Historic Figures
WITH THE NAME PARKER
Charlie Parker was an extremely innovative jazz musician, both as a saxophonist and as a composer, and was an early creative force in the bebop movement. He played with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis (who famously said: “You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker.â€). Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Charlie Parker always considered New York City his true home. In spite of his music making genius and his early successes, “Bird†suffered the consequences of a lifelong heroin addiction, brought about by the introduction to morphine after a youthful automobile accident. Ultimately, this led to his untimely death at the age of thirty-four. His recordings provide an oasis of bliss for his fans; many of them were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Charlie Parker’s life is paid a poignant tribute in Clint Eastwood’s 1988 film, “Birdâ€.
Charlie Parker was an extremely innovative jazz musician, both as a saxophonist and as a composer, and was an early creative force in the bebop movement. He played with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis (who famously said: “You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker.â€). Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Charlie Parker always considered New York City his true home. In spite of his music making genius and his early successes, “Bird†suffered the consequences of a lifelong heroin addiction, brought about by the introduction to morphine after a youthful automobile accident. Ultimately, this led to his untimely death at the age of thirty-four. His recordings provide an oasis of bliss for his fans; many of them were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Charlie Parker’s life is paid a poignant tribute in Clint Eastwood’s 1988 film, “Birdâ€.
Charlie Parker was an extremely innovative jazz musician, both as a saxophonist and as a composer, and was an early creative force in the bebop movement. He played with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis (who famously said: “You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker.â€). Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Charlie Parker always considered New York City his true home. In spite of his music making genius and his early successes, “Bird†suffered the consequences of a lifelong heroin addiction, brought about by the introduction to morphine after a youthful automobile accident. Ultimately, this led to his untimely death at the age of thirty-four. His recordings provide an oasis of bliss for his fans; many of them were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Charlie Parker’s life is paid a poignant tribute in Clint Eastwood’s 1988 film, “Birdâ€.
Charlie Parker was an extremely innovative jazz musician, both as a saxophonist and as a composer, and was an early creative force in the bebop movement. He played with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis (who famously said: “You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker.â€). Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Charlie Parker always considered New York City his true home. In spite of his music making genius and his early successes, “Bird†suffered the consequences of a lifelong heroin addiction, brought about by the introduction to morphine after a youthful automobile accident. Ultimately, this led to his untimely death at the age of thirty-four. His recordings provide an oasis of bliss for his fans; many of them were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Charlie Parker’s life is paid a poignant tribute in Clint Eastwood’s 1988 film, “Birdâ€.
Charlie Parker was an extremely innovative jazz musician, both as a saxophonist and as a composer, and was an early creative force in the bebop movement. He played with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis (who famously said: “You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker.â€). Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Charlie Parker always considered New York City his true home. In spite of his music making genius and his early successes, “Bird†suffered the consequences of a lifelong heroin addiction, brought about by the introduction to morphine after a youthful automobile accident. Ultimately, this led to his untimely death at the age of thirty-four. His recordings provide an oasis of bliss for his fans; many of them were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Charlie Parker’s life is paid a poignant tribute in Clint Eastwood’s 1988 film, “Birdâ€.
Charlie Parker was an extremely innovative jazz musician, both as a saxophonist and as a composer, and was an early creative force in the bebop movement. He played with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis (who famously said: “You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker.â€). Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Charlie Parker always considered New York City his true home. In spite of his music making genius and his early successes, “Bird†suffered the consequences of a lifelong heroin addiction, brought about by the introduction to morphine after a youthful automobile accident. Ultimately, this led to his untimely death at the age of thirty-four. His recordings provide an oasis of bliss for his fans; many of them were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Charlie Parker’s life is paid a poignant tribute in Clint Eastwood’s 1988 film, “Birdâ€.
Bonnie Parker was the celebrated girlfriend of Clyde Barrow, and with him and his gang, participated in a rampage of robbery and murder between 1931 and 1934. Born in Texas, Bonnie, her two siblings and her widowed mother lived with her maternal grandparents. They were reasonably well-off and Bonnie was a good student in school. Before her 16th birthday, however, she dropped out of school and married her boyfriend. The union was short-lived (though never officially dissolved) and Bonnie was working as a waitress when she met Clyde Barrow. She was immediately smitten with him and joined him and his gang without looking back. Without looking much forward, either. Bonnie was 24 years old when she and Clyde died together in a shootout by a police posse, and moved on into legend, helped in no small way by the 1967 portrayal of her by Faye Dunaway in the movie, Bonnie and Clyde.
