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A former chairman of the NBC television network, Scott presided during the mid-1960s, when color broadcasting was starting to become popular. No one really wanted to commit to paying the costs for upgrading the network's facilities to full time color, but Scott pushed it through anyway, convincing not only NBC's corporate parent, RCA, but also pressuring the movie studios to produce more programs on color film. The network's "color schedule", begun in 1965, resulted in the slogan, "The Full Color Network". That led to the "NBC Peacock", which still graces NBC today. Scott died March 12 of pneumonia in Carmel, Calif., at age 84. From This is True for 14 March 1999 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Sidney Poitier List Price: $14.95 Amazon Price: $13.18 Editorial Review: "I have no wish to play the pontificating fool, pretending that I?ve suddenly come up with the answers to all life?s questions. Quite that contrary, I began this book as an exploration, an exercise in self-questing. In other words, I wanted to find out, as I looked back at a long and complicated life, with many twists and turns, how well I?ve done at measuring up to the values I myself have set." --Sidney Poitier In this luminous memoir, a true American icon looks back on his celebrated life and career. His body of work is arguably the most morally significant in cinematic history, and the power and influence of that work are indicative of the character of the man behind the many storied roles. Sidney Poitier here explores these elements of character and personal values to take his own measure -- as a man, as a husband and a father, and as an actor. Poitier credits his parents and his childhood on tiny Cat Island in the Bahamas for equipping him with the unflinching sense of right and wrong and of self-worth that he has never surrendered and that have dramatically shaped his world. "In the kind of place where I grew up," recalls Poitier, "what?s coming at you is the sound of the sea and the smell of the wind and momma?s voice and the voice of your dad and the craziness of your brothers and sisters ? and that?s it." Without television, radio, and material distractions to obscure what matters most, he could enjoy the simple things, endure the long commitments, and find true meaning in his life. Poitier was uncompromising as he pursued a personal and public life that would honor his upbringing and the invaluable legacy of his parents. Just a few years after his introduction to indoor plumbing and the automobile, Poitier broke racial barrier after racial barrier to launch a pioneering acting career. Committed to the notion that what one does for a living articulates to who one is, Poitier played only forceful and affecting characters who said something positive, useful, and lasting about the human condition. Here is Poitier?s own introspective look at what has informed his performances and his life. Poitier explores the nature of sacrifice and commitment, price and humility, rage and forgiveness, and paying the price for artistic integrity. What emerges is a picture of a man in the face of limits ? his own and the world?s. A triumph of the spirit, The Measure of a Man captures the essential Poitier.  By: David RitzEtta James List Price: $18.00 Amazon Price: $13.24 Editorial Review: Here is the story of perhaps the finest soul singer of the rock era--Etta James. One of the great women of American music, equally at home singing blues and jazz, Etta regales us with tales of her chaotic childhood, the stars she has known, and her troubled trip to stardom in this mesmerizing autobiography.  By: Frederick Douglass Amazon Price: $12.42 Editorial Review: This new edition of the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" is the first prepared especially for American history courses. David W. Blight's extensive introduction and the related materials he provides place the Narrative in both its historical and literary contexts. The book also includes a chronology of Douglass's life, a bibliography, questions for consideration, illustrations and an index.  By: Miles Davis List Price: $17.00 Amazon Price: $11.68 Editorial Review: For more than forty years Miles Davis has been in the front rank of American music. Universally acclaimed as a musical genius, Miles is one of the most important and influential musicians in the world. The subject of several biographies, now Miles speaks out himself about his extraordinary life. Miles: The Autobiography, like Miles himself, holds nothing back. For the first time Miles talks about his five-year silence. He speaks frankly and openly about his drug problem and how he overcame it. He condemns the racism he has encountered in the music business and in American society generally. And he discusses the women in his life. But above all, Miles talks about music and musicians, including the legends he has played with over the years: Bird, Dizzy, Monk, Trane, Mingus, and many others. The man who has given us some of the most exciting music of the past few decades has now given us a compelling and fascinating autobiography, featuring a concise discography and thirty-two pages of photographs.  By: Timothy White List Price: $18.00 Amazon Price: $12.24 Editorial Review: The classic biography of reggae legend Bob Marley, updated and revised for the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death Bob Marley left an indelible mark on modern music, both as a reggae pioneer and as an enduring cultural icon. Catch a Fire, now a classic of rock biography, delves into the life of the leader of a musical, spiritual, and political explosion that continues today. Under the supervision of the author?s widow and with the collaboration of a Marley expert, this fourth edition contains a wealth of new material, including many revisions made by the author before his untimely death. An appendix to the new edition chronicles Marley?s legacy in recent years, as well as the ongoing controversy over the possibility that Marley?s remains might be exhumed from Nine Mile, Jamaica, and reburied in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where hundreds of Rastafarians live. The new edition also contains an expanded discography and is factually updated throughout. ?Probably the finest biography ever written about a popular musician.? ?San Francisco Chronicle ?As close as rock journalism comes to transcendent literature.? ?Playboy ?White has a deep appreciation for reggae?s immediacy, hypnotic power, and contradictions . . . An exhaustively researched labor of love.? ?Chicago Sun-Times Bob Marley, reggae superstar and pop culture icon, left an indelible mark on modern music. Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley delves deep into the life of the lionized leader of a musical, spiritual, and political explosion that still reverberates more than a decade after his death. Almost nothing pertaining to the life of Bob Marley is left out; the origins of Rastafarianism (the Ethiopian religion that was the keystone of his life), the roots of the reggae sound, the Jamaican political and social debacle that informed his lyrics--this is a comprehensive account of the life of the artist and the times that produced him. Catch a Fire is assiduously researched; the details writer Timothy White presents of the King of Reggae's life are cinematic in scope and, at times, cumbersome. White includes much of his primary source material, ranging from full interviews with band members to unearthed CIA documents, and devotes a whole section to describing his exhaustive research process. The final product is rich with elements of spiritual tome, rock biography, and history text; it is a hagiographic epic--the story of a man and his legend. --Brendan J. LaSalle |
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