#George Treadwell

[lacitadeldia]

[roundmidnightroundmidnight]

'Round Midnight is a jazz standard composed by jazz pianist Thelonious Monk, and is the most recorded jazz standard written by a jazz musician. Despite Monk composing the tune, the first recording was actually by Cootie Williams, who helped Monk with its composition. Williams' original rendition predates Monk's by 3 years - being recorded on August 22, 1944.

I think it'll be interesting to see how different people interpret this standard, both across individual musicians' performances and across styles and instrumentations. I think that kind of variation is what makes jazz special and unique in the world of music - there's no single, correct, or "true" version of any song, just someone's own way, which is in constant communication with the performers and performances they learned from, borrowed from, and were inspired by. Compared to the back catalogs of classical music where there's room for expression but not the same room for experimentation, or to rock or pop which are so chained by copyright it's hard to iterate on shared songs, it's wholly unique.

Jazz can be impenetrable to people who don't know much about it, and I don't feel anything like an expert myself, but hopefully this is a good microcosm to hear different styles and approaches and for people to learn about the whole musical tradition broadly. For this experiment, this recording is the baseline, the root of the whole evolutionary tree. I encourage you to return to it occasionally, compare it to that night's recording of 'Round Midnight, see just how wide the tree of jazz can branch.

Performers in the August 22, 1944 session:

Trumpet: Cootie Williams Trumpet: Ermit V. Perry Trumpet: George Treadwell Trumpet: Lammar Wright Trumpet: Tommy Stevenson Trombone: Ed Burke Trombone: Ed Glover Trombone: Robert Horton Alto sax: Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson Alto sax: Frank Powell Tenor sax: Sam "The Man" Taylor Tenor sax: Lee Pope Baritone sax: Eddie de Verteuil Piano: Bud Powell Guitar: Leroy Kirkland Bass: Carl Pruitt Drums: Sylvester "Vess" Payne

[detroitlib]

Portrait of Sarah Vaughan. Printed on front: "Sarah Vaughan. Personal management, George Treadwell. Tour direction, Gale Agency, Inc., 48 West 48 St., New York, City. James Kriegsmann, N.Y."

E. Azalia Hackley Collection of African Americans in the Performing Arts, Detroit Public Library

[lboogie1906]

Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was a jazz singer.

She was born in Newark, New Jersey. Both of her parents were amateur musicians and they provided her piano lessons as a child as well as a solid background in vocals, as a member of her mother’s church choir. By 1943, she was ready to make music her career. Despite her natural shyness and lack of stage polish, she won an amateur contest at Harlem’s renowned Apollo Theatre. That performance led to her “discovery” by Billy Eckstine who helped her become a vocalist and musician with the Earl Hines Band. She left Hines’s band to join Eckstine’s new orchestra and make her recording debut.

By 1946, she was a solo artist who was rapidly becoming well-known as one of the first jazz artists to use “bop” phrasing in her singing. During the 1950s, she adopted a new style that allowed her to record numerous “pop” tunes that were commercially successful. While her embrace of pop music scandalized jazz purists, it widened her fan base and demonstrated her business acumen, which many of her colleagues grew to admire.

While she never gained the public renown of fellow performers such as Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holliday, she is considered to have one of the greatest voices in the business and is credited with being a major force behind the popularity of “bop” music. Some of her biggest hits include such classics as “Misty,” “My Funny Valentine,” and “Tenderly.” Her determination and ability to fit in with the male-dominated world of jazz music earned her the moniker “Sassy.” Her flawless voice earned her the title “the Divine One;” but it was the breadth of her impact on the world of jazz and music in general that earned her multiple Grammy’s, including the 1989 Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as a place in the Jazz Hall of Fame.

