Marisha Data (died October 12, 1972) was a Polish-American comedian, singer, and composer. She was a successful performer for both English and Polish audiences. Her career encompassed numerous genres, ranging from serious opera to polka to vaudeville. Her comic performances were often in the character of Aggie Klepaczka.
She was an early performer on television, performing to pleasant reviews on WBKB in Chicago. [1] In 1948 she was performing Il Trovatore while touring with the Chicago Opera Artists Association, in the role of Azucena. Here her voice was reviewed as “big, warm, dramatic”. [2] The next year she was with the “Grand Opera Company of New York” performing in the opera Taras Bulba. The opera itself received a scathing review, but Data was again praised as someone who could “make a poor aria sound like a fairly good one”. [3]
Signed to Capitol, in 1950 she was releasing material in English on their regular pop series, and in Polish for the ethnic series. [4] [5] She then signed to Dana Records in 1952, and in quick secession a recording session took place in Chicago and several sides, performed In Polish, were released. [6] [7] Capitol Records released material by Data as part of their 1957 “Capitol of the World” campaign. [8]
In addition to her singing, she was a radio announcer, most commonly associated with WHFC, Chicago. One of her U.S. War Bond drives netted in excess of 1 million dollars. She was also a character actor, specializing in comic personalities. [9] In the character of "Aggie Klepaczka" she performed comic skits in both Polish and English, over a period that lasted from the early 1950s until the 1960s. [10] [11]
Marisha Data died on October 12, 1972. [9]
In 1974 she became, posthumously, the first woman to be inducted into the Polka Music Hall of Fame. [12]
Data remained popular among Polish and polka audiences long after her death. Richie Drongoski in 1992 included her name in his song with lyrical content similar to Rock and Roll Heaven but switched to Polka. [13] Similarly, Lenny Gomulka, in Polish via litania form, canonizes Data among polka luminaries in his song ‘’Where Were You Back Then Polka’’. [14]
Elizabeth Clark Phair is an American rock singer-songwriter. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Phair was raised primarily in the Chicago area. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1990, she attempted to start a musical career in San Francisco, California, but returned to her home in Chicago, where she began self-releasing audio cassettes under the name Girly-Sound. The tapes led to a recording contract with the independent record label Matador Records.
"Bewitched (Bothered and Bewildered)" is a show tune and popular song from the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey. It is part of the Great American Songbook. The song was introduced by Vivienne Segal on December 25, 1940, in the Broadway production during Act I, Scene 6, and again in Act II, Scene 4, as a reprise. Segal also sang the song on both the 1950 hit record and in the 1952 Broadway revival. It was performed by Carol Bruce in the 1954 London production.
Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American spinto soprano who was the first African American soprano to receive international acclaim. From 1961 she began a long association with the Metropolitan Opera, where she was the first African American to be a leading performer. She regularly appeared at the world's major opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and La Scala; at La Scala, she was also the first African American to sing a leading role. She was particularly renowned for her performances of the title role in Verdi's Aida.
Kay Starr was an American singer who enjoyed considerable success in the late 1940s and 1950s. She was of Iroquois and Irish heritage. Starr performed multiple genres, such as pop, jazz, and country, but her roots were in jazz.
Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo, known as Yma Sumac, was a Peruvian-born vocalist, composer, producer, actress and model. She won a Guinness World Record for the Greatest Range of Musical Value in 1956. "Ima sumaq" means "how beautiful" in Quechua. She has also been called Queen of Exotica and is considered a pioneer of world music. Her debut album, Voice of the Xtabay (1950), peaked at number one in the Billboard 200, selling a million of copies in the United States, and its single, "Virgin of the Sun God ", reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming an international success in the 1950s. Albums like Legend of the Sun Virgin (1952), Fuego del Ande (1959) and Mambo! (1955), were other successes.
Wanda LaVonne Jackson is an American singer and songwriter. Since the 1950s, she has recorded and released music in the genres of rock, country and gospel. She was among the first women to have a career in rock and roll, recording a series of 1950s singles that helped give her the nickname "The Queen of Rockabilly". She is also counted among the first female stars in the genre of country music.
Nell Rankin was an American operatic mezzo-soprano. Though a successful opera singer internationally, she spent most of her career at the Metropolitan Opera, where she worked from 1951 to 1976. She was particularly admired for her portrayals of Amneris in Verdi's Aida and the title role in Bizet's Carmen. Opera News said, "Her full, generous tone and bold phrasing, especially in the Italian repertory, were unique among American mezzos of her generation.
