Bravo!

Ongoing

Third floor mezzanine

Florenz Ziegfeld orchestrating sequined spectaculars at the Follies . . . Charlie Chaplin shuffling his “Little Tramp” across the silent screen . . . Martha Graham choreographing a vocabulary of modernism into dance . . . Duke Ellington elevating jazz to classicism . . . Maria Callas reminding the world about the art of the prima donna . . . Elvis Presley shaking up the cultural landscape.

The creative diversity of the American experience is remarkably expressed in the exuberance, elegance, and dynamism of its performing arts. “Bravo!” presents a vibrant showcase of the performers who brought these arts to life. Beginning in years when artists performed only live and without microphones, “Bravo!” covers the technological evolution that has made performance accessible at the click of a mouse. Throughout, these artists have played a vital role in American life and culture, and their ongoing contributions continue to inspire the national character.

IMAGE GALLERY

full length portrait of a woman in a long white dress

Julia Marlowe 1866–1950

Born Keswick, England
At the end of the nineteenth century, realism found its way onto the American stage and became particularly popular with urban audiences. Vaudeville was at its height, roof gardens flourished, and a nascent entertainment industry began to find its voice and vision in the emerging recording and movie industries. In the midst of such change, classical theater floundered until it found a more modern voice with actress Julia Marlowe. Born in England, she immigrated to the United States and made her New York stage debut in 1887. By 1894 Marlowe was described as “without a rival” as “an interpreter of youthful heroines” such as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Viola in Twelfth Night, and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. Her acting style aimed to catch “the spirit of modern times”; one critic wrote, “she cannot be accused of tearing passion to tatters.”

Irving Ramsay Wiles (1861–1948)
Oil on canvas, 1901
Lent by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; gift of Julia Marlowe Sothern, 1951.6.1

waist length, brown-toned portrait of a man facing right

John Philip Sousa 1854–1932

Born Washington, D.C.

Known as the “March King,” John Philip Sousa created the brass band music that set the tempo for America’s red-blooded parade into the twentieth century. As director of the Marine Band from 1880 to 1892, and then of the Sousa Band from 1892 to the end of his life, Sousa sought to compose and perform music that would capture a “true American national air” to express “genuine American feeling,” as he did in such marches as “Semper Fidelis” (1888), “The Washington Post March” (1889), and “Stars and Stripes Forever” (1897), and in the popular operetta El Capitan (1895). A brilliant showman, Sousa used his influence to help organize the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1914 to protect against copyright infringement. He also invented the sousaphone, a bass tuba with an upright bell.

Harry Franklin Waltman (1871–1951)
Oil on canvas, 1909
Gift of the Sousa Corporation

bust length sculpted portrait of a man in a suit with curly hair

P. T. Barnum 1810–1891

Born Bethel, Connecticut
Showman Phineas T. Barnum opened the curtain on modern mass entertainment. He dazzled in the era before technology facilitated the broadcasting of performance—just before the advent of the recording, radio, and motion picture industries; before the rise of the advertising industry; before the mass distribution of photography in the new rotogravure sections of the Sunday newspapers. Yet Barnum still succeeded with such orchestrated events as the introduction of the diminutive General Tom Thumb in the 1840s, the American tour of songbird Jenny Lind in 1850–51, and the creation, in 1881, with James Bailey, of the Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Thomas Ball (1819–1911)
Bronze, 1973 cast after 1883 original

knee-length portrait of a woman wearing pink

Tallulah Bankhead 1902–1968

Born Huntsville, Alabama
Renowned for her sultry voice and languorous sophistication, Tallulah Bankhead exuded magnetism—“a remarkable personality with a remarkable name,” to one enchanted critic. She performed not only in America but on the London stage, where she was painted by Augustus John: “At the time, I was the toast of London and that was some toast, dahling.” She twice won the New York Drama Critics Award, as Regina in The Little Foxes in 1939, and as Sabina in The Skin of Our Teeth in 1942. In the late 1940s, Time magazine called her “the theater’s first personality.” But her career spanned the media as well: in Hollywood, she notably starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944); on radio—billed as “the glamorous, unpredictable Tallulah Bankhead”—she emceed NBC’s Sunday-night The Big Show (1950–51). On television, she co-hosted All Star Review and was a popular guest on I Love Lucy and The Jack Benny Show.

Augustus John (1878–1961)
Oil on canvas, 1930
Gift of the Honorable and Mrs. John Hay Whitney
© Estate of Augustus John

Florenz Ziegfeld 1869–1932

Born Chicago, Illinois
Master showman Florenz Ziegfeld brought a razzle-dazzle to live performance that signaled a new era in mass entertainment at the turn of the twentieth century—the production of grand-scale extravaganzas glittering with spectacle and opulence that “glorified the American girl.” Like P. T. Barnum before him, Ziegfeld understood the pulse of popular culture and had the promotional wizardry to capitalize on it. But unlike Barnum, Ziegfeld came to the fore when the entertainment industry was no longer a small-scale venture but a national commercial phenomenon. For the first three decades of the twentieth century, Ziegfeld’s Follies characterized American popular culture at its glitziest.

