Whats Buzzing in the Streets – Page 60

The Three Degrees

The Three Degrees are an American female vocal group. Formed in 1963 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the group has always been a trio though there have been a number of personnel changes and a total of fourteen women have represented the group so far. The original members were Fayette Pinkney, Shirley Porter and Linda Turner. Their most successful line-up was Fayette with Sheila Ferguson and Valerie Holiday, these being the ladies responsible for recording their 1974 single “When Will I See You Again” which was a huge international hit, peaking at #2 in the US and topping the UK Singles Chart. Shortly afterwards, the trio became known as Prince Charles’s favourite group.

The Three Degrees were formed around 1963 in Philadelphia. They were discovered by producer and songwriter Richard Barrett. Barrett was responsible for groups of the 1950s such as The Chantels, Little Anthony and the Imperials, and The Valentines. Barrett recorded the original line-up on their first song, entitled “Gee Baby (I’m Sorry)”, for Swan Records, in 1965. Turner and Porter both left the group, leaving Fayette Pinkney the only original member of the group. Both Turner and Porter were replaced by Helen Scott and a variety of other ladies before Janet Harmon joined in the mid 1960s. Barrett also began managing and producing Sheila Ferguson, who was a high school friend of Scott. Barrett also signed Ferguson to Swan Records in 1965. The Three Degrees released a number of singles such as “I’m Gonna Need You” and a cover version of “Maybe” in 1966.

By 1966, with many performances lined up, Scott decided to leave the group to start a family. Ferguson filled in for Scott and would remain in the group for 20 years. Ferguson sang backup on all the group’s Swan recordings as did the Three Degrees for her solo singles. By 1967, Harmon left and was eventually replaced by Valerie Holiday. Barrett signed them to recording contracts over the next three years with Warner Bros., Metromedia, and Neptune record labels; the latter of which was owned by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff who would work with group five years later. Their close harmony singing made them a popular nightclub act but a hit record still eluded them.

By 1970, they were signed to Roulette Records and they released their first album, Maybe. The title song, this time with Valerie Holiday taking the lead vocals took them to #4 on the US R&B charts. Other singles like “I Do Take You” and “You’re The Fool” followed, as did their second album, So Much Love. This success landed them a cameo appearance in the 1971 film, The French Connection, filmed during one of their appearances at the Copacabana nightclub in New York, and also an engagement at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada with Engelbert Humperdinck.

Minnie Riperton

Minnie Julia Riperton-Rudolph (November 8, 1947 – July 12, 1979), known professionally as Minnie Riperton, was an American singer-songwriter best known for her 1975 single “Lovin’ You” and her five-octave vocal range. Born in 1947, Riperton grew up in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side. As a child, she studied music, drama, and dance at Chicago’s Lincoln Center. In her teen years, she sang lead vocals for the Chicago-based girl group, The Gems. Her early affiliation with the legendary Chicago-based Chess Records afforded her the opportunity to sing backup for various established artists such as Etta James, Fontella Bass, Ramsey Lewis, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, and Muddy Waters. While at Chess, Riperton also sang lead for the experimental rock/soul group Rotary Connection, from 1967 to 1971.

On April 5, 1975, Riperton reached the apex of her career with her no. 1 single, “Lovin’ You”. The single was the last release from her 1974 gold album entitled Perfect Angel. In January 1976, Riperton was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a radical mastectomy. By the time of diagnosis, the cancer had metastasized and she was given about six months to live. Despite the grim prognosis, she continued recording and touring. She was one of the first celebrities to go public with her breast cancer diagnosis, but did not disclose she was terminally ill. In 1977, she became a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society. In 1978, she received the American Cancer Society’s Courage Award which was presented to her at the White House by President Jimmy Carter.

She was the daughter of Daniel and Thelma Riperton, the youngest of eight children. At the age of three she started modern dance lessons, followed by ballet lessons at 5. Her voice lessons began at the age of nine and she was developing her operatic chops at 11.

