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charleston, dance

(Encyclopedia)charleston, social dance of the United States popular in the mid-1920s. The charleston is characterized by outward heel kicks combined with an up-and-down movement achieved by bending and straightenin...

Fornés, María Irene

(Encyclopedia)Fornés, María Irene, 1930–2018, Cuban-American playwright and director; she emigrated from Cuba with her family after her father's death in 1945. An early experimental work, Promenade (1965), a mu...

Cagney, James

(Encyclopedia)Cagney, James, 1899–1986, American movie actor, b. New York City. He worked on Broadway as an actor and dancer before appearing in films. He is best remembered as a brash, sadistic, tough guy in suc...

Adrian, Gilbert

(Encyclopedia)Adrian, Gilbert, 1903–59, popularly known simply as Adrian, fashion designer, b. Naugatuk, Conn. Educated in New York City, he created designs for Broadway shows until 1925, when he moved to Hollywo...

Stratas, Teresa

(Encyclopedia)Stratas, Teresa, 1938–, Canadian soprano, b. Toronto as Anastasia Strataki, studied Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto. She made her operatic debut in 1958 with the Canadian Opera Company in an ac...

Bankhead, Tallulah

(Encyclopedia)Bankhead, Tallulah təlo͞oˈlə [key], 1903–68, American actress, b. Huntsville, Ala.; daughter of William Brockman Bankhead. After her debut in 1918, Bankhead had great success on the London stage...

Crawford, Joan

(Encyclopedia)Crawford, Joan, 1908–77, American movie star, b. San Antonio, Tex., as Lucille Le Sueur. After working as a Broadway chorus dancer, Crawford began making films in 1926, eventually moving from musica...

Muni, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Muni, Paul myo͞oˈnē [key], 1895–1967, American actor, b. Austria, whose original name was Muni Weisenfreund. His parents brought him to the United States in 1902 and from 1903 to 1913 toured with...

Robinson, Bill

(Encyclopedia)Robinson, Bill, 1878–1949, African-American tap dancer popularly known as “Bojangles,” b. Richmond, Va., as Luther Robinson. An influential virtuoso tap dancer, he was a tap innovator and repute...

Weber and Fields

(Encyclopedia)Weber and Fields wĕbˈər [key], American comedy team. The partners were Joe Weber (Joseph Maurice Weber), 1867–1942, and Lew Fields (Lewis Maurice Schanfield), 1867–1941, both born in New York C...