She married Waymon Reed (1978–1981), Marshall Fisher (1971–1977), Clyde B. Atkins (1958–1963), and George Treadwell (1946–1958). She had one daughter, who worked in the 1980s and 1990s as an actress under the name Paris Vaughan. She was the mother-in-law of former NHL star Russ Courtnall. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #zetaphibeta #womenhistorymonth

[byneddiedingo]

Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, and Lew Morphy in Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)

Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson, Dorothy Adams. Screenplay: Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, Elizabeth Reinhardt, based on a novel by Vera Caspary. Cinematography: Joseph LaShelle. Art direction: Leland Fuller, Lyle R. Wheeler. Film editing: Louis R. Loeffler. Music: David Raksin. 

Laura is a film noir spin on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, with a Henry Higgins called Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) whose protégée is an Eliza Doolittle called Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney). It's also a spin on the classical myth of Pygmalion, who fell in love with the statue of Galatea he had sculpted, bringing her to life. This Pygmalion is a detective, Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews), who falls in love with the portrait of Laura, who he thinks has been murdered, and is startled when she walks through the door, very much alive. Classical underpinning aside, Laura has become such an enduring movie because of its well-scripted story and sardonic dialogue (some of it contributed by an uncredited Ring Lardner Jr.) and the performances of Webb, Tierney, and Andrews, along with Vincent Price as the decadent Shelby Carpenter and Judith Anderson as the predatory Ann Treadwell. But most important of all, it was directed with the right attention to its slyly nasty tone by Otto Preminger, one of the most underrated Hollywood directors of the 1940s and '50s. Like such acerbic films as The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) and All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950), Laura is full of characters one would be well advised to steer clear of in real life, but who make for tremendous entertainment when viewed on a screen from a safe distance. It makes a feint at a conventional happily romantic ending, with Laura supposedly going off with McPherson, but do we really believe it? Laura Hunt has shown dubious taste in men -- whom McPherson characterizes as "a remarkable collection of dopes"-- including the desiccated fop Waldo and the smarmy kept man Shelby. So it's hard to believe the social butterfly Lydecker has created is going to settle down happily with a man who, as Waldo says once, fell in love with her when she was a corpse and apparently has never had a relationship with a woman other than the "doll in Washington Heights who once got a fox fur outta" him. Laura is notable, too, for its deft evasions of the Production Code, including Laura's hinted-at out-of-wedlock liaisons, which are at the same time undercut by the suggestions that Waldo and Shelby are gay -- another Code taboo. (Shelby, for example, has an exceptional interest in women's hats, including one of Laura's and the one of Ann's that he calls "completely wonderful.") This shouldn't surprise us, as Preminger went on to be one of the most aggressive Code-breakers, challenging its sexual taboos in The Moon Is Blue (1953) and its strictures on the depiction of drug use in The Man With the Golden Arm (1955), and giving the enforcers fits with Anatomy of a Murder (1959). In addition to the contributions to Laura's classic status already mentioned, there is also the familiar score by David Raksin. (Johnny Mercer added lyrics to its main theme after the film was released, creating the song  "Laura.") And Joseph LaShelle won an Oscar for the film's cinematography. 

[carmenvicinanza]

Sarah Vaughan

https://www.unadonnalgiorno.it/sarah-vaughan/

Sarah Vaughan è stata una vera leggenda del jazz, cantante e pianista, ha inciso oltre cinquanta dischi.

Quattro volte vincitrice dei Grammy Award, incluso un Lifetime Achievement Award, nel 1989 il National Endowment for the Arts, le ha conferito il NEA Jazz Masters Award, la più alta onorificenza statunitense del genere jazz.

Nacque a Newark il 27 marzo 1924 in una famiglia di umili origini che amava la musica, sua madre cantava nel coro della chiesa e suo padre suonava la chitarra e il pianoforte che lei iniziò a studiare a soli tre anni. Da bambina si esibiva come organista e solista del coro di una chiesa battista. A quindici anni lasciò la scuola per dedicarsi completamente alla musica.

