juilus shulman died he was 98

Julius Shulman was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph "Case Study House #22^[1], Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as The Stahl House. Shulman's photography spread California modernism around the world. Through his many books, exhibits and personal appearances his work ushered in a new appreciation for the movement beginning in the 1990s. His vast library of images currently reside at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. His contemporaries include Ezra Stoller and Hedrich Blessing. In 1947, Julius Shulman asked architect Raphael Soriano to build a mid-century steel home and studio in the Hollywood Hills.

Some of his architectural photographs, like the iconic shots of Frank Lloyd Wright's or Pierre Koenig's remarkable structures, have been published countless times. The brilliance of buildings like those by Charles Eames, as well as those of his close friend, Richard Neutra, was first brought to light by Shulman's photography. The clarity of his work demanded that architectural photography had to be considered as an independent art form. Each Shulman image unites perception and understanding for the buildings and their place in the landscape. The precise compositions reveal not just the architectural ideas behind a building's surface, but also the visions and hopes of an entire age. A sense of humanity is always present in his work, even when the human figure is absent from the actual photographs.

Today, a great many of the buildings documented by Shulman have disappeared or been crudely converted, but the thirst for his pioneering images is stronger than ever before.

(October 10, 1910 – July 15, 2009)

In 1987, the Shulman House was designated a Cultural Heritage Monument by the City of Los Angeles.

In 2000 Julius Shulman gave up retirement to begin working with his current business partner Juergen Nogai.

The Getty Research Institute held a 2005–2006 exhibition of Shulman's prints entitled "Julius Shulman, Modernity and the Metropolis"^[2]. The exhibition included sections entitled "Framing the California Lifestyle," "Promoting the Power of Modern Architecture," "The Tools of an Innovator," and "The Development of a Metropolis"^[2]. The exhibition traveled to the National Building Museum^[3] and to the Art Institute of Chicago^[4].

Julius Shulman and Juergen Nogai have had exhibitions at the Design and Architecture Museum in Frankfurt, Germany in Fall of 2005, as well as an exhibition at the Barnsdall Municipal Gallery in Los Angeles 2006, Craig Krull Gallery Bergamont station, Los Angeles, October 2007, and another up-coming show in Spring 2009. An exhibition of their work is also scheduled in Mannheim, Germany in 2010.

On December 16, 2007 Shulman attended a showing of his architectural photography at the Los Angeles Public Library^[5]. The exhibit, organized by the Getty Research Institute, included one hundred fifty photographs documenting architectural changes in Los Angeles for the last eighty years. This progression includes the re-development of Bunker Hill, the growth of Century City, the avant-garde architectural designs in Los Angeles, such as Watts Towers, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and the Getty Villa, as well as the growth of Wilshire Boulevard. The exhibition features the industrial engines at the Port of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles International Airport that helped fuel the growth of Los Angeles Also, featured diverse residential fabric from Echo Park to South Los Angeles. The exhibit spot-lighted Shulman's unique role in capturing and promoting innovative, sleek Case Study Houses, as well as the contrasting tract housing developments with repeated floor plans.

In February, 2008, the Palm Springs Art Museum presented "Julius Shulman: Palm Springs," guest curated by Michael Stern. Containing over 200 objects, this is the largest Julius Shulman exhibition that has ever been presented to date. In addition to the Shulman photographs, renderings, illustrations and models of many of the buildings that Shulman photographed were presented to compliment Shulman's extensive documentation of a place that was so inspirational to him. Rizzoli published the accompanying catalog, "Julius Shulman: Palm Springs." Additionally, a documentary DVD was produced in conjunction with the exhibition "Julius Shulman: Desert Modern."

Selected Shulman works were included in the Annenberg Space for Photography's inaugural exhibit, L8S ANG3LES ^[6]. One of his last commissioned works was of the Space, which opened in March, 2009, with Shulman in attendance.

Shulman was the subject of a 2008 documentary film, "Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman." The film, narrated by Dustin Hoffman and directed by Eric Bricker, explores both Shulman’s art and uniquely individualistic life offering a lyrical portrait of modernism’s most eloquent ambassador. It discusses how Shulman's images helped to shape the careers of influential 20th century architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra and John Lautner. The film won the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Shulman died at his home in Los Angeles, California on Wednesday, July 15, 2009, he was 98 years old.^[7]

Fayette Pinkney died she was 61

Fayette Pinkney died she was 61, Pikney was an African American singer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was one of the original members of the female soul group The Three Degrees.

(January 10, 1948 – June 27, 2009)

In the early 1960s, Pinkney was one of three young teenagers brought together by manager Richard Barrett to form The Three Degrees. She was a part of the group until 1976.

Pinkney subsequently earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Temple University and a master's degree from Lincoln University in 1984.

She worked as a counselor and vocal coach. In addition to singing with her church's inspirational choir, she traveled with a group called the Intermezzo Choir Ministry. She loved to spend time with her great nieces and nephews, and was lively at family parties, as she loved to spend time with family.

On January 15, 1994, Pinkney gave birth to a daughter, Ayana Alexandria, who died a few days later due to sudden infant death syndrome.

