51-806: DeMille or De Mille is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Agnes De Mille , American dance and choreographer Beatrice deMille , English-born American playwright and screenwriter Cecil B. DeMille , American film director Constance Adams DeMille , American actress Evelyn de Mille (1919–2013), Canadian bookseller Henry Churchill de Mille , American playwright James De Mille , Canadian writer Katherine DeMille , Canadian-born American actress Nelson DeMille , American author Oliver DeMille , American author and educator Richard de Mille , American journalist and author William C. deMille , American screenwriter and film director [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with
102-407: A "victim of heredity." As a choreographer at Warner Brothers, Prinz had a different approach from Busby Berkeley , whose choreography for early 1930s movies included elaborate production numbers that were photographed using imaginative camera angles, often from above. Berkeley's numbers "broke the boundaries of the stage," and Prinz took a completely opposite approach, reinforcing the perspective of
153-521: A 1945 New York Times profile that Capone hired him to book entertainment and stage floor shows at 18 Chicago nightclubs. Prinz left Chicago and worked as a dance director in New York, Florida, Mexico and Cuba. His employers included Earl Carroll , Broadway's Shubert family , Tex Guinan and Philadelphia bootlegger Boo Hoo Hoff. He choreographed Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1930 and other Broadway shows between 1929 and 1933. His first employment in films
204-451: A New York ballet performance within the context of a dominantly white company. Therefore, although it was only performed three times before being disbanded, Black Ritual was an unprecedented performance, changing perceptions about black ballet dancers and marking a significant milestone in American ballet history. De Mille’s first recognized significant work was Rodeo (1942), whose score
255-400: A bloody thing about dancing." In a 1952 profile, Associated Press Hollywood columnist James Bacon stated that Prinz differed from what he described as "sissified" choreographers, that he was "a rough, tough guy, as some little giants of 5 foot 5 are. His language is colorful." He claimed never to have taken a lesson in his life, and in a reference to his family's dancing school, that he was
306-482: A dancer's physical technique. De Mille regularly worked with a recognizable core group of dancers, including Virginia Bosler (Doris), Gemze de Lappe , Lidija Franklin , Jean Houloose, Dania Krupska , Bambi Linn , Joan McCracken , James Mitchell , Mavis Ray, and, at American Ballet Theatre, Sallie Wilson . Krupska, Mitchell, and Ray served as de Mille's assistant choreographers, and de Lappe took an active role in preserving de Mille's work. In 1973, de Mille founded
357-538: A dozen other musicals, most notably Bloomer Girl (1944), which presented her feelings of loneliness as a woman who saw her husband leave to serve for the army, Carousel (1945), Allegro (1947, director as well as choreographer), Brigadoon (1947, for which she was co-recipient of the inaugural Tony Award for Best Choreography ), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), Paint Your Wagon (1951), The Girl in Pink Tights (1954), Goldilocks (1957), and 110 in
408-521: A stage performance that the audience could not forget. Prinz's style is evident in the Little Johnny Jones number in Yankee Doodle Dandy , which featured a stationary camera and included features of the stage, such as the orchestra pit, in the dance number. The camera, in effect, became a member of the audience. In his 1983 study of wartime Hollywood musicals, Allen L. Woll says that with
459-453: A telegraph stating "That's great. Don't believe 50 percent of it myself." In a Los Angeles Times profile late in life, Prinz' claimed "at least partial credit" in popularizing the Charleston and rumba , which became popular after appearing in his movies. Prinz was nominated in the long-defunct category of Best Dance Direction during the 1937 Academy Awards for Waikiki Wedding , and
510-478: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Agnes De Mille Agnes George de Mille (September 18, 1905 – October 7, 1993) was an American dancer and choreographer . Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMille and her uncle Cecil B. DeMille were both Hollywood directors. Her mother, Anna Angela George ,
561-630: The Omnibus TV series titled "The Art of Ballet" and "The Art of Choreography" (both televised in 1956) were immediately recognized as landmark attempts to bring serious dance to the attention of a broad public. During his presidency, John F. Kennedy appointed de Mille a member of the National Advisory Committee on the Arts, the predecessor to the National Endowment for the Arts, to which she
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#1732855138510612-647: The Folies Bergère in Paris. A November 1919 report in St. Louis Post-Dispatch states that Prinz was employed in the aeronautical portion of an American Legion show, also featuring actor William S. Hart , that was touring the area. The newspaper gives Prinz's rank as captain and states that he was a flight partner of Quentin Roosevelt . A Wisconsin newspaper reported in 1921 that Prinz, which it said had "danced with Al Jolson ,"
663-674: The Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre , which she later revived as Heritage Dance Theatre. De Mille developed a love for public speaking, becoming an outspoken advocate for dance in America. She spoke in front of Congress three times: once in the Senate, once in the House of Representatives, and once for the Committee for Medical Research. She was interviewed in the television documentary series Hollywood: A Celebration of
