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Cue cards, also known as note cards, [1] are cards with words written on them that help actors and speakers remember what they have to say. They are typically used in television productions where they can be held off-camera and are unseen by the audience. Cue cards are being used on many late night talk shows including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers as well as variety and sketch comedy shows like Saturday Night Live due to the practice of last-minute script changes. [2] Many other TV shows, including game and reality shows, use cue cards due to their mobility, as a teleprompter only allows the actor or broadcaster to look directly into the camera.
Cue cards were originally used to aid aging actors. One early use was by John Barrymore in the late 1930s.
Cue cards did not become widespread until 1949 when Barney McNulty, [3] a CBS page and former military pilot, was asked to write ailing actor Ed Wynn's script lines on large sheets of paper to help him remember his script. McNulty volunteered for this duty because his training as a pilot taught him to write very quickly and clearly. McNulty soon saw the necessity of this concept and formed the company "Ad-Libs". [4] McNulty continued to be Bob Hope's personal cue card man until he stopped performing. McNulty who died in 2000 at the age of 77 was known in Hollywood as the "Cue-Card King".
Marlon Brando was also a frequent user of cue cards, [5] feeling that this helped bring realism and spontaneity to his performances, instead of giving the impression that he was merely reciting a writer's speech. [6] [7] During production of the film Last Tango in Paris , he had cue cards posted about the set, although director Bernardo Bertolucci declined his request to have lines written on actress Maria Schneider's rear end. [8] Tony Mendez became a minor celebrity for his cue card work on the Late Show with David Letterman . [9]
Occasionally, cue cards are incorporated into music videos as an artistic element themselves, as, for example, by Bob Dylan in his 1965 song "Subterranean Homesick Blues", by the Australian band INXS in their 1987 song "Mediate", [10] by "Weird Al" Yankovic in his 2003 song "Bob" or by the German band Wir sind Helden in their 2005 song " Nur ein Wort " (Just one word). [11]
Marlon Brando Jr. was an American actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cinema actors of the 20th century, Brando received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, a Cannes Film Festival Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Brando is credited with being one of the first actors to bring the Stanislavski system of acting and method acting to mainstream audiences.
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American crime drama film, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, and features Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning and Eva Marie Saint in her film debut. The musical score was composed by Leonard Bernstein. The black-and-white film was inspired by "Crime on the Waterfront" by Malcolm Johnson, a series of articles published in November–December 1948 in the New York Sun which won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, but the screenplay by Budd Schulberg is directly based on his own original story. The film focuses on union violence and corruption among longshoremen, while detailing widespread corruption, extortion, and racketeering on the waterfronts of Hoboken, New Jersey.
Christopher Nash Elliott is an American actor, comedian and writer known for his surreal sense of humor. He appeared in comedic sketches on Late Night with David Letterman (1982–1988), created and starred in the comedy series Get a Life (1990–1992) on Fox, and wrote and starred in the film Cabin Boy (1994). His writing has won four consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards. His other television appearances include recurring roles on Everybody Loves Raymond (2003–2005) and How I Met Your Mother (2009–2014), and starring roles as Chris Monsanto in Adult Swim's Eagleheart (2011–2014) and Roland Schitt in Schitt's Creek (2015–2020). He also appeared in the films The Abyss (1989), Groundhog Day (1993), There's Something About Mary (1998), Snow Day (2000), Dance Flick (2009), and The Dictator (2012).
John William Carson was an American television host, comedian, and writer best known as the host of NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–1992). Carson received six Primetime Emmy Awards, the Television Academy's 1980 Governor's Award and a 1985 Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987. Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1993.
Calvert Grant DeForest, also known by his character name Larry "Bud" Melman, was an American actor and comedian, best known for his appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and Late Show with David Letterman.
Last Tango in Paris is a 1972 erotic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The film stars Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and Jean-Pierre Léaud, and portrays a recently widowed American who begins an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman.
Kindertotenlieder is a song cycle (1904) for voice and orchestra by Gustav Mahler. The words of the songs are poems by Friedrich Rückert.
Wir sind Helden was a German pop rock band that was established in 2000 in Hamburg and based in Berlin. The band was composed of lead singer and guitarist Judith Holofernes, drummer Pola Roy, bassist Mark Tavassol and keyboardist/guitarist Jean-Michel Tourette.
Judith Holfelder-Roy, known by her stage name Judith Holofernes, is a German singer, guitarist, songwriter and author.
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" is a song by Bob Dylan, recorded on January 14, 1965, and released as a single by Columbia Records, catalogue number 43242, on March 8. It is the first track on the album Bringing It All Back Home, released some two weeks later. It was Dylan's first Top 40 hit in the United States, peaking at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also entered the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart. The song has subsequently been reissued on numerous compilations, the first being the 1967 singles compilation Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits. One of Dylan's first electric recordings, "Subterranean Homesick Blues" is also notable for its innovative music video, which first appeared in D. A. Pennebaker's documentary Dont Look Back. An acoustic version of the song, recorded the day before the single, was released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 1961–1991.
On 2 July 2005, a Live 8 concert was held at the Siegessäule in the Tiergarten park in Berlin, Germany.
Julius Caesar is a 1953 American film adaptation of the Shakespearean play, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by John Houseman for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It stars Marlon Brando as Mark Antony, James Mason as Brutus, Louis Calhern as Caesar, John Gielgud as Cassius, Edmond O'Brien as Casca, Greer Garson as Calpurnia, and Deborah Kerr as Portia.
Bruno Kirby was an American actor. He was best known for his roles in City Slickers, When Harry Met Sally..., Good Morning, Vietnam, The Godfather Part II, The Freshman, Sleepers and Donnie Brasco. He voiced Reginald Stout in Stuart Little.
"Mediate" is a song by INXS from their 1987 album, Kick. On the album, the song segues from their big hit single, "Need You Tonight." The song has the distinction of having almost every line rhyme with the word "ate".
Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1962 American Technicolor epic historical drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard, Richard Harris, Hugh Griffith, Richard Haydn and Tarita in her only role. The screenplay was written by Charles Lederer, based on the novel Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Bronisław Kaper composed the score.
The 45th Academy Awards were presented Tuesday, March 27, 1973, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, honoring the best films of 1972. The ceremonies were presided over by Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston, and Rock Hudson.
Guys and Dolls is a 1955 American musical film starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, and Vivian Blaine. The picture was made by Samuel Goldwyn Productions and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). It was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who also wrote the screenplay. The film is based on the 1950 Broadway musical by composer and lyricist Frank Loesser, with a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, which, in turn, was loosely based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", two short stories by Damon Runyon. Dances were choreographed by Michael Kidd, who had staged the dances for the Broadway production.
“Guten Tag” is a 2002 song by German band Wir sind Helden. It was first released on an EP of the same title in 2002 and one year later as the first single of their debut album Die Reklamation. It was composed by Jean-Michel Tourette, Judith Holofernes and Pola Roy while the lyrics were written by Holofernes. The title is German for good day.
Stephen H. Shagan was an American novelist, screenwriter, and television and film producer.
"Pocahontas" is a song written by Neil Young that was first released on his 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps. It has also been covered by Johnny Cash, Everclear, Emily Loizeau, Crash Vegas, Gillian Welch, Trampled By Turtles, and Ian McNabb.