Cesare Stea (1893–1959)
Bronze, c. 1927
Gift of Mrs. A. Sandor Ince

Charlie Chaplin 1889–1977

Born London, England
Spotted while on tour in New York City by moviemaker Mack Sennett, English vaudevillian Charlie Chaplin was signed to appear in Sennett’s popular Keystone comedies in 1913. He quickly adapted the droopy trousers, derby hat, and cane-brandishing persona that made his “Little Tramp” a worldwide favorite in such classics as The Tramp, The Kid, The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator. In 1919 Chaplin joined Hollywood colleagues Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith in founding United Artists, a movie production studio owned and operated by the artists themselves rather than the moguls.

Jo Davidson (1883–1952)
Bronze, 1925

knee-length portrait of a man in a brown jacket

George Gershwin 1898–1937

Born New York City
In the early decades of the twentieth century, when waves of immigration and explosive urban growth transformed the face of America, George Gershwin emerged as a transcendent voice of modernism. His staccato-paced, syncopated rhythms helped define the Jazz Age on Broadway in the 1920s in such shows as Lady Be Good and Girl Crazy. At the height of the Great Depression, his “folk opera” Porgy and Bess attempted to catch the clash and blends of cultural “interfusions” that he saw as distinctively American. And he was part of the Hollywood scene during the golden age of the silver screen, notably completing—with his lyricist brother Ira—the score for The Goldwyn Follies just before his death in 1937, at age thirty-nine. Gershwin had become a centrifugal force in the lively arts in years marked by a search for a modern American identity.

Arthur Kaufman (1888–1971)
Oil on canvas, 1936

head-view bronze portrait of a Black man

Paul Robeson 1898–1976

Born Princeton, New Jersey
When Jacob Epstein completed this sculpture in 1928, Paul Robeson was enjoying huge success in London, both in the English production of Show Boat and in a series of triumphant concerts. Lionized by English society, he was experiencing an acceptance hardly imaginable by blacks in America: “Everyone wanted to know Paul and to be seen with him,” said a fellow cast member, “especially some of our so-called society ladies.” His wife wrote to a friend that they both were feeling “as though at last we are at the end of a long journey. Paul . . . is tickled to death and greatly relieved.”

Jacob Epstein (1880–1959)
Bronze, 1928
© Estate of Jacob Epstein

bust-length portrait of a woman in red against a red-patterned background

Maria Callas 1923–1977

Born New York City
In a postwar opera world that needed stars, Maria Callas was said to have “restored the ancient luster to the title of prima donna.” Born in New York and raised in Greece, Callas, by sheer force of personality and artistry, rejuvenated the public’s interest in this classic music genre. She created renewed attention to the bel canto works of Bellini and Donizetti and influenced the next generation of singers, including Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland, and Marilyn Horne. Part of Callas’s cachet was her volcanic temperament—“I will always be as difficult as necessary to achieve the best”—which ultimately found her fired from the Metropolitan Opera and ostracized by the Chicago Lyric, among other companies. Her box office quotient was so high, however, that most eventually welcomed her back.

Henry Koerner (1915–1991)
Oil on canvas, 1956
Time cover, October 29, 1956
Gift of Time magazine
© Henry Koerner

rounded head-length sculptural portrait of a woman with long hair

Ginger Rogers 1911–1995

Born Independence, Missouri
Ginger Rogers won the Texas State Charleston Championship at age fourteen and then embarked on the vaudeville circuit, chaperoned by her mother. By 1930 she had become a Broadway star in the Gershwins’ Girl Crazy. Hollywood then beckoned, and Rogers partnered in ten films with Fred Astaire, bringing a silvery glamour to Depression-era America in such movies as Gay Divorcee, Top Hat, and Shall We Dance. Other films included Stage Door, with Katharine Hepburn, and Kitty Foyle, for which she received a Best Actress Oscar in 1940. Her friend Isamu Noguchi worked on this sculpture while interned at a wartime camp for Japanese Americans.

Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988)
Pink Georgia marble, 1942
Conserved with funds from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee
© Estate of Isamu Noguchi / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

knee-length portrait of a woman wearing a brown patterned dress standing before an arch

Leontyne Price born 1927

Born Laurel, Mississippi
Soprano Leontyne Price trained at Juilliard and first scored a major success in 1952, appearing as Bess in a touring production of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. In 1955 she appeared in an NBC telecast of Tosca and was subsequently in high demand by opera houses in London, Vienna, and Milan. It was not until 1961 that she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera—as Leonora in Il Trovatore—and she quickly became a Met favorite until her farewell performance there in 1985. Especially associated with the work of Verdi and Samuel Barber, Price sang the title role in Cleopatra—which Barber created for her—at the opening of the Met’s new home at Lincoln Center. Price was also a tireless performer on the recital circuit and won fifteen Grammys for her recordings. She received a Kennedy Center Honors award in 1980.

Bradley Phillips (1929–1991)
Oil on canvas, 1963
Gift of Ms. Sayre Sheldon

knee-length portrait of a woman standing in front of a piano

Lena Horne 1917–2010

Born Brooklyn, New York
Singer and actress Lena Horne helped break the color barrier in mainstream popular culture in the mid-twentieth century, beginning her stage career in the chorus at Harlem’s Cotton Club in 1933, where Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway mentored her. In 1942 Hollywood beckoned, but her roles were often musical cameos that southern theaters could cut; Horne once said that Stormy Weather and Cabin in the Sky were the only films “in which I played a character who was involved in the plot.” She became Hollywood’s highest-paid African American actor, and her renditions of “Stormy Weather” and “Just One of Those Things” were considered classics. During this time, Horne also became a vocal spokesperson for civil rights. She also continued to enjoy a successful nightclub and recording career, and triumphed in the 1980s with her one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music.

Edward Biberman (1904–1986)
Oil on canvas, 1947
© 1947 Edward Biberman

waist length portrait of a man playing a clarinet

Benny Goodman 1909–1986

Born Chicago, Illinois
Dubbed “the King of Swing” after a riotously successful concert at Hollywood’s Palomar Ballroom in 1935, Benny Goodman took swing music into the cultural stratosphere with his band’s distinctive, pulsating sound. In 1938 he brought jazz to Carnegie Hall in a legendary concert that showcased virtuoso performances of “Sing, Sing, Sing,” “Stompin’ at the Savoy,” and “Don’t Be That Way.” Goodman was also in the forefront of desegregating jazz, bringing such musicians as vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and pianist Teddy Wilson into his orchestra at a time when mainstream jazz was defined by black and white barriers. In the 1950s and 1960s, he toured extensively, bringing the swing era sound to new generations. He received a Kennedy Center Honors award in 1982.

René Bouché (1905–1963)
Oil on canvas, 1960
Gift of the daughters of Benny Goodman—Benjie Goodman Lasseau and Rachel Goodman Edelson
© Denise Bouche Fitch

full length portrait of a woman in a white cowgirl costume holding a rifle

Ethel Merman 1909–1984

Born Queens, New York
In 1930 the Gershwin musical Girl Crazy opened on Broadway, and toward the end of the first act, an unknown singer named Ethel Merman mesmerized the audience with her rendition of “I Got Rhythm,” in the course of which she held a high-C for sixteen bars. As Merman later put it, by the time the applause died, “a star had been born. Me.” Over the next five decades, her booming voice and brassy style were the main attraction of some of the most successful Broadway musicals ever, including Anything Goes, Gypsy, and Annie Get Your Gun—whose score included her trademark song, “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” Of her singing technique, Merman once said, “I just stand up and holler and hope that my voice holds out.”

This painting shows Merman dressed for the title role in Annie Get Your Gun.

Rosemarie Sloat (born 1925)
Oil and acrylic on canvas, 1971
Gift of Ethel Merman

painted portrait of a man sitting at a table in a gray sweater

Leonard Bernstein 1918–1990

Born Lawrence, Massachusetts
Like George Gershwin before him, Leonard Bernstein exulted in the staccato rhythms of the city, especially the city—New York. His career flourished on a parallel course as a composer, pianist, and conductor: he was hailed as an overnight sensation in 1943 when he replaced an ailing Bruno Walter as conductor of the New York Philharmonic. Shortly afterward, he met choreographer Jerome Robbins, and they created the ballet Fancy Free (1944). Bernstein was intent on creating music with a fast-paced, authentic American voice, and—with his own heyday paralleling the golden age of the American musical—he captured the pulsing energy of the city in his most popular works—On the Town, Wonderful Town, and West Side Story. He also helped popularize music of all kinds in his legendary “Young People’s Concerts,” which were broadcast on television to wide audiences in the 1950s.

René Bouché (1905–1963)
Oil on canvas, 1960
Gift of Springate Corporation
© Denise Bouche Fitch

Aaron Copland 1900–1990

Born Brooklyn, New York

A pioneering figure in twentieth-century American music, Aaron Copland first rooted his work in jazz during the 1920s to showcase its divergence from European traditions. By the thirties, he used the flourishing mass media of radio and movies to create a large music-loving audience with film scores for Of Mice and Men and The Heiress, for which he won an Academy Award in 1949. Copland also composed scores for such ballets as Agnes de Mille’s Billy the Kid and Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for the latter. His symphonic compositions include A Lincoln Portrait and Fanfare for the Common Man.