Bonnie Parker was the celebrated girlfriend of Clyde Barrow, and with him and his gang, participated in a rampage of robbery and murder between 1931 and 1934. Born in Texas, Bonnie, her two siblings and her widowed mother lived with her maternal grandparents. They were reasonably well-off and Bonnie was a good student in school. Before her 16th birthday, however, she dropped out of school and married her boyfriend. The union was short-lived (though never officially dissolved) and Bonnie was working as a waitress when she met Clyde Barrow. She was immediately smitten with him and joined him and his gang without looking back. Without looking much forward, either. Bonnie was 24 years old when she and Clyde died together in a shootout by a police posse, and moved on into legend, helped in no small way by the 1967 portrayal of her by Faye Dunaway in the movie, Bonnie and Clyde.
Bonnie Parker was the celebrated girlfriend of Clyde Barrow, and with him and his gang, participated in a rampage of robbery and murder between 1931 and 1934. Born in Texas, Bonnie, her two siblings and her widowed mother lived with her maternal grandparents. They were reasonably well-off and Bonnie was a good student in school. Before her 16th birthday, however, she dropped out of school and married her boyfriend. The union was short-lived (though never officially dissolved) and Bonnie was working as a waitress when she met Clyde Barrow. She was immediately smitten with him and joined him and his gang without looking back. Without looking much forward, either. Bonnie was 24 years old when she and Clyde died together in a shootout by a police posse, and moved on into legend, helped in no small way by the 1967 portrayal of her by Faye Dunaway in the movie, Bonnie and Clyde.
Dorothy Rothschild Parker was an American writer of short stories, poems, plays, screenplays and entertainment criticism, whose acerbic wit made her the doyenne of the sparkling (albeit alcohol-fueled) company at the Algonquin Round Table in New York in the roaring twenties. In her heyday, she wrote for Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, among others, and was a formidable theatre critic (once describing Katharine Hepburn as running the gamut of emotions from A to B). She espoused liberal causes early on, including the Spanish Civil War, the Sacco and Vanzetti case, and civil liberties for African-Americans (in fact, leaving her entire estate to the N.A.A.C.P.). She was blacklisted in Hollywood during the 1950s, which she considered an honor. Ms. Parker was married once to stockbroker, Edwin Parker (being half Jewish in an era of anti-Semitism, she joked that she did it only to change her name), and twice to Alan Campbell, a screenwriter and sometimes actor. Probably the love of her life was the writer, Charles MacArthur, but their affair ended disastrously; he went on to marry Helen Hayes and she went on to her first suicide attempt. In her later years, Dorothy, who was childless, lived in a residential hotel in Manhattan with her pet dogs, and died alone of a heart attack. Her remains were unclaimed for 17 years; finally the N.A.A.C.P. put them to rest in a memorial garden in their Baltimore headquarters. She had her share of sorrow in her life, but she certainly contributed to laughter in ours. Our favorite Parkerism? Asked to use “horticulture†in a sentence, she replied, “You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.†Apocryphal? Maybe. Who cares – we believe it!
Bonnie Parker was the celebrated girlfriend of Clyde Barrow, and with him and his gang, participated in a rampage of robbery and murder between 1931 and 1934. Born in Texas, Bonnie, her two siblings and her widowed mother lived with her maternal grandparents. They were reasonably well-off and Bonnie was a good student in school. Before her 16th birthday, however, she dropped out of school and married her boyfriend. The union was short-lived (though never officially dissolved) and Bonnie was working as a waitress when she met Clyde Barrow. She was immediately smitten with him and joined him and his gang without looking back. Without looking much forward, either. Bonnie was 24 years old when she and Clyde died together in a shootout by a police posse, and moved on into legend, helped in no small way by the 1967 portrayal of her by Faye Dunaway in the movie, Bonnie and Clyde.