Her goal at a very young age was to become a famous singer. Riperton studied opera under Marion Jeffries. She spent months and months learning how to breathe and listening to and holding vowels. Eventually, she began singing operas and operettas along with a show tune every so often. As a as a freshman she sung in the a cappella choir of Hyde Park High School.

She left school early to make $10 a song, singing backup at local studios. Some reports indicate that Minnie signed her first contract at 14, while others report her to be 16. Despite her natural talent (a pure five to six octave soprano) for opera, Riperton was more attracted to “Rock N Roll” and the promise of touring. She would inevitably discontinue her classical training to follow her dream of being a famous vocalist. It would, however, be her classical training, which brought her the success she sought. Riperton signed a recording contract with the “Gems” at Chess Studios, and in 1967 she joined the “rock/jazz/vocal ensemble” Rotary Connection.

The style of the Rotary Connection was very progressiv– somewhere between rock, jazz, pop, and experimental. Riperton was with the Rotary Connection when she met the love of her life, her husband, Richard Rudolph. They had two children, Maya and Marc, whose names are included the names of two of her songs. Maya is the name of the girl in the tale of “Love And Its Glory,” and a personal reference to both can be found towards the end of “Lovin’ You.” She sings to Marc in “Wouldn’t Matter Where You Are.” Riperton did backup vocal work with Quincy Jones, Roberta Flack, Freddie Hubbard, and Etta James.

In 1969, she recorded the album “Come To My Garden” which was released in 1971, then came “Perfect Angel” and “Adventures in Paradise” in 1974 and 1975. The following year Riperton announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had undergone a modified mastectomy. Her “experience” (as she referred to her illness) would give her yet another reason for her life … lending her celebrity and compassion for others to become a spokesperson for breast cancer awareness, the need for self-examination, and the benefit of early detection.

Within weeks after her surgery, she appeared for the taping of the Ebony Music Awards. When she received her “Ebby,” she later revealed, she was overcome by the knowledge of how lucky she was to have made it through the ordeal she and her family had gone through.

Riperton continued on a crusade to get the word out to as many women as possible. Since tennis was her game, you would find her at almost all the celebrity tournaments for charity. In 1977, the) President Jimmy Carter presented her with the American Cancer Society’s “Courage Award.” A year later, Riperton would become that organization’s National Education chairwoman.

In addition to being a mother, wife, activist, fund raiser, lecturer, wife, and mother, she signed with Capitol Records, a contract that gave her the creative freedom and production quality that she desired. During the summer of 1978, creating what would be her last album, simply entitled “Minnie.” She passed away in her husband’s arms on July 12, 1979, at 31 years of age.

Alfre Woodard

Alfre Woodard (born November 8, 1952) is an American film, stage, and television actress, producer, and political activist. Woodard has been named one of the most versatile and accomplished actors of her generation. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award and Grammy Award, 18 times for an Emmy Award (winning four), and has also won a Golden Globe Award and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Woodard was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Constance, a homemaker, and Marion H. Woodard, an entrepreneur and interior designer. She is the youngest of three children. She was a cheerleader in high school. Woodard attended Bishop Kelley High School, a private Catholic school in Tulsa and graduated from there in 1970. She studied drama at Boston University, from which she graduated.

Woodard made her professional theater debut in 1974 on Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. In 1976, she moved to Los Angeles, California. She later said, “When I came to L.A. people told me there were no film roles for black actors…I’m not a fool. I know that. But I was always confident that I knew my craft.” Her breakthrough role was in the Off-Broadway play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf in 1977. The next year, Woodard made her film debut in Remember My Name, a thriller written and directed by Alan Rudolph. In the same year, she had a leading role in The Trial of the Moke, a Great Performances television movie co-starring Samuel L. Jackson.

She made her film debut in Remember My Name (1978). In 1983, she won major critical praise and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Cross Creek. In the same year, Woodard won her first Primetime Emmy Award for her performance in the NBC drama series Hill Street Blues. Later in the 1980s, Woodard had leading Emmy Award-nominated performances in a number of made for television movies, and another Emmy-winning role as a woman dying of leukemia in the pilot episode of L.A. Law. She also starred as Dr. Roxanne Turner in the NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1986, and for Guest Actress in 1988.