She died on June 27, 2009. She had been sick for two weeks beforehand, and in the hospital.

Zena Marshall died she was 84

Zena Moyra Marshall died she was 84, Marshal was a British actress of film and television.

Marshall's film career dated from 1945, with a small role in Caesar and Cleopatra, with Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh. Her exotic looks resulted in her being cast in 'ethnic' roles, such as Asian women, including her role as the Chinese character Miss Taro, in the first James Bond film, Dr. No (1962).

Marshall also appeared in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965). She appeared in television series in the 1950s and the 1960s, including three appearances (as different characters) on Danger Man.

Her most recent film credit was a 1971 made-for-TV production, Act of Betrayal.

(January 1, 1925 – July 10, 2009)

Water Cronkite died he was 92

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. ^[2][3][4] was an American broadcast journalist,

best known as
anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–81). During the heyday of CBS News in the 1970s and 1980s, he was often cited in viewer opinion polls as "the most trusted man in America" because of his professional experience and kindly demeanor.^[5][6] Cronkite died on July 17, 2009 at the age of 92 from cerebrovascular disease^[7], described by his son as complications from Dementia^[8].

(November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009)

Cronkite was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, the son of Helen Lena (née Fritsche) and Dr. Walter Leland Cronkite, a dentist.^[9][10] He had remote Dutch ancestry on his father's side, the family surname originally being Krankheyt.^[11]

Cronkite lived in Kansas City, Missouri until he was ten, when his family moved to Houston, Texas.^[9] He attended junior high school at Lanier Junior High School (now Lanier Middle School) and high school at San Jacinto High School where he edited the high school newspaper.^[1] He was a member of the Boy Scouts. He attended college at The University of Texas at Austin, where he worked on The Daily Texan, and became a member of the Nu chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity.^[12][1] He also was a member of the Houston chapter of DeMolay, a Masonic fraternal organization for boys. It was while attending the University of Texas that Cronkite had his first taste of performance appearing in a play with fellow students Eli Wallach and Ann Sheridan.

Cronkite died on July 17, 2009 at his home in New York City, at the age of 92. He is believed to have died from cerebral vascular disease.^[40]

World's Oldest' Mom Gave Birth at 66, Dead at 69; Leaves Behind Twins

A Spanish woman believed to have become the world's oldest new mother when she gave birth at age 66 has died, leaving behind twin toddlers, newspapers reported Tuesday.

Maria del Carmen Bousada, who reportedly died Saturday at age 69, gave birth in December 2006 as a single mother after getting in vitro fertilization treatment.

She told an interviewer she lied to a California fertility clinic about her age, and maintained that because her mother had lived to be 101, she had a good chance of living long enough to raise a child.

Bousada's death was reported by the newspaper El Mundo and Diario de Cadiz. Cadiz is the southern province where Bousada lived her whole life.

Diario de Cadiz quoted her brother, Ricardo Bousada, as confirming her death but refusing to disclose the cause. The newspaper said she had been diagnosed with a tumor shortly after giving birth.

There was no word on who would raise the children, named Pau and Christian. Bousada had once said she would look for a younger man to help her raise them.

In January 2007, she told the British tabloid News of the World that she sold her house to raise $59,000 to pay for the in vitro fertilization.

Dallas McKennon, American voice actor died he was 89

Dallas McKennon in "Daniel Boone." Photo: 20th Century Fox

Voice actor Dallas McKennon has passed away at 89, just shy of his 90th birthday, which would have been July 19.

Born in La Grande, Oregon, McKennon's best-known roles were that of Gumby for Art Clokey, and Archie Andrews for Filmation's Archie series, and the primary voice of Buzz Buzzard in the Woody Woodpecker cartoons. In the early 1950s, McKennon created and hosted his own daily kids TV wraparound show, Space Funnies/Capt. Jet, which was seen weekday mornings on KNXT (KCBS) TV Ch. 2 in Hollywood, California. Space Funnies was the first Los Angeles-based kids show to air reruns of The Little Rascals and Laurel & Hardy Film Comedies. He was also the primary voice actor for the 1960 cartoon series Q.T. Hush.

He also sang, and provided many character voices for Disney. His distinctive voice can be heard in movies such as Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Mary Poppins, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. He also provided the voices for many Disney Attractions such as the famous Big Thunder Mountain Railroad safety spiel, Ben Franklin's voice in Epcot's American Adventure and the voice of Zeke in the Country Bear Jamboree.^[1]

His best-known live action role is that of the innkeeper, Cincinnatus, in the Daniel Boone TV series starring Fess Parker. He also had a bit part as a gas station attendant in the Elvis Presley film Clambake.

While best known for his extensive work as a voice for various animated features (including Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the Tramp, 101 Dalmations, The Jungle Book, and Mary Poppins), McKennon also voiced numerous voice tracks used in the Disney theme parks - most notably his warning for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, in which he exclaimed "Hold on to your hats and glasses... this here's the wildest ride in the wilderness!" In Epcot, McKennon's voice gives life to an Audio-Animatronic Ben Franklin - another notable role.