A diciotto anni vinse un concorso canoro al mitico Apollo Theater di Harlem che le consentì di aprire il concerto di Ella Fitzgerald dove fu notata dal cantante Billy Eckstine che la fece entrare nell’orchestra diretta da Earl Hines.

La sua carriera da solista è iniziata nel 1945.

Ha inciso dischi con i più grandi musicisti e compositori di tutti i tempi come Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis e sfornato un successo dopo l’altro. Molte sono le sue canzoni rimaste nella storia della musica di tutti i tempi.

Aveva una profonda carica interpretativa e la capacità di controllare ogni dettaglio, dall’intensità del vibrato e del volume, all’articolazione delle sillabe. Una parte della critica la giudicava troppo manierata, accusandola di crogiolarsi troppo nei virtuosismi, ma lei riusciva sempre a stupire il suo pubblico, trasmettendo il suo enorme potenziale attraverso ogni tipo di repertorio.

In bilico tra la passione e le esigenze del mercato, Sarah Vaughan ostentava una forte personalità ma in realtà era fragile, insicura e dipendente da fumo e droghe. Sboccata e impertinente i colleghi le avevano appioppato vari soprannomi come Sailor e Sassy, il pubblico, invece, la chiamava La Divina.

Una profonda amicizia l’ha legata al suo mentore Billy Eckstine, con il quale ha realizzato storici duetti e che chiamava padre e anche my blood (il mio sangue). Erano talmente uniti che, alla notizia della sua morte, l’uomo subì un colpo apoplettico.

Nella sua travagliata e sofferta vita sentimentale si è sposata per ben quattro volte. Il primo è stato il trombettista George Treadwell che divenne anche il suo manager e ne decise il look, capelli, abiti e addirittura le fece cambiare la dentatura. Il secondo è stato il giocatore di football Clyde Atkins con cui, nel 1961 adottò una bambina, Debra Lois, attrice cinematografica nota col nome d’arte Paris Vaughan. Il loro matrimonio fu breve perché lui era un violento. Ha sposato poi Marshall Fisher, ristoratore di Las Vegas e ancora il trombettista Waymon Reed.

Sarah Vaughan è morta a Hidden Hills, il 3 aprile 1990, aveva sessantasei anni.

L’anno successivo la musicista Carmen McRae l’ha omaggiata col disco Dedicated to Sarah, in cui ha interpretato i suoi maggiori successi. Sempre nel 1991 si è tenuto un tributo alla Carnegie Hall che ha visto l’esibizione di importanti musicisti e musiciste.

Dal 1998 è presente nella Hall of Fame con due dischi, l’album Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown del 1954 e il singolo If You Could See Me Now del 1946.

Nel 2003 Berkeley e San Francisco hanno proclamato il 27 marzo, sua data di nascita, il Sarah Lois Vaughan Day.

Nel 2016 le è stata dedicata la versione 4.7 della piattaforma WordPress.

[radio-tvmickyandoniesigloxx]

#undíacomohoy

[back-and-totheleft]

With no more Illusion, Stone quits producing

Director Oliver Stone and his producing partner Dan Halsted will dissolve their Illusion Entertainment shingle, they announced. Stone, who just finished directing the gridiron ensemble drama “Any Given Sunday,” has decided to shed his role of producing films directed by others to concentrate on his own writing and directing efforts.

The company essentially will come to a halt when Illusion’s first-look deal with Mandalay Pictures and its financing arrangement with Franchise Pictures concludes during the summer. Both said the move was amicable and that they will continue to collaborate on projects that Stone might direct.

Halsted, who separately produced the Cannes-bound film “The Virgin Suicides” and the upcoming Wesley Snipes starrer “The Art of War,” is expected to open his own production company shortly, and will continue to shepherd the Illusion TV and feature projects he and Stone hatched together. “I now have the best of both worlds, a continuing relationship with Oliver and the ability to pursue other avenues,” Halsted said in a statement.

