Paul Whiteman (March 28, 1890 - December 29, 1967) was a popular white American orchestral leader. He was born in Denver, Colorado. After a start as a classical violinist and violist, Whiteman then led a jazz-influenced dance band, which became locally popular in San Francisco, California in 1918. In 1920 he moved his band to New York City where they started making recordings for Victor Records which propelled Whiteman and his band to national prominence.

Having mastered ever facet of this art, American pianist Earl Wild is the complete musician and ultimate virtuoso. ... For an artist as prominent as Earl Wild , it is hardly surprising that he has participated in many premieres. In 1939 he was the first artist ever to give a piano recital on U.S. television. In Paris, in 1949, he was soloist in the world premiere performance of Paul Creston's Piano Concerto, later giving the American premiere of the work in Washington.

Robert Alda born Alfonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D'Abruzzo, was an American actor and father of actor Alan Alda. Alda, an Italian American was born in New York City, the son of Anthony Alda (who Robert Alda's son was named after) and Frances T. D'Abruzzo. He started out as a singer and dancer in vaudeville after winning a talent contest. Following brief work in vaudeville he moved onto burlesque.

Eric Goldberg (born in 1955) is an American animator and film director. He is best known for his work at Walt Disney Feature Animation, animating notable characters such as the Genie in "Aladdin" and "Phil" in "Hercules". Goldberg is also the co-director of Disney's 1995 feature "Pocahontas". He attended Pratt Institute, where he majored in illustration.

Gary Graffman (born 14 October 1928) is a classical pianist, teacher of piano and music administrator. Graffman was born in New York City to Russian-Jewish parents. Having started piano at age 3, Graffman entered the Curtis Institute of Music at age 7 in 1936 as a piano student of Isabelle Vengerova. After graduating from Curtis in 1946, he made his professional solo debut with conductor Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Irving Rapper (6 January 1898 - 20 December 1999) was a film director. Born in London on January 16, 1898, he emigrated to the United States and became an actor and stage director on Broadway while studying at New York University. In the mid-1930s he journeyed westward to Hollywood, hired by Warner Bros. as an assistant director and dialog coach at Warner Bros., where he proved invaluable translating, and mediating for, non-native English-speaking directors, …

Alexis Smith (June 8, 1921 - June 9, 1993) was a Tony Award-winning Canadian actress. Born Gladys Smith in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, she was the second Canadian with the name (following Mary Pickford) to achieve New York City and Hollywood stardom. Later in life she would say she preferred New York, while her husband of 49 years, actor Craig Stevens, favored California. She was quite tall, standing at least 5'9", and to fit her, the long, …

Christopher O'Riley is an American classical pianist and public radio show host, who is also known for his piano arrangements of songs by alternative pop artists. O’Riley was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. Beginning with a background in jazz, O'Riley switched to classical piano and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. He has received awards at the Leeds, Van Cliburn, Busoni and Montreal competitions, …

Hazel Dorothy Scott was a jazz and classical pianist and singer. She was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on June 11, 1920 and raised in New York City from the age of four. She performed extensively on piano as a child, then trained at the Juilliard School. She appeared in the production "Priorities of 1942" and played twice at the famed Carnegie Hall. Her motion picture career included the films "Something To Shout About", "I Dood It", …

Soprano Anne Wiggins Brown, born August 9, 1912, created the role of Bess in George Gershwin's folk opera "Porgy and Bess" in 1935. She was also a radio and concert star.

Julie Bishop (August 30, 1914 - August 30, 2001) was an American film and television actress. She appeared in over 80 films between 1923 and 1957. Bishop was born Jacqueline Wells and used her birth name professionally through 1941. She also appeared on stage (and in one film) as Diane Duval. She settled on the name by which she is best remembered when offered a contract by Warner Bros. on the condition that she change her name, …

Herbert Rudley, (March 22 1910 - September 9 2006), was a prolific character actor who appeared on stage, in films and on television. Rudley was born in 1910 (some sources say 1911) in Philadelphia, and attended Temple University. He left Temple after winning a scholarship to Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre. He began appearing on stage in 1926. His Broadway debut was in Did I Say No in 1931. He also appeared in stage productions of The Threepenny Opera, …

David Syme (born 1949) is an American pianist. Syme has played classical concerts throughout the United States as well as numerous International venues. His major teachers were Ozan Marsh (University of Arizona), Sascha Gorodnitzki (Juilliard) and studies in London with Louis Kentner.

Frances Gershwin, known to her friends as Frankie (born December 26, 1906, in Manhattan, New York, USA, and died January 18, 1999), was the younger sister of George, Ira and Arthur Gershwin. She was the first of the Gershwin family to perform as a child, and she brought home a good sum of money for the time. She married Leopold Godowsky, Jr. co-inventor (with Leopold Mannes) of Kodachrome color photography.

Murray McLachlan, OStJ (born 6 January 1965, Dundee, Scotland), is a British concert pianist. His repertoire includes over 40 concertos and he has appeared as concerto soloist with many leading UK orchestras. He gave the last concerto performance of the 20th century in the Royal Albert Hall when he played Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" at the 'Millennium Proms' with the BBC Concert Orchestra under Christopher Warren-Green.

Johnny Downs (b. John Morey Downs on October 10 1913 in Brooklyn, New York - d. June 6 1994 in Coronado, California) was a child actor who played Johnny in the "Our Gang" short series from 1923 to 1926. He was the son of a Naval officer. Following his stint with "Our Gang", Downs stayed with the short-subject series until 1927, appearing in twenty-four two-reelers in various roles.

Fela Sowande (b. Nigeria, May 1905; d. Ohio, United States, 1987) was a Nigerian musician and composer. Considered the father of modern Nigerian art music, Sowande is perhaps the most internationally known African composer of works in the European "classical" idiom. Sowande was born in Lagos, the son of Emmanuel Sowande, a priest and pioneer of Nigerian church music. The influence of his father and Dr T. K. Ekundayo Phillips (composer, …

Dana Suesse, (3 December, 1909 in Kansas City - 16 October, 1987 in New York) was a multi-talented musician, composer and lyricist. While still a child, Dana (full name Nadine Dana Suesse) toured the Midwest vaudeville circuits with an act centered on dancing and piano playing. During the recital, she would ask the audience for a theme, and then proceed to take that theme weaving it into something of her own. In 1926, she and her mother moved to New York City.

Desha Delteil (1892-1965) was an American dancer and artists' model. She was born in Yugoslavia and studied under Michel Fokine, eventually becoming first dancer in his company. In 1920 she appeared in a solo short movie, "The Bubble," of a young girl dancing with a balloon, and was an uncredited cabaret dancer in the 1924 motion picture "Isn't Life Wonderful." A few years later, …

I'm twenty-six years old and still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.