714-559: The American Ballet Theatre (then called the Ballet Theatre) in 1939. One of Agnes de Mille’s most overlooked and important pieces was Black Ritual ( Obeah ), which she began choreographing for the newly formed Ballet Theatre’s first season. Lasting 25 minutes, this performance was created for the “Negro Unit” of the dance company and was performed by 16 black ballerinas . This was the first representation of black dancers in
765-717: The French Foreign Legion , serving as a bugler in Algiers. He also represented a rubber company in St. Louis and Kansas City. After the outbreak of World War I, he returned to France, trained as a pilot, and served in the French aviation corps and Captain Eddie Rickenbacker 's 94th Aero Squadron . He was with the 94th from November 1917 to June 1918, when he switched to the 27th Aero Squadron , where he stayed until November 1918. At
816-410: The surname DeMille . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to the link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=DeMille&oldid=955690456 " Category : Surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description
867-453: The 1940s, he worked on Road to Singapore (1940) at Paramount. His first major assignment at Warner Brothers was the George M. Cohan biographical movie Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), starring James Cagney in the title role. He choreographed a "ballet in jive" sequence in the service musical Hollywood Canteen (1944), featuring Broadway dancer Joan McCracken . Prinz played himself directing
918-513: The 27th, his duties included working at the Aircraft Acceptance Park test facility at Orly, France. Prinz subsequently told journalists that he crashed 14 to 18 airplanes, was nicknamed "America's German Ace" as a result, (he was also called "Crash Ace Prinz) and that he was wounded in the war and carried a silver plate in his head from his last plane crash. In an October 1918 article, war correspondent George Seldes described how Prinz
969-580: The American Silent Film (1980) primarily discussing the work of her uncle Cecil B. DeMille . Agnes de Mille appears in a wheelchair in Frederick Wiseman 's 1995 film Ballet rehearsing her final piece, “The Other.” She tells her star “You must look like something that’s absolutely broken, and stuck up in the wind.” DeMille's 1951 memoir Dance to the Piper was translated into five languages. It
1020-631: The Handel Medallion for achievement in the arts (1976), an honor from the Kennedy Center (1980), an Emmy for her work in The Indomitable de Mille (1980), Drama Desk Special Award (1986) and, in 1986, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts . De Mille also received seven honorary degrees from various colleges and universities. She was featured on a U.S. postage stamp in 2004. At present,
1071-478: The Shade (1963). These many dance performances within musical theater enriched Broadway musicals by how they provided perspective on the events of the time. De Mille's success on Broadway did not translate into success in film. Her only significant film credit is Oklahoma! (1955). She was not invited to recreate her choreography for either Brigadoon (1954) or Carousel (1956). Nevertheless, her two specials for
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#17328551385101122-570: The White House when Prinz was in the hospital shortly before he died. At the 1976 convention, he came up with the idea of playing " The Star-Spangled Banner " when convention organizers wanted to silence unruly delegates. Prinz was a "notorious self-promoter", and told stories about himself that were sometimes dubious. Columnist Michael Coakley recounted in a late-life profile of Prinz that editors of The Saturday Evening Post once were able to verify 90% of what they were told by Prinz, who sent them
1173-526: The Wings Grow , America Dances , Portrait Gallery , and Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham . She also wrote And Promenade Home , To a Young Dancer , The Book of Dance , Lizzie Borden: Dance of Death , Dance in America , Russian Journals , and Speak to Me, Dance with Me . De Mille also wrote an introduction entitled "Anna George de Mille - A Note About the Author" to the book Henry George: Citizen of
1224-637: The World by Anna George de Mille (daughter of Henry George & Agnes' mother) which was published in 1950 by the University of North Carolina Press. De Mille married Walter Prude on June 14, 1943. They had one child, Jonathan, born in 1946. Agnes de Mille donated her papers to the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College "between 1959 and 1968, and her Dance To The Piper was purchased in 1994. Three films were donated by Lester Tome in 2010. The bulk of
1275-461: The age of 15, he "hopped a freight" and came to New York City, where, in 1911, he began a blackface song and dance act, named Prinz and Buck, with a young black man he met along the way. Later that year, he told interviewers, he went on a ship to Europe as a cabin boy , jumped ship, and traveled around Europe "introducing the American strut step" in return for meals and lodging. In Marseilles, he joined
1326-402: The ballet provided key insights into the heroine's emotional troubles. This performance exemplifies how de Mille brought new ideas to the performing arts, integrating dance to enhance the musical. This production is widely known for this innovative idea and is credited for starting de Mille’s fame as a choreographer, both for Broadway and in the dance industry. De Mille went on to choreograph over