The inventory of active Illusion projects for TV and features numbers about 20 and includes several possible helming assignments for the two-time, Oscar-winning director. Those include “Valhalla,” the Michael Blake-scripted story of Gen. George Custer at New Line, which could be Stone’s next film; a Stone-penned adaptation of the Ayn Rand novel “The Fountainhead” at Warner Bros.; and a Kario Salem-scripted biopic of Martin Luther King Jr., also at Warners. Additionally, there is an untitled love story by Caspian Treadwell Owen involving a U.N. relief worker that’s set up at Mandalay.

Met at Disney

Stone met Halsted when the latter was an exec at Disney and Stone planned to direct “Evita” there. Stone left the project and Halsted ankled the executive suites to join him in 1995. Halsted became a producer of films that include “Any Given Sunday” (which wrapped second-unit just work days ago), “Nixon” and “U-Turn,” as well as the pics “Freeway” and “The Corruptor” and the PBS docu “Assassinated: The Last Days of Kennedy and King.” Stone said he got along with Halsted fine, but the stress of producing was taking its toll.

“Life has just gotten too hectic, and the price of producing was often too high,” Stone said. “I wasn’t trying to be overtly commercial, and tried to help a lot of first-time directors, which was something I wanted to do since NYU Film School because I remembered how hard it was to get a first film off the ground. We never had a major success, but we made some pictures I’m proud of.”

Stone felt that his high profile and the controversies associated with such films as “JFK” and “Natural Born Killers” often colored the media perception of projects he produced, such as “People vs. Larry Flynt.”

“I can recall reading negative criticism on that film that went out of its way to single me out,” Stone said. “After a while, you start getting the message.”

Stone sounded tired after just completing the signal calling on the John Logan-scripted gridiron drama for Warner Bros. with a cast that includes Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Cameron Diaz, Lauren Holly and Jamie Foxx. The film’s expected to open sometime during this fall’s football season.

“It was a very hard 65-day shoot and left me feeling that football is tougher to shoot than war,” said Stone, who directed the battlefield dramas “Platoon” and “Born on the Fourth of July.”

Stone will revive Ixtlan, the production company he formed in 1977, but only to shepherd his own directing vehicles.

“We’ll move forward the projects that are for me, but otherwise, I’m finished, I’m not producing anymore,” Stone said. “It’s overwhelming, the phone calls, the unsolicited manuscripts are never-ending, and I’d like to go back to writing.”

Asked his best memory as a producer, Stone said one indelible moment came during filming of the riot scene for “Natural Born Killers,” which got out of hand and had the filmmaker and crew fearing for their safety. “It was in danger of becoming a full-scale riot in Joliet, but I found I had the support of the leader of the biggest black gang,” Stone said. “It turned out that the guy, who was about 350 pounds, loved ‘South Central,’ a small movie I’d produced about a man paroled from jail who tries to save his son.”

-Michael Fleming, "With no more Illusion, Stone quits producing," Variety, May 4 1999

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Playing

Sarah Vaughan THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA SINGLES (1949-1953)

Featuring Miles Davis. Bennie Green, Jimmy Jones, Budd Johnson, Joe Lippman, Hugo Winterhalter, George Treadwell, Norman Leyden, Paul Weston, Percy Faith

[martyn7985]

Review - The Drifters Girl

This week Venue Cymru has welcomed the smash hit musical The Drifters Girl to their stage. Telling the remarkable story of The Drifters, one of the world’s greatest vocal groups, and the truth about the woman who made them. Faye Treadwell is the legendary manager of The Drifters who fought for three decades alongside her husband (George Treadwell) to turn Atlantic Records’ hottest vocal group…

[d-portifolio]

MACHINAL: WHEN A WOMAN'S FREEDOM CAN BE SO IMPOSSIBLE THAT SHE MUST KILL AND DIE TO HAVE IT.

