John Boulter is a British tenor best known for his appearances as a soloist in the BBC's long-running variety series The Black and White Minstrel Show . Along with bass Tony Mercer and baritone Dai Francis, Boulter was one of the show's three front men.
Boulter was born in Gillingham, Kent, and was educated at Gillingham Grammar School and later at Number One School of Technical Training in the Royal Air Force. From there he entered the Royal Academy of Music where he won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for his singing, and was awarded an Associateship of the Academy in recognition of his work. He was an "apprentice Airframe Fitter" in the RAF before becoming a professional singer.
In 1960 he appeared in a South African production of Lock Up Your Daughters , and joined George Mitchell's Minstrels during the 1950s. [1] He went on to appear in the stage and television versions of The Black and White Minstrel Show and on recordings made by the troupe. He also appeared in the 1969 spin-off series, Music Music Music, in which the minstrels appeared without their blackface make-up, following accusations of racism against the show.
Boulter appeared as the male lead – Freddie Flowerdew – in the musical production of "Ask Dad" in the Jeeves and Wooster episode, "Introduction on Broadway".
In 1973, John played Mother Goose at the Cliffs Pavilion's panto.
In 1954 he married opera singer Lorna St. Clair, with whom he had four children. Later, Boulter married West End musical star Anna Dawson. [2] The couple retired to New Zealand. John's daughters, Philippa (Pip) Boulter and Francesca (Frankie) Boulter, were both singers and members of the synthpop group DATA. [3]
Source: [4]
The Jolson Story is a 1946 American biographical musical film, a fictionalized account of the life of singer Al Jolson. It stars Larry Parks as Jolson, Evelyn Keyes as Julie Benson, William Demarest as his manager, Ludwig Donath and Tamara Shayne as his parents, and Scotty Beckett as the young Jolson. Many of the film's episodes are based on fact but the story is simplified, with some people disguised or combined into single characters.
The Black and White Minstrel Show is a British light entertainment show on BBC prime-time television that ran from 1958 to 1978. The weekly variety show presented traditional American minstrel and country songs, as well as show tunes and music hall numbers, lavishly costumed and often presented with cast members in blackface. A popular stage show, based on the TV show with the same title, ran from 1962 to 1972 at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London. This was followed by tours of UK seaside resorts until 1989, and tours in Australia and New Zealand. From early in its history, and increasingly throughout its run, the show received criticism for its racist premise and content.
Francesco Stephen Castelluccio, better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer, best known as the frontman of the Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice.
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of comically portraying racial stereotypes of African Americans. There were also some African-American performers and black-only minstrel groups that formed and toured. Minstrel shows stereotyped blacks as dimwitted, lazy, buffoonish, cowardly, superstitious, and happy-go-lucky. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people specifically of African descent.
Francis Thomas Avallone , better known as Frankie Avalon, is an American actor, singer, and former teen idol. He had 31 charting U.S. Billboard singles from 1958 to late 1962, including number one hits, "Venus" and "Why" in 1959. He is the earliest surviving singer to have scored a solo number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
George Mitchell was a Scottish musician, best known for having devised the long-running The Black and White Minstrel Show.
Mitchell William Miller was an American choral conductor, record producer, record-industry executive, and professional oboist. He was involved in almost all aspects of the industry, particularly as a conductor and artists and repertoire (A&R) man. Miller was one of the most influential people in American popular music during the 1950s and early 1960s, both as the head of A&R at Columbia Records and as a best-selling recording artist with an NBC television series, Sing Along with Mitch. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in the early 1930s, Miller began his musical career as a player of the oboe and English horn, making numerous highly regarded classical and popular recordings.
Paul Jones is an English singer, actor, harmonicist, radio personality and television presenter. He first came to prominence as the original lead singer and harmonicist of the rock band Manfred Mann (1962–66) with whom he had several hit records including "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" and "Pretty Flamingo".
Marti Webb is an English actress and singer, who appeared on stage in Evita, before starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one-woman show Tell Me on a Sunday in 1980. This included her biggest hit single, "Take That Look Off Your Face", a UK top three hit, with the parent album also reaching the top three.
Matt Monro was an English singer. Known as "The Man with the Golden Voice", he performed internationally during his 30-year career. AllMusic has described Monro as "one of the most underrated pop vocalists of the '60s", who "possessed the easiest, most perfect baritone in the business". Frank Sinatra said of Monro after his death: “If I had to choose three of the finest male vocalists in the singing business, Matt would be one of them. His pitch was right on the nose; his word enunciations letter perfect; his understanding of a song thorough.”
Abriea "Abbie" Mitchell Cook, also billed as Abbey Mitchell, was an American soprano opera singer. She performed the role of Clara in the premiere production of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in 1935, and was also the first to record "Summertime" from that musical.
Kenneth Connor, was a British stage, film and broadcasting actor, who rose to national prominence with his appearances in the Carry On films.
The New Christy Minstrels are an American large-ensemble folk music group founded by Randy Sparks in 1961. The group has recorded more than 20 albums and scored several hits, including "Green, Green", "Saturday Night", "Today", "Denver" and "This Land Is Your Land". The group's 1962 debut album, Presenting the New Christy Minstrels, won a Grammy Award and remained on the Billboard 200 albums chart for two years.
Donald Blackstone, known professionally as Don Black, is an English lyricist. His works have included numerous musicals, movie, television themes and hit songs. He has provided lyrics for John Barry, Charles Strouse, Matt Monro, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Quincy Jones, Hoyt Curtin, Lulu, Jule Styne, Henry Mancini, Meat Loaf, Michael Jackson, Elmer Bernstein, Michel Legrand, Hayley Westenra, A. R. Rahman, Marvin Hamlisch and Debbie Wiseman.
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Ryan Molloy is a British actor, singer and songwriter. He has been successful in stage and musical theatre at West End and Broadway, appearing in a number of hit musicals, like Taboo, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Tonight's the Night, Godspell and six years in Jersey Boys playing as Frankie Valli made him the longest-running star in a West End musical. In 2004, he replaced Holly Johnson as the lead singer in Frankie Goes to Hollywood for a charity concert at Wembley Arena being a band member until 2007, and since 2012 is often active with the Trevor Horn Band with whom recorded the album Made in Basing Street. He is known for his countertenor voice and falsetto.
Ella Logan was a Scottish-American actress and singer who appeared on Broadway, recorded and had a nightclub career in the United States and internationally.
Mammy (1930) is an American pre-Code musical comedy-drama film with Technicolor sequences, released by Warner Bros. The film starred Al Jolson and was a follow-up to his previous film, Say It with Songs (1929). Mammy became Al Jolson's fourth feature, following earlier screen efforts as The Jazz Singer (1927), The Singing Fool (1928) and Say It with Songs (1929). The film relives Jolson's early years as a minstrel man. The songs were written by Irving Berlin, who is also credited with the original story titled Mr. Bones.
Dai Francis was a Welsh singer, best known for his performances with the Black and White Minstrels.
John Larkin was an American stage and screen performer, as well as songwriter, whose acting career extended nearly four decades — from the late 1890s through his last acting roles in the five films released the year of his death. A scrapbook preserved at Atlanta's Emory University indicates that "he was billed as "The Rajah of Mirth" and "The Funniest Colored Comedian in the World".