1377-464: The camera angles not being employed effectively, as they were by Berkeley, "the pedestrian quality of Prinz's dance numbers is painfully revealed. No matter the picture, no matter the director, Prinz's dances are invariably the same, static and stage-bound." His treatment of dancers was sometimes caustic. Choreographer Hermes Pan recalled in 1972 interview that Prinz "would make some girls hysterical. He loved to have them in tears. And that seemed to be
1428-509: The film adaptation of South Pacific (1958). Later in life, he was owner of his own production company, vice president of an advertising agency, and a producer of benefit programs in Hollywood. He counted among his friends Ronald Reagan , whom he knew from their days working together at Warner Brothers, and he choreographed entertainment at the 1976 Republican National Convention and at several presidential inaugurations. Reagan called him from
1479-426: The film. Prinz directed dance sequences for dozens of Paramount Pictures movies between 1933 and 1941, when he became dance director of Warner Brothers , where he staged all of Warner's musical sequences for the next 16 years. He worked on over 150 films, mainly as a choreographer, including The Desert Song (1929), Tea for Two (1950), and The Jazz Singer (1952), a remake of the first sound movie. In
1530-573: The life of Lizzie Borden . While she lived in New York and was working for Ballet Theatre in 1941, de Mille choreographed Drums Sound in Hackensack for the Jooss Ballet (originally located in Germany), which had just moved to New York in 1939. This was an important step in the company’s history as it was the first performance not choreographed by Kurt Jooss himself. Although there are no film recordings of
1581-529: The only commercially available examples of de Mille's choreography are parts one and two of Rodeo by the American Ballet Theatre, Fall River Legend (filmed in 1989 by the Dance Theatre of Harlem ) and Oklahoma! Notes Further reading [REDACTED] Media related to Agnes de Mille at Wikimedia Commons LeRoy Prinz LeRoy Jerome Prinz (July 14, 1895 – September 15, 1983)
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1632-557: The papers date from 1914 to 1960 and focus on both personal and professional aspects of de Mille's life." She suffered a stroke on stage in 1975, but recovered. She died in 1993 of a second stroke in her Greenwich Village apartment. De Mille was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1973. De Mille's many other awards include the Tony Award for Best Choreography (1947, for Brigadoon ; 1962, for Kwamina ),
1683-400: The performance was significant in her career as a choreographer. After her success with Rodeo de Mille was hired to choreograph the musical Oklahoma! (1943). The dream ballet, in which dancers Marc Platt , Katherine Sergava, and George Church doubled for the leading actors, successfully integrated dance into the musical's plot. Instead of functioning as an interlude or divertissement ,
1734-402: The performance, de Mille’s choreography notes and personal reflections of the dancers shed light on the characteristics of the performance. The piece was placed in a historical context with an American theme and fit the traditional mold for de Mille’s pieces featuring a female perspective. As one of the first pieces de Mille choreographed for a group of dancers rather than simply one or two people,
1785-459: The script of an Errol Flynn adventure", though the stories he told about himself were often dubious. He was once described as "a feisty little man who always had a cigarette dangling from his lips and looked more like a bartender than a choreographer." Prinz was an "idea man" rather than a choreographer, creating lavish production numbers by using simple steps and dance routines. Jazz dance choreographer Jack Cole has said that Prinz "didn't know
1836-548: The sequence in a brief cameo. McCracken, who came to Hollywood after winning acclaim in the 1943 production of Oklahoma! , was discouraged by her experiences filming the Hollywood Canteen number and did not like working with Prinz. As a choreographer he made no effort to integrate his dances into specific stories, or to choreograph specific dance steps. This caused deep disillusionment for McCracken, whose Oklahoma! dances were choreographed by Agnes de Mille, because Prinz
1887-419: The thing, to swear at the girls and be nasty." Prinz was married three times, to Mary E. Thompson in 1919, Agnes Suzanne Thorstadt (1926-1934), and Elizabeth Meiklejohn, aka Betty Bryson. Prinz eloped to Yuma, Arizona with Bryson on June 21, 1936, and remained married to her until his death in 1983 Betty Bryson was the niece by marriage of actor Warner Baxter . She was put under contract to Fox and had
1938-698: Was an American choreographer, director and producer, who was involved in the production of dozens of motion pictures, mainly for Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers , from 1929 through 1958, and choreographed Broadway musicals. He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Dance Direction in the 1930s, and won the Golden Globe in 1958. Among the films whose dances he staged were Show Boat (1936), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Rhapsody in Blue (1945), and South Pacific (1958). Leroy Jerome Prinz
1989-433: Was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson after its creation. Her love for acting played a very important role in her choreography. De Mille revolutionized musical theatre by creating choreography that not only conveyed the emotional dimensions of the characters but enhanced the plot. Her choreography, as a reflection of her awareness of acting, reflected the angst and turmoil of the characters instead of simply focusing on