In the 1990s, Woodard starred in films such as Grand Canyon (1991), Heart and Souls (1993), Crooklyn (1994), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Primal Fear (1996) and Star Trek: First Contact (1996). She also drew critical praise for her performances in the independent dramas Passion Fish (1992), for which she won an Independent Spirit Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as Down in the Delta (1998). For her lead role in the HBO film Miss Evers’ Boys (1997), Woodard won Golden Globe, Emmy, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and several another awards. In later years she has appeared in several blockbusters, like K-PAX (2001), The Core (2003), and The Forgotten (2004), starred in independent films, and won her fourth Emmy Award for The Practice in 2003. From 2005 to 2006, Woodard starred as Betty Applewhite in the ABC comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives, and later starred in several short-lived series. She appeared in the films The Family That Preys (2008), 12 Years a Slave (2013) and Annabelle (2014), and has also worked as a political activist and producer. Woodard is a founder of Artists for a New South Africa, an organization devoted to advancing democracy and equality in that country. She is a board member of AMPAS.

Woodard lives in Santa Monica, California, with her husband, writer Roderick Spencer, and their two adopted children, Mavis and Duncan. Woodard follows Christian Science. Her daughter, Mavis, served as Miss Golden Globe for the 2010 Golden Globe Awards.

In 1989, Woodard is a founder and board member of Artists for a New South Africa, a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating the African AIDS pandemic and advancing democracy and equality in South Africa. Her charity has since raised more than $9 million and has provided healthcare to over 3,500 South African AIDS orphans. She is a board member of the Democratic Party. She supported Barack Obama at the presidential elections in 2008 and 2012. Woodard is also a supporter of LGBT rights and same sex marriage. In February 2009, she joined a group of American film directors and actors on a cultural trip to Iran at the invitation of the “House of Cinema” forum in Tehran.

On August 9, 2015, Woodard appeared TLC’s Who Do You Think You Are?. The program did research into her father’s genealogy and found out that her great-grandfather Alex Woodard was born a slave in Houston County, Georgia in the early 1840s. At about age 14 or 15, Alex was separated from his family when his master relocated to Jackson Parish, Louisiana. Historians helped Woodard locate evidence that Alex was assessed a poll tax in 1867, indicating that he was registered to vote two years after the Civil War ended. By 1881, Alex had purchased 80 acres of farmland in Jackson Parish. On April 15, 1898, Alex Woodard and his wife Elizabeth sold their 80 acres to her brother, Aaron Stell, as they had moved to Wharton County, Texas, by that time.

Esther Rolle

Esther Elizabeth Rolle (November 8, 1920 – November 17, 1998) was a Bahamian American actress. Rolle is best known for her role as Florida Evans, on the CBS television sitcom Maude, for two seasons (1972–1974), and its spin-off series Good Times, for five seasons (1974–77, 1978–79), for which Rolle was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1976.

She was born in Pompano Beach, FL, the tenth of 18 children her parents were of Bahamian descent. Rolle attended Booker T. Washington High School in Miami, and then attended Spelman College for a year before moving to New York. She supported herself by working in a pocketbook factory while auditioning for the theater. Her siblings who followed her in acting were Estella Evans and Rosanna Carter.

While taking drama classes at George Washington Carver School in Harlem, she got a scholarship to study acting at New York’s innovative New School for Social Research. During this time she met and became a member of African dance master Shogola Oloba’s dance troupe, Asadata Dafora. She became the troupe’s director in 1960.

Rolle attended Booker T. Washington High School in Miami, Florida and graduated from Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach. She initially studied at Spelman College in Atlanta, but she moved to New York City. She attended Hunter College, The New School for Social Research, and Yale University. She was also a member of Zeta Phi Beta sorority. For many years, Rolle worked in a traditional day job in New York City’s garment district.