A play review by Eduarda Fattori

Machinal is a play by Sophie Treadwell that had its Broadway premiere in 1928. The play depicts the story of a woman who kills her husband. This sentence may seem, to an unsuspecting person, a spoiler of the play's ending. But no, since Treadwell defines that the play is about the story of a woman (who the author reinforces is an “ordinary young woman, any woman”) who kills her husband, not the story of someone's murder.

In this way, it can be understood that, in the context of the play, the murder of the husband by this woman is simply the final consequence of the events of history. In addition, considering the play as a whole, it can be inferred that these events are the search for the young woman's freedom from the society that repressed her and that the murder of her husband would be her only path to emancipation.

The non-conformity of the protagonist concerning what was expected of her appears in the first episode, in which she does not adapt to the almost robotic work she had. Until the final episode, it is discussed by the people around her that her reaction, when faced with death, is unusual. This contrast brings the young woman a feeling of imprisonment throughout the play as if she was destined, or forced, to follow life in a predetermined way.

The protagonist expresses her thoughts and doubts in a stream-of-consciousness form, and these thoughts carry her inevitable disinterest in situations that others around her can enjoy pleasantly. For example, the marriage proposal from her boss, George H. Jones, could provide comfort and stability. Or motherhood, which doesn't bring her joy, but brings her a sense of duty.

In addition, the figure of the husband, whom the protagonist despises, symbolizes the patriarchal society, which overloads her with expectations as a wife, mother, and, primarily, a woman. The protagonist's inability to fulfill these expectations (she fails, in the face of social pressures, as a wife for not loving her husband, as a mother for not having a maternal instinct and, as a woman, for not being pure and having a lover) causes upon the protagonist a sort of an imposter since she doesn't see herself able to truly fulfill them as she hates being in these roles. This can be seen in the play throughout several passages. Nevertheless, it is especially remarkable in the passage in which the husband perceives her avoidance of his touch as a sign of purity and she feels uncomfortable with the “praising”, and even thinks of disagreeing with him, but, instead, silences herself.

The protagonist's dissatisfaction with situations others may consider promising explains her feelings of imprisonment and why she perceives decision-making as nothing but another way of following society’s demands. It also supports her trial, when she confesses that she killed her husband to be free. Because for her, her husband was the ultimate representation of her current life. Divorce was not an option, because even if she were no longer married she would still be stuck with her husband.

In conclusion, in addition to being a play from the first half of the 20th century, written by a woman, it portrays a woman and her questions about her role in the world and exposes taboos, from then and now in a modern way. The play has also innovated by portraying the layers of how the woman was gradually feeling more suffocated and, at the same time, motivating herself to become her own husband's killer.

[lboogie1906]

Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was a jazz singer. She was born in Newark, New Jersey. Both of her parents were amateur musicians and they provided their daughter piano lessons as a child as well as a solid background in vocals, as a member of her mother’s church choir. By 1943, she was ready to make music her career. Despite her natural shyness and lack of stage polish, she won an amateur contest at Harlem’s renowned Apollo Theatre. That performance led to her “discovery” by Billy Eckstine who helped her become a vocalist and musician with the Earl Hines Band. She left Hines’s band to join Eckstine’s new orchestra and make her recording debut. By 1946, she was a solo artist who was rapidly becoming well-known as one of the first jazz artists to use “bop” phrasing in her singing. During the 1950s, she adopted a new style that allowed her to record numerous “pop” tunes that were commercially successful. While her embrace of pop music scandalized jazz purists, it widened her fan base and demonstrated her business acumen, which many of her colleagues grew to admire. While she never gained the public renown of fellow performers such as Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holliday, she is considered to have one of the greatest voices in the business and is credited with being a major force behind the popularity of “bop” music. Some of her biggest hits include such classics as “Misty,” “My Funny Valentine,” and “Tenderly.” Her determination and ability to fit in with the male-dominated world of jazz music earned her the moniker “Sassy.” Her flawless voice earned her the title “the Divine One;” but it was the breadth of her impact on the world of jazz and music in general that earned her multiple Grammy’s, including the 1989 Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as a place in the Jazz Hall of Fame. She married Waymon Reed (1978–1981), Marshall Fisher (1971–1977), Clyde B. Atkins (1958–1963), and George Treadwell (1946–1958). She had one daughter, who worked in the 1980s and 1990s as an actress under the name Paris Vaughan. She was the mother-in-law of former NHL star Russ Courtnall. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #zetaphibeta #womenhistorymonth https://www.instagram.com/p/CqTbjkSvxhV/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[radiomax]

