Chevrolet is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941), Arthur Chevrolet (1884–1946) and ousted General Motors founder William C. Durant (1861–1947) started the company on November 3, 1911 as the Chevrolet Motor Car Company. Durant used the Chevrolet Motor Car Company to acquire a controlling stake in General Motors with a reverse merger occurring on May 2, 1918, and propelled himself back to the GM presidency. After Durant's second ousting in 1919, Alfred Sloan, with his maxim "a car for every purse and purpose", would pick the Chevrolet brand to become the volume leader in the General Motors family, selling mainstream vehicles to compete with Henry Ford's Model T in 1919 and overtaking Ford as the best-selling car in the United States by 1929 with the Chevrolet International.
Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it produced over 35 million vehicles, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory alone.
Kander and Ebb were a highly successful American songwriting team consisting of composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb. Known primarily for their stage musicals, which include Cabaret and Chicago, Kander and Ebb also scored several movies, including Martin Scorsese's New York, New York. Their most famous song is the theme song of that movie. Recorded by many artists, "New York, New York" became a signature song for Frank Sinatra. The team also became associated with two actresses, Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, for whom they wrote a considerable amount of material for the stage, concerts and television.
John Harold Kander is an American composer, known largely for his work in the musical theater. As part of the songwriting team Kander and Ebb, Kander wrote the scores for 15 musicals, including Cabaret (1966) and Chicago (1975), both of which were later adapted into acclaimed films. He and Ebb also wrote the standard "New York, New York".
Fred Ebb was an American musical theatre lyricist who had many successful collaborations with composer John Kander. The Kander and Ebb team frequently wrote for such performers as Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera.
Chicago is a 1975 American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Chicago in the jazz age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same title by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, about actual criminals and crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal".
Jonathan David Larson was an American composer, lyricist and playwright most famous for writing the musicals Rent and Tick, Tick... Boom!, which explored the social issues of multiculturalism, substance use disorder, and homophobia. He received three posthumous Tony Awards and a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Rent.
The Buick Skyhawk is an automobile produced by Buick in two generations for the 1975 through 1989 model years.
Linden Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Linden, New Jersey, United States. The plant operated from 1937 to 2005 and made cars, trucks and SUVs for various GM automotive divisions.
St. Louis Truck Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory that built GMC and Chevrolet trucks, GM "B" body passenger cars, and the 1954–1981 Corvette models in St. Louis. Opened in the 1920s as a Fisher body plant and Chevrolet chassis plant, it expanded facilities to manufacture trucks on a separate line. During World War II, the plant produced the DUKW amphibious vehicles for the military. Another expansion was added for the Corvette line in 1953.
Fremont Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Fremont, California in the San Francisco area, replacing the older Oakland Assembly. Groundbreaking for the plant occurred in September 1961, and the plant produced its first vehicle on May 1, 1963. Production continued through March 1, 1982, when the plant was closed after production problems. After closure, the plant was refurbished and reopened as the more successful NUMMI joint-venture between GM and Toyota between 1984 and 2010, and later became the Tesla Factory in 2010.
Oshawa Assembly is a manufacturing facility in the city of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, that built various automobiles for General Motors Canada. Vehicles were primarily produced for the US, Canadian, and Mexican markets, but they also built exports for various countries around the world, particularly South America and the Middle East. Historically the Oshawa plant was the source of all right-hand-drive market GM exports with complete vehicles or knock-down kits shipped to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom until the end of the 1960s. At one time, the factory was one of the largest auto manufacturing facilities in the world, with two car assembly plants, a truck assembly plant, as well as parts production including Harrison radiators, AC Delco batteries and American Axle. Between 1999 and 2019, it had won more quality and productivity awards than any other GM plant. The plant is part of the larger GM Autoplex.
The history of General Motors (GM), one of the world's largest car and truck manufacturers, dates back more than a century and involves a vast scope of industrial activity around the world, mostly focused on motorized transportation and the engineering and manufacturing that make it possible. Founded in 1908 as a holding company in Flint, Michigan, as of 2012 it employed approximately 209,000 people around the world. With global headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan, United States, General Motors manufactures cars and trucks in 35 countries. In 2008, 8.35 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under various brands. Current auto brands are Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Baojun, and Wuling. Former GM automotive brands include LaSalle, McLaughlin, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Opel, Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall, Daewoo, and Holden.
Orion Assembly is a 4,300,000 sq ft (400,000 m2) General Motors vehicle assembly plant located in Orion Township, Michigan. From 2024, the plant is slated to assemble battery electric pickup trucks such as the Chevrolet Silverado EV and the GMC Sierra EV. As of September 2019, the plant has approximately 1,032 salaried and hourly employees. It assumed operations of Buick City, and Pontiac Assembly.
Milton Schafer was an American composer and pianist. After being a runner-up for first prize in the Texas-based national guild of piano teachers competition, Schafer continued his studies for a year in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He returned to the U.S. to give his Town Hall début as a pianist in 1950, receiving very favorable reviews and performed there again in 1954.
The Los Angeles Civic Light Opera (LACLO) was an American theatre/opera company in Los Angeles, California. Founded under the motto "Light Opera in the Grand Opera manner" in 1938 by impresario Edwin Lester, the organization presented fifty seasons of theatre before closing due to financial reasons in 1987. Typically the LACLO presented four to six productions during an annual season. The company produced or co-produced several of their own shows in addition to bringing in shows from Broadway to California, often with their original casts. Productions that originated at the LACLO and then went on to wider success, included Song of Norway (1944), Magdalena (1948), Kismet (1953), Peter Pan (1954) and Gigi (1973). Initially the organization mainly presented American operettas, but by the 1960s the company was presenting mostly musical theatre; although the company never completely left its roots.
The Scottsboro Boys is a musical with a book by David Thompson, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. Based on the Scottsboro Boys trial, the musical is one of the last collaborations between Kander and Ebb prior to the latter's death. The musical has the framework of a minstrel show, altered to "create a musical social critique" with a company that, except for one, consists "entirely of African-American performers".
Bathtubs Over Broadway is a 2018 American documentary film directed by Dava Whisenant. Comedy writer Steve Young’s assignment to scour bargain-bin vinyl for a late-night segment becomes an unexpected, decades-spanning obsession when he stumbles upon the strange and hilarious world of industrial musicals. The film premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and was released on November 30, 2018 by Focus World.
Hank Beebe was an American composer, known for his choral compositions, Broadway musicals, and most notably for his work through the 1950s to the early 1980s composing industrial musicals for the employees and shareholders of major American business corporations. His work during this period was documented in the 2018 American documentary film Bathtubs Over Broadway.