Rolle was a member of Asadata Dafora’s dance troupe, Shogolo Oloba (later renamed the Federal Theater African Dance Troupe). She became the troupe’s director in 1960.

Rolle’s earliest roles were on the stage; her New York stage debut was in the 1962 play The Blacks. She was often cast in plays produced by Robert Hooks and the Negro Ensemble Company. She also appeared in productions of The Crucible and Blues for Mr. Charlie.

Rolle’s most prominent early role was as Miss Maybell in the 1973 Melvin Van Peebles play, Don’t Play Us Cheap.

In 1977, Rolle portrayed Lady Macbeth in Orson Welles’ Haitian-influenced version at the Henry Street New Federal Theater in Manhattan.

Rolle is best known for her television role as Florida Evans, the character she played on two 1970s sitcoms. The character was introduced as Maude Findlay’s housekeeper on Maude, and was spun off in the show’s second season into Good Times, a show about Florida’s family. Rolle was nominated in 1975 for the Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy Golden Globe Award for her role in Good Times. Rolle herself was nineteen years older than her husband on the show John Amos.

Rolle fought for more relevant themes and scripts, and was unhappy that the success of Jimmie Walker’s character J.J. Evans took the show in what she thought was a frivolous direction. As a result, actor John Amos, who played the role of the father, James Evans, Sr., left the show after the third season ended. Later on, in a stand-off with Good Times producer Norman Lear, Rolle also quit when her contract ended. Although the series continued without her for the fifth season, she returned for the show’s final season.

In 1979 she won an Emmy for her role in the TV movie Summer of My German Soldier (TV film).

Among her guest star roles was one on The Incredible Hulk in an episode entitled “Behind the Wheel” where she played a taxicab business owner.

In the 1990s, Rolle was a surprise guest on RuPaul’s VH-1 talk show. Her Maude co-star Bea Arthur was the guest, and Rolle was brought out to surprise Arthur. The two had not seen each other in years, Arthur said, and embraced warmly.

Rolle also appeared in a series of psychic hotline TV commercials in the 1990s. “Tell them Esther sent you,” was her trademark line.

Rolle released an album of music titled The Garden of My Mind in 1975

Rolle’s first screen appearance is a small, uncredited role in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), and she later appeared in Gordon Parks’ The Learning Tree (1969). Her sister, actress Estelle Evans, appeared in both films as well. Esther Rolle appeared early in her career in the 1964 film, Nothing But a Man.

After Good Times ended, she appeared in a number of made-for-television movies and films, including Driving Miss Daisy and My Fellow Americans. A memorable role was that of Aunt Sarah in the 1997 film Rosewood.

She had a major role in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings based on Maya Angelou’s memoir of the same name, and has the distinction of having won the first Emmy Award for the category Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie, in 1979, for her work in the television movie Summer of My German Soldier. Her last film, Train Ride was released in 2000 despite being filmed in 1998.

Rolle’s only marriage ended in divorce, and she had no children.

After residing in Los Angeles, California, Rolle died on November 17, 1998 in Culver City, California, from complications of diabetes. Her body was flown back to her hometown, Pompano Beach, Florida.

A devout Methodist, Rolle requested her funeral be held at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The family requested that in lieu of flowers donations be sent to such organizations as the African American Chapter of the American Diabetes Association, The Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida, The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas, The Jenesse Center in Los Angeles, and Marcus Garvey Elementary and Junior High School in Los Angeles.

Redd Foxx

Redd Foxx was born John Elroy Sanford on December 9, 1922, in St. Louis, Missouri and raised on Chicago’s South Side. His father, Fred Sanford, an electrician and auto mechanic from Hickman, Kentucky, left his family when Foxx was four years old. He was raised by his half-Seminole Indian mother, Mary Hughes from Ellisville, Mississippi, his grandmother and his minister. Foxx attended DuSable High School in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood with future Chicago mayor Harold Washington. Foxx had an older brother, Fred G. Sanford Jr., who provided the name for his character on Sanford and Son. On July 27, 1939, Foxx performed on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour radio show as part of the Jump Swinging Six. In the 1940s, he was an associate of Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X. In Malcolm’s autobiography, Foxx is referred to as “Chicago Red, the funniest dishwasher on this earth.” He earned the nickname because of his reddish hair and complexion. His surname was taken from baseball star Jimmie Foxx. During World War II, Foxx dodged the draft by eating half a bar of soap before his physical, a trick that resulted in heart palpitations. On September 30, 1946, Foxx recorded five songs for the Savoy label under the direction of Teddy Reig.