Haunted Mansion afficienados might note that McKennon also voiced the deaf old man in the Haunted Mansion's graveyard, who, unable to decipher the mummy muttering through his bandages, has been doomed to an eternity of croaking out "What's that? Louder!" Additionally, McKennon claimed that he was also the voice behind the whimpering dog outside the graveyard gates, as well as a few assorted moans, groans and wails from inside the attraction - including the famously horrifying scream inside of the stretching gallery.

"Since he does some of the Haunted Mansion screams, his fans may be interested to know that he can be seen doing that on-screen in the schlocky Vincent Price movie "The Tingler," if they remember that one," recalled Tim Hollis, author of Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records. "Toward the end of the picture, Dal appears as a projectionist in a movie theater, with a giant rubber grubworm locked around his throat. Dal then lets loose with practically the same scream you hear in the Haunted Mansion stretch room."

Having had the pleasure of corresponding with McKennon many years ago, this writer recalls his wit and the pleasure he took in acknowleding his fans. In speaking with his daughter, she expressed delight in the number of fans that admired his work for Disney, as she wasn't sure the company had fully recognized his contributions to the theme parks.

Beyond the parks and films, McKennon was also a prolific contributor to Disneyland Records, appearing on numerous recordings over a period of nearly 15 years, beginning with 1957's "Stories of Uncle Remus." Outside of Disney, McKennon voiced many famous cartoon characters (including Gumby and Archie), and he also was featured in many live-action films and shows. Many people may remember McKennon as Cincinnatus the shopkeeper in the television series "Daniel Boone."

Sir Edward Downes died he was 85

Sir Edward Thomas Downes died he was 85, he was an English conductor, specialising in opera.
(17 June 1924 – 10 July 2009)

Known as Ted Downes, he was associated with the Royal Opera House from 1952, and with Opera Australia from 1970. He was also well known for his long working relationship with the BBC Philharmonic and for working with the Netherlands Radio Orchestra. Within the field of opera, he was particularly known as a conductor of Verdi.

He and his wife both committed assisted suicide at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland on 10 July 2009, an event that received significant publicity.

Downes was born in Birmingham, England on 17 June 1924, son of a bank teller. He took up the piano and violin when he was five and sang as a boy chorister. At age sixteen he won a scholarship to the University of Birmingham where he studied English literature and music, and began playing the cor anglais. Downes's pursuit of conducting was aided by a two-year Carnegie scholarship from the University of Aberdeen, which allowed him to study with Hermann Scherchen after postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music.^[1]

In the 1960s, he married Joan, a dancer with the Royal Ballet. She later became a choreographer and television producer. They had two children: a son, Caractacus, (born December 1967), who is a musician and recording engineer, and a daughter Boudicca, a video producer.

The conductor's long and fruitful association with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, began in 1952 with his appointment as an assistant to Rafael Kubelík. His first job was prompting Maria Callas.^[1] He remained a company member for 17 years, returning annually thereafter as a guest conductor before assuming the post of Associate Music Director in 1991. Downes conducted at least 950 performances of 49 operas at Covent Garden.^[2]

Elsewhere, he became the Australian Opera's Music Director in 1970, conducting the first performance in the Sydney Opera House in 1973^[1] (the Australian premiere of War and Peace by Sergei Prokofiev). He was Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Orchestra until 1983. While Downes worked with many of the world's symphony orchestras, he enjoyed a particularly long relationship with the BBC Philharmonic (formerly the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra), serving as its Chief Guest Conductor, then Principal Conductor,^[3] and finally as Conductor Emeritus.

Downes was noted for his championing of British music, and for Prokofiev and Verdi. He advocated the symphonies of George Lloyd and premiered works by Peter Maxwell Davies and Malcolm Arnold. His passion for Prokofiev was felt in performances of both major and lesser-known Prokofiev scores throughout the world. He conducted the British première of War and Peace in a concert performance at Leeds Town Hall in 1967, and orchestrated Prokofiev's one-act opera Maddalena in 1979 and subsequently gave its world premiere.

Downes's first experience of conducting the music of Verdi came in 1953 when Rafael Kubelík withdrew from a Covent Garden Otello and Downes led the opera with no rehearsal. He felt on home ground, and then championed Verdi revivals in England. He conducted 25 of Verdi's 28 operas, and devised the idea to perform all of them in time for the 2001 centenary of the composer's death. Downes's regret was that he never conducted Alzira, Un Giorno di Regno or, especially, Les vêpres siciliennes. The conductor said: "I seemed to understand Verdi as a person. He was a peasant. He had one foot in heaven and one on the earth. And this is why he appeals to all classes of people, from those who know everything about music to those who are hearing it for the first time."^[4]

Downes was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1986 New Year Honours,^[5] and knighted in the 1991 Queen's Birthday Honours.^[6]

Eighty five year old Downes and his 74 year old wife ended their lives by assisted suicide at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland on 10 July 2009. Their children issued a statement speaking of "serious health problems" suffered by the couple, including Lady Downes's terminal cancer and Sir Edward's blindness.^[7][8] The statement issued by the couple's children said that while Downes could go on living with his deafness and blindness, he did not want to do so after his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer.^[1]