2040-462: Was born July 14, 1895, in St. Joseph, Missouri to Edward "Egid" Albert and Anna Prinz. His father owned Prinz's Dancing Academy in St. Joseph, Missouri. His father taught more than three generations how to dance and was teaching until his death at 80 years old. According to one account, Leroy was sent to reform school after chasing his stepmother with a carving knife. In newspaper profiles, he claimed that after running away from boarding school at
2091-526: Was by Aaron Copland , and which she staged for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo . Although de Mille continued to choreograph nearly up to the time of her death—her final ballet, The Other , was completed in 1992—most of her later works have dropped out of the ballet repertoire. Besides Rodeo , two other de Mille ballets are performed regularly, Three Virgins and a Devil (1934) adapted from a tale by Giovanni Boccaccio , and Fall River Legend (1948) based on
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2142-684: Was choreographing Cecil B. DeMille's film Cleopatra (1934). DeMille's dance director LeRoy Prinz clashed with the younger de Mille. Her uncle always deferred to Prinz, even after agreeing to his niece's dances in advance, and Agnes de Mille left the film. De Mille graduated from UCLA with a degree in English where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, and in 1933 moved to London to study with Dame Marie Rambert , eventually joining Rambert's company, The Ballet Club , later Ballet Rambert , and Antony Tudor 's London Ballet . De Mille arrived in New York in 1938 and later began her association with
2193-415: Was considered more of an activity, rather than a viable career option, so her parents refused to allow her to dance. She did not seriously consider dancing as a career until after she graduated from college. When de Mille's younger sister was prescribed ballet classes to cure her flat feet, de Mille joined her. De Mille lacked flexibility and technique, though, and did not have a dancer's body. Classical ballet
2244-412: Was in 1931 by director Cecil B. DeMille , who employed him as dance director. While filming Cleopatra (1934), Prinz clashed with DeMille's niece Agnes de Mille , who was brought in to choreograph dance sequences. According to Agnes de Mille's biographer, her uncle always deferred to the "reliable but pedestrian" Prinz, even after agreeing to his niece's flamboyant dances in advance. Agnes de Mille left
2295-477: Was not able to support or advance McCracken's artistic development. However, he gave her latitude to incorporate ballet in her dance routine, and Prinz did not object to her ideas. Prinz worked again with James Cagney, eight years after Yankee Doodle Dandy , on West Point Story , also starring Virginia Mayo and Doris Day . He ceased working in films after choreographing the Boar's Tooth Ceremonial dance sequence in
2346-414: Was reissued in 2015 by New York Review Books . De Mille was a lifelong friend of modern dance legend Martha Graham . De Mille, in 1992, published Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham , a biography of Graham that de Mille worked on for more than 30 years. After suffering from a near-fatal stroke, she wrote five books: Reprieve (which outlined the experience), Who Was Henry George? , Where
2397-463: Was separated from his flight on his first venture into German territory, and returned home with minor injuries after a perilous journey. According to his obituary in the Los Angeles Times , Prinz returned to the U.S. in 1919 and studied theater at Northwestern University . After graduation from Northwestern, the newspaper reported, Prinz returned to France and worked as a choreographer for
2448-731: Was teaching dance at a vacation camp for wounded veterans. The newspaper wrote that Prinz had "fallen 3000 feet" but had recovered. In various newspaper profiles, Prinz claimed that he worked as a dancer at a bordello in Omaha, as an aviation instructor for the Mexican government, and that he ferried ammunition for the Nicaraguan rebel leader, Augusto César Sandino . He told interviewers that he worked for gangster Jim Colosimo 's restaurant in Chicago, and that he produced stage shows for Al Capone . He claimed in
2499-443: Was the daughter of Henry George , the economist. On her father's side, Agnes was the granddaughter of playwrights Henry Churchill de Mille and Matilda Beatrice deMille . Her paternal grandmother was of German-Jewish descent. She had a love for acting and originally wanted to be an actress, but was told that she was "not pretty enough", so she turned her attention to dance. As a child, she had longed to dance, but dance at this time
2550-414: Was the most widely known dance form at this time, and de Mille's apparent lack of ability limited her opportunities. She taught herself from watching film stars on the set with her father in Hollywood; these were more interesting for her to watch than perfectly turned out legs, and she developed strong character work and compelling performances. One of de Mille's early jobs, thanks to her father's connections,
2601-532: Was twice nominated in this category for the 1935 films All the King's Horses and The Big Broadcast of 1936 . He was awarded the Golden Globe for best film choreography in 1958. Though known mainly for his work as a dance director on big-budget musicals, he directed a number of mainly short films, one of which, A Boy and His Dog (1946), won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film . A New York Times profile wrote that "his life story reads more like
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