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (August 13,1899 – April 29, 1980) was an English film director and producer, widely regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Known as “the Master of Suspense”, he directed over 50 feature films in a career spanning six decades, becoming as well known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews, his cameo roles in most of his films, and his hosting of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1965).

Born on the outskirts of London, Hitchcock entered the film industry in 1919 as a title card designer after training as a technical clerk and copy writer for a telegraph-cable company. He made his directorial debut with The Pleasure Garden (1925). His first successful film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), helped to shape the thriller genre, while his 1929 film, Blackmail, was the first British “talkie”. Two of his 1930s thrillers, The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938), are ranked among the greatest British films of the 20th century.

By 1939 Hitchcock was a filmmaker of international importance, and film producer David O. Selznick persuaded him to move to Hollywood. A string of successful films followed, including Rebecca (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and The Paradine Case (1947); Rebecca was nominated for 11 Oscars and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. His fifty-three films have grossed over US$223.3 million worldwide and garnered a total of 46 Oscar nominations and 6 wins.

The “Hitchcockian” style includes the use of camera movement to mimic a person’s gaze, thereby turning viewers into voyeurs, and framing shots to maximise anxiety and fear. The film critic Robin Wood wrote that the meaning of a Hitchcock film “is there in the method, in the progression from shot to shot. A Hitchcock film is an organism, with the whole implied in every detail and every detail related to the whole.” By 1960 Hitchcock had directed four films often ranked among the greatest of all time: Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960). In 2012 Vertigo replaced Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941) as the British Film Institute’s greatest film ever made. By 2016 seven of his films had been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, including his personal favourite, Shadow of a Doubt (1943). He received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1979 and was knighted in December that year, four months before he died.

Nelly

Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. (born November 2, 1974), known professionally as Nelly, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, investor, and occasional actor from St. Louis, Missouri. Nelly embarked on his music career with Midwest hip hop group St. Lunatics, in 1993 and signed to Universal Records in 1999. Under Universal, Nelly began his solo career in the year 2000, with his debut album Country Grammar, of which the title-track was a top ten hit. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and went on to peak at number one. Country Grammar is Nelly’s best-selling album to date, selling over 8.4 million copies in the United States. His following album Nellyville, produced the number-one hits “Hot in Herre” and “Dilemma” (featuring Kelly Rowland). Other singles included “Work It” (featuring Justin Timberlake), “Air Force Ones” (featuring Murphy Lee and St. Lunatics), “Pimp Juice” and “#1”.

With the same-day dual release of Sweat, Suit (2004) and the compilation Sweatsuit (2006), Nelly continued to generate many chart-topping hits. Sweat debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 342,000 copies in its first week. On the same week of release, Suit debuted at number one, selling around 396,000 copies in its first week on the same chart. Nelly’s fifth studio album, Brass Knuckles, was released on September 16, 2008, after several delays. It produced the singles “Party People” (featuring Fergie), “Stepped on My J’z” (featuring Jermaine Dupri and Ciara) and “Body on Me” (featuring Akon and Ashanti). In 2010, Nelly released the album 5.0. The lead single, “Just a Dream”, was certified triple platinum in the United States. It also included the singles “Move That Body” (featuring T-Pain and Akon) and “Gone” (a sequel to the 2002 single “Dilemma” in collaboration with Kelly Rowland).

