through somewhat transitional phases to where she could act less and less like herself in character. Merman left her mark as an entertainer and her voice continues to be a spectacle.
Lucille Ball, a beloved Hollywood actress, overcame difficulties in childhood and adulthood, becoming a successful actress and studio head. She portrayed the relatable character “Lucy” in “I Love Lucy,” making her an American Icon.
Without a doubt there is one major performer that certainly stands out within our pop culture world. The name of this very famous American icon is, Dolly Parton. Dolly has surpassed any rags to riches story that ever lived. She has touched the lives of so many individuals over many decades through her many talents. Dolly started her career at a very young age and continued fulfilling her life endeavors through country music, pop music, and even acting. This American icon didn’t stop with just her talents, she also gave back to our society through charity, fundraising, and establishing her own theme park. Dolly Parton was brought up in a very poor family, however through much dedication she became the famous icon everyone idolized today.