In Memoriam: Charlie Thomas (1937 - 2023)

Charles Thomas (April 7, 1937 – January 31, 2023) was an American singer best known for his work with The Drifters. Thomas was performing with The Five Crowns at the Apollo Theater in 1958 when George Treadwell fired his group, called The Drifters. Treadwell recruited the Five Crowns to become the new Drifters. The new Drifters’ first release was the 1959 hit “There Goes My Baby”. Charlie was…

[back-and-totheleft]

With no more Illusion, Stone quits producing

Director Oliver Stone and his producing partner Dan Halsted will dissolve their Illusion Entertainment shingle, they announced. Stone, who just finished directing the gridiron ensemble drama “Any Given Sunday,” has decided to shed his role of producing films directed by others to concentrate on his own writing and directing efforts.

The company essentially will come to a halt when Illusion’s first-look deal with Mandalay Pictures and its financing arrangement with Franchise Pictures concludes during the summer. Both said the move was amicable and that they will continue to collaborate on projects that Stone might direct.

Halsted, who separately produced the Cannes-bound film “The Virgin Suicides” and the upcoming Wesley Snipes starrer “The Art of War,” is expected to open his own production company shortly, and will continue to shepherd the Illusion TV and feature projects he and Stone hatched together. “I now have the best of both worlds, a continuing relationship with Oliver and the ability to pursue other avenues,” Halsted said in a statement.

The inventory of active Illusion projects for TV and features numbers about 20 and includes several possible helming assignments for the two-time, Oscar-winning director. Those include “Valhalla,” the Michael Blake-scripted story of Gen. George Custer at New Line, which could be Stone’s next film; a Stone-penned adaptation of the Ayn Rand novel “The Fountainhead” at Warner Bros.; and a Kario Salem-scripted biopic of Martin Luther King Jr., also at Warners. Additionally, there is an untitled love story by Caspian Treadwell Owen involving a U.N. relief worker that’s set up at Mandalay.

Stone met Halsted when the latter was an exec at Disney and Stone planned to direct “Evita” there. Stone left the project and Halsted ankled the executive suites to join him in 1995. Halsted became a producer of films that include “Any Given Sunday” (which wrapped second-unit just work days ago), “Nixon” and “U-Turn,” as well as the pics “Freeway” and “The Corruptor” and the PBS docu “Assassinated: The Last Days of Kennedy and King.” Stone said he got along with Halsted fine, but the stress of producing was taking its toll.

“Life has just gotten too hectic, and the price of producing was often too high,” Stone said. “I wasn’t trying to be overtly commercial, and tried to help a lot of first-time directors, which was something I wanted to do since NYU Film School because I remembered how hard it was to get a first film off the ground. We never had a major success, but we made some pictures I’m proud of.”

Stone felt that his high profile and the controversies associated with such films as “JFK” and “Natural Born Killers” often colored the media perception of projects he produced, such as “People vs. Larry Flynt.”

“I can recall reading negative criticism on that film that went out of its way to single me out,” Stone said. “After a while, you start getting the message.”

Stone sounded tired after just completing the signal calling on the John Logan-scripted gridiron drama for Warner Bros. with a cast that includes Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Cameron Diaz, Lauren Holly and Jamie Foxx. The film’s expected to open sometime during this fall’s football season.