Nelly won Grammy Awards in 2003 and 2004 and had a supporting role in the 2005 remake film The Longest Yard with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock. He has two clothing lines, Vokal and Apple Bottoms. He has been referred to by Peter Shapiro as “one of the biggest stars of the new millennium”, and the RIAA ranks Nelly as the fourth best-selling rap artist in American music history, with 21 million albums sold in the United States. On December 11, 2009, Billboard ranked Nelly the number three Top Artist of the Decade

Boxer Larry Holmes

Larry Holmes (born November 3, 1949) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1973 to 2002. He grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania, which gave birth to his boxing nickname of the “Easton Assassin”.

Holmes was the fourth of twelve children born to John and Flossie Holmes. After the family moved to Easton in 1954, Holmes’ father went to Connecticut. He worked as a gardener there until his death in 1970. He visited his family every three weeks. “He didn’t forsake us”, said Flossie Holmes. “He just didn’t have anything to give.” The family survived on welfare.

To help support his family, Holmes dropped out of school when he was in the seventh grade and went to work at a car wash for $1 an hour. He later drove a dump truck and worked in a quarry.

When Holmes was nineteen, he started boxing. In his twenty-second bout, he boxed Duane Bobick in the 1972 Olympic Trials. Holmes was dropped in the first round with a right to the head. He got up and danced out of range, landing several stiff jabs in the process. Bobick mauled Holmes in the second round but could not corner him. The referee warned Holmes twice in the second for holding. In the third, Bobick landed several good rights and started to corner Holmes, who continued to hold. Eventually, Holmes was disqualified for excessive holding.

Holmes, whose left jab is rated among the best in boxing history, held the WBC heavyweight title from 1978 to 1983, The Ring magazine and lineal heavyweight titles from 1980 to 1985, and the inaugural IBF heavyweight title from 1983 to 1985. He made 20 successful title defenses, placing him third all time, behind only Joe Louis at 25 and Wladimir Klitschko at 22. Holmes is one of only five boxers—along with Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Leon Spinks and Trevor Berbick—to defeat Muhammad Ali; he is the only one to have stopped Ali.

Holmes won his first 48 professional bouts, including victories over Norton, Ali, Earnie Shavers, Mike Weaver, Gerry Cooney, Tim Witherspoon, Carl Williams and Marvis Frazier, and falling one short of matching Rocky Marciano’s career record of 49–0 when he lost to Michael Spinks in 1985. Holmes retired after losing a rematch to Spinks the following year, but made repeated comebacks. He was unsuccessful in three further attempts (against Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Oliver McCall) to regain the heavyweight title, the last in 1995. Holmes fought for the final time in 2002, against Eric “Butterbean” Esch, and ended his career with a record of 69 wins and 6 losses. He is frequently ranked as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time and has been inducted into both the International Boxing Hall of Fame and World Boxing Hall of Fame.

Holmes, whose left jab is rated among the best in boxing history, was the WBC Heavyweight Champion from 1978 to 1983, The Ring Heavyweight Champion from 1980 to 1985, and the IBF Heavyweight Champion from 1983 to 1985. He made twenty successful title defenses, which places him third behind only Joe Louis’ twenty-five and Wladimir Klitschko’s twenty-one.

Holmes won his first forty-eight professional bouts, including victories over Earnie Shavers, Ken Norton, Muhammad Ali, Mike Weaver, Gerry Cooney, Tim Witherspoon and Marvis Frazier, and fell one short of matching Rocky Marciano’s career record of 49-0 when he lost to Michael Spinks in 1985. Holmes retired after losing a rematch to Spinks, but made repeated comebacks and was unsuccessful in three further attempts to regain the title, the last in 1995. He had his last fight in 2002 and ended with a career record of 69-6. He is frequently ranked as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time and has been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame.

Holmes invested the money he earned from boxing and settled in his hometown of Easton. When he retired from boxing, Holmes employed more than 200 people through his various business holdings. In 2008, he owned two restaurants and a nightclub, a training facility, an office complex, a snack food bar and slot machines. Holmes currently co-hosts a talk show “What The Heck Were They Thinking?”

In 2014, Holmes sold his business complex in Easton to business entrepreneur Gerald Gorman.