Rhoda Sherbell (born 1933)

head-length gold sculpture of a bald man

José Limón 1908–1972

Born Culiacán, Mexico
Concert dancer and choreographer José Limón came to the United States from Mexico in 1915 and began his long career on Broadway in 1928, notably as a leading dancer in the Doris Humphrey–Charles Weidman Company. Like Humphrey and Martha Graham, Limón advocated developing an indigenous American dance, a vision he later pursued with his own company, which he formed in 1946. His first major work, The Moor’s Pavane, was hailed as “a magnificent piece of dance theater” and won the 1950 Dance Magazine award for achievement in choreography. His later works experimented with abstract themes and sound.

shoulder length portrait of a man in a hat against a red background

Thelonious Monk 1917–1982

Born Rocky Mount, North Carolina
A leader of the postwar jazz revolution, Thelonious Monk—along with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker—sparked the “bebop” movement, a jazz style faster and more frenetic than the swing that had held sway since the thirties. Monk’s piano style has been called eccentric: “his melodies were angular, his harmonies full of jarring clusters.” His recording career took off in the mid-1950s, and he won an enthusiastic following, often playing with such other avant-garde musicians as John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. His compositions “Round Midnight,” “Blue Monk,” and “Epistrophy” are considered classics of modern jazz.

Lincoln Kirstein 1907–1996

Born Rochester, New York

A poet, critic, magazine editor, and novelist, Lincoln Kirstein above all played a central role in shaping America’s classical ballet tradition. Obsessed with dance from an early age, Kirstein brought choreographer George Balanchine of Russia’s Diaghilev Ballet to the United States in the early 1930s, and together they founded the School of American Ballet. Their collaboration continued, and in 1948 they established the New York City Ballet, with Kirstein serving as general director until 1989. He also founded the Dance Archives of the Museum of Modern Art, which became the basis of the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library. The portraitist, Jamie Wyeth, was only nineteen when this painting was completed.

colorful waist length portrait of a man playing a xylophone

Lionel Hampton 1908–2002

Born Louisville, Kentucky
Lionel Hampton began his musical career as a drummer until Louis Armstrong encouraged him to take up the vibraphone in the early 1930s. Hampton introduced that instrument to the jazz idiom and came to the attention of Benny Goodman in 1936. When Goodman formed the Benny Goodman Quartet, Hampton played “vibes” and went on to direct the group’s recordings of such favorites as “Dinah” and “Exactly Like You.” In 1940 Goodman disbanded the quartet, and Hampton struck out on his own, incorporating such musicians as Charles Mingus, Quincy Jones, and Charlie Parker into the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. Among the top bands in the country, the orchestra played all the popular clubs, as well as Carnegie Hall and Harlem’s Apollo Theatre. Hampton’s high-energy spontaneity was legendary: “We got no routine,” he once said. “We just act the way the spirit moves us.”

Frederick J. Brown (1945–2012)
Oil on canvas, 1997
Gift of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on behalf of the people of New York
© 1997, Frederick J. Brown

knee length painting of a seated man in a blue suit

Joseph Papp 1921–1991

Born Brooklyn, New York
When Joe Papp originated the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1956, his intent was to cultivate an audience broader than the middle class mainstream who flooded Broadway theaters in the mid-1950s—to reach those “who might never have seen a play before and who were unable or unwilling to pay.” By the 1960s, Papp had become a catalyst for alternative theater, most notably the 1967 “American tribal love-rock musical” Hair. The Shakespeare Festival produced the phenomenally successful musical A Chorus Line at Papp’s Public Theater in 1975, but his repertory also included jazz workshops, chamber music, puppet shows, and a wide range of classic and contemporary theater. His commitment to multicultural entertainment helped to change the face of American theater from the 1960s onward.

colorful full length portrait of a man in plaid pants and blue sweater

Dizzy Gillespie 1917–1993

Born Cheraw, South Carolina
In the early 1940s, the young jazz trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie began meeting with several other musicians, including Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker, at a New York City nightclub to explore a new form of musical expression. Out of these sessions came the infectious energy of bebop, with Gillespie as one of its pioneers and eventually its elder statesman. Aimed at evolving jazz out of its earlier swing mode, the new music initially offended some jazz traditionalists but ultimately found a niche in the popular-music mainstream. In the 1970s a critic proclaimed Gillespie “the world’s greatest trumpet [player] in or out of jazz.” His interest in African American culture is reflected in this portrait, where artist Marc Klionsky—following conversations with the musician about his heritage—flanked Gillespie with African masks.