June Hutton was an American vocalist, popular with big bands during the 1940s. She was the younger sister of Ina Ray Hutton.
Stephanie Blythe is an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active international career in operas and concerts since the early 1990s. She is particularly associated with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, with whom she has performed annually since her debut with the company in 1995. In 2014 she starred as Gertrude Stein in the world premiere of 27, an opera composed by Ricky Ian Gordon with libretto by Royce Vavrek, and commissioned for her by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
Maria Antonietta Stella was an Italian operatic soprano, and one of the most prominent Italian spinto sopranos of the 1950s and 1960s. She made her debut in Spoleto in 1950, as Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore, a year later at Rome Opera, as Leonora in La forza del destino, in 1954 at La Scala in Milan, as Desdemona in Otello, in 1955 at the Royal Opera House in London as Aida, and in 1956 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, in the same role.
Herva Nelli was an Italian and American operatic soprano.
Ode to Billie Joe is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry. It was released on August 21, 1967, by Capitol Records.
Kate Murtagh was an American actress and singer-comedian, a native of Los Angeles, California.
George William Weidler was an American saxophonist and songwriter. He was the second husband of singer-actress Doris Day and older brother of former child actress Virginia Weidler.
Dana Records was an American record label for Polish and polka music. Founded by Walter Dana in New York 1945, it was a significant player in the United States' recorded music market for a few years mid-century, its most successful year being 1952.
Yvonne Regina Ciannella was an American coloratura soprano in opera and concert. She began her career performing and recording with the Robert Shaw Chorale in the early 1950s. After graduate voice studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, she embarked on a career as an opera singer; working mainly in Germany at the Staatstheater Braunschweig, Theater Bonn, and Theater Dortmund during the 1960s. She also appeared as a guest artist with opera companies in Berlin, Cologne, Florida, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Vienna. For many years she was a member of the voice faculty of the College of Music at Florida State University.
Annamary Dickey, also known as Annamary Dickey Laue, was an American soprano and actress in operas, operettas, musicals, night clubs, and concerts who had an active performance career from the 1930s through the 1960s. She began her career as a regular performer with the Chautauqua Opera and the St. Louis Municipal Opera in the mid to late 1930s. In 1939 she won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air which earned her a contract with the Metropolitan Opera (Met). She was a soprano in mainly secondary roles at the Met from 1939 to 1944; appearing in productions of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, Massenet's Manon, Delibes' Lakmé, Charpentier's Louise, Bizet's Carmen, Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and Smetana's The Bartered Bride. Her most significant role at the Met was as Musetta in Puccini's La bohème. A strikingly beautiful woman with a passion for fashionable clothes, she gained the moniker the "Glamour Girl of the 'Met'" and headlined a fashion campaign for Saks Fifth Avenue in 1945.
"Shame" is a song by American new wave band The Motels, which was released in 1985 as the lead single from their fifth studio album Shock. The song was written by Martha Davis and produced by Richie Zito. "Shame" peaked at number 21 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
June Winters was an American actress and singer who was actively performing from the mid-1930s into the 1960s. She first came to prominence starring in the Broadway musical Hellzapoppin at the Winter Garden Theatre from 1938 through 1941. A versatile performer, her career spanned a wide array of genres from vaudeville to musicals to opera and popular music. Married to trumpeter and songwriter Hugo Peretti, she achieved her greatest success creating content for children as the "Lady in Blue" in partnership with her husband; releasing dozens of albums with sung and spoken material from 1947 into the early 1960s. The character Lady in Blue also had her own comic strip and Saturday morning radio program on NBC Radio. The couple also co-founded the Mayfair Records company.
Jean Tennyson, also known by her married names Jean Tennyson Dreyfus and Jean Tennyson Boissevain, was an American soprano, musical theatre actress, philanthropist, and radio personality. She began her career performing in musicals and cabaret shows in Chicago; making her stage debut in 1919. She made her Broadway debut in the chorus of Albert Von Tilzer's 1923 musical Adrienne; ultimately taking over the title role four months into the shows run and performing that part on tour in 1924. After starring in the Broadway musical revue The Earl Carroll Vanities in 1928 and 1929, her career shifted towards opera and work as a concert soprano. She was a leading soprano in operas and concerts internationally from the 1930s through the 1940s, performing on the stages of opera houses like La Scala, La Fenice, the Vienna Volksoper, the Chicago Civic Opera and the San Francisco Opera.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