In 2016 Larry Holmes guest starred as himself in an episode of Mike Tyson Mysteries, titled “Unsolved Situations”.

The Great Adventures of Slick Rick: The 30th Anniversary

The year was 1988. One of the greatest years in hip hop history. A year full of some of hip hop’s greatest albums to ever drop and reinvent the the culture at a time when hip hop was still on the rise. One of those albums was Slick Rick’s “The Great Adventures of Slick Rick.” The day was November 1st, 1988. 30 years ago we seen this young, fresh and fly dude with huge gold chains and gold grills in his mouth rock the mic to tell some of the greatest stories in his music that hip hop has ever seen and heard while keeping us rocking at parties to “Mona Lisa” And “Children’s Story.” We originally knew him as MC Ricky D when he appeared alongside with Harlem’s own Doug E. Fresh on “La Di Da Di” before the album. With a five mic rating and being ranked as one of rap’s greatest 100 albums by The Source, topping the charts for only five weeks, and “Children’s Story” being ranked as number 61 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs in 2008, there’s no denying the impact that Slick Rick had on the game. Even giving birth to future storytellers like Biggie Smalls, Nas And Ghostface Killah, just to name a few. 30 years later, MC Ricky D is still killing it at shows all over and still one of the freshest to ever do it too. The adventures are only beginning and this storybook will forever be timeless and golden and told still in another 30 years.

Judge Lynn Toler

Lynn Toler (born October 25, 1959) is an American lawyer and the arbitrator (judge) on the court series Divorce Court.

Toler earned an undergraduate degree in English and American Literature from Harvard University (1981) and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School (1984).

Toler served as sole municipal judge in Cleveland Heights Municipal Court for eight years after working as an attorney specializing in civil matters. At 34 years old, she won her first judicial race by just 6 votes in a predominantly Democratic district as a Republican, where Democrats held 5:1 majority. Her cases involved all misdemeanor crimes, traffic, and minor cost civil cases within an inner ring suburb of Cleveland, Ohio of about 50,000 residents. When re-elected in 2000 she garnered 80% of the vote. Toler was known for enforcing nontraditional judgments, such as hand written essays. While on the bench she created and ran a mentoring program for teenaged girls. During this time, she served on many boards including The Juvenile Diabetes Board, The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) and The Cleveland Domestic Violence Center. In 2002, she received The Humanitarian of the Year Award from The Cleveland Domestic Violence Center.

While serving as a retired judge between 2001 and 2006, Toler became an adjunct professor at Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio where she created, and taught, courses on Civil Rights Law and Women’s Rights.

As the level-headed arbiter of Divorce Court, Toler is usually seen providing counsel, words of wisdom, and trying to talk sense into the show’s outrageous couples. She has a strident vocal timbre and uses emphasis in much of her speech. Prior to becoming the arbitrator of Divorce Court, she hosted the short-lived court show Power of Attorney. In 2007, while hosting Divorce Court, she expanded her television presence by becoming the host of the prime time television show and MyNetworkTV’s Decision House. In 2008 and 2009, Toler was a bi-monthly contributor on News and Notes, a weekly news show on National Public Radio (NPR). In 2009, she became a co-executive producer of Wedlock or Deadlock, a syndicated limited-city series based on a segment of Divorce Court.

Toler has guest-starred on The Ricki Lake Show as a marriage counselor. Toler can now be seen on WE tv’s hit show Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars.

Toler is the author of My Mother’s Rules: A Practical Guide to Becoming an Emotional Genius, in which she describes lessons her mother, Shirley (nicknamed Toni), taught her to handle both her father Bill Toler’s erratic behavior and her own inner demons. She describes how this later came in handy when dealing with emotional people from the bench. She also discusses how to apply these rules to everyday life.

In 2009, her second book Put it In Writing, co-authored with Deborah Hutchison was published. This book contains agreements for use in common but uncomfortable situations between family and friends such as money lending and grown children returning home.

Toler resides in Mesa, Arizona with her husband Eric Mumford (they married in 1989) and has two sons.