“It was a very hard 65-day shoot and left me feeling that football is tougher to shoot than war,” said Stone, who directed the battlefield dramas “Platoon” and “Born on the Fourth of July.”

Stone will revive Ixtlan, the production company he formed in 1977, but only to shepherd his own directing vehicles.

“We’ll move forward the projects that are for me, but otherwise, I’m finished, I’m not producing anymore,” Stone said. “It’s overwhelming, the phone calls, the unsolicited manuscripts are never-ending, and I’d like to go back to writing.”

Asked his best memory as a producer, Stone said one indelible moment came during filming of the riot scene for “Natural Born Killers,” which got out of hand and had the filmmaker and crew fearing for their safety. “It was in danger of becoming a full-scale riot in Joliet, but I found I had the support of the leader of the biggest black gang,” Stone said. “It turned out that the guy, who was about 350 pounds, loved ‘South Central,’ a small movie I’d produced about a man paroled from jail who tries to save his son.”

-Michael Fleming, "With no more Illusion, Stone quits producing," Variety, May 4 1999

[thegoodthebadthebrutal]

Computer Centre / Wairere House

Wairere House, more commonly known as the Whanganui Computer Centre, was purpose-built to house the National Law Enforcement Database, or the “Whanganui Computer”. This system was New Zealand’s first centralised electronic database, allowing various Government agencies, particularly the New Zealand Police and the Transport and Justice Ministries, to record, group, and share information about New Zealanders — from vehicle registrations and drivers’ licences to traffic violations and criminal convictions. It was described by Alan McCready, the Minister of Police of the time, as “probably the most significant crime-fighting weapon ever brought to bear against lawlessness in this country”.

The Centre began operating in 1976. Because of its purpose, the building was designed for security — it is almost windowless, with thick walls to withstand any attempted security breaches. It’s a good example of the “form follows function” principle — its function as a vault for the Whanganui Computer is what really dictated its form. It’s got the extremely monolithic, block-like appearance typical of the Brutalist style — one local architect said to us that “it’s about as Brutalist as you can get''. This fortified appearance combined with its location right by the river apparently led some Whanganui residents to nickname it the Kremlin.

This building, or more importantly its contents, was a subject of concern for a lot of New Zealanders — many felt like it was a new level of government surveillance and a breach of people’s right to privacy. Comparisons were made to the ‘Big Brother’ of George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. This concern was actually translated into action on the 18th of November 1982, in an event that this building is probably best known for, when “punk anarchist” Neil Roberts attempted to destroy the Computer with a homemade bomb. The bomb did work — the explosion was apparently heard and felt for miles — but only Roberts himself was killed, and there was no critical damage caused to the building or the Computer.

Before the explosion, Roberts wrote a suicide note on a piece of cardboard that included the words: "Here’s one anarchist down. Hopefully there’s a lot more waking up. One day we’ll win - one day”. He also spray painted a slogan on the public toilet across the road that said: “we have maintained a silence closely resembling stupidity”. One of Roberts’ friends, Kathy Ramsay, said that Roberts “hated the idea of people becoming a number in a government file” and, like quite a few others, saw the Computer as a “scary development” for New Zealand.

Despite this event and protests against the Computer, the Centre was operational until 1995, by which time most government agencies had ‘in-house’ systems that made the Computer unnecessary. The building is still in use, though — it’s been used by the National Library to store some of its collection, and the top floor, which was added in 1990, houses law firm Treadwell Gordon.

[musicalsorwhatever]

“Dance With Me” is the fifth song in the 1995 broadway musical revue Smokey Joe’s Cafe. The show featured music and lyrics written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, but this song is also credited to Louis Lebish, George Treadwell, and Irv Nahan. Smokey Joe’s was nominated for seven Tony awards including Best Musical. This song is features Ken Ard and B.J. Crosby. Crosby was nominated for a Tony for her performance in this show.