In honor of their 100th anniversary, slang-ridden showbiz bible Variety has unveiled their top 100 entertainment icons of the last 100 years.
Number 1: The Beatles.
The rest of the top 10, in alphabetical order:
Louis Armstrong
Lucille Ball
Humphrey Bogart
Marlon Brando
Charlie Chaplin
James Dean
Marilyn Monroe
Mickey Mouse
Elvis Presley
And there’s 90 more where that came from.
Let the outrage, second-guessing, and denunciation of America’s list-making habits commence!
OK, I have to admit, it doesn’t suck as much as those idiotic AFI lists that seem to come out once a week. At least it had Ziegfeld, Dietrich and Pickford on it.
While I love Mr. Armstrong, I think #2 is too high. All the others, tho’, I’d have to agree are pretty spot on.
They gotta be politically correct.
(runs and hides)
I wonder if political correctness had anything to do with Al Jolson not making the top 10. He was the preeminent entertainer of his time. When he appeared in a disappointing musical he walked on stage and said to the audience, “You know how this all turns out, would you like me to sing for you,” and proceeded to do so.
He once, to prove a point, mixed up the punchlines to 3 jokes on stage and still got his customary laughs.
He paid his brother to stay out of entertainment because he wasn’t good enough to share his name.
Me thinkst that Lucille Ball got a little PC boost as well.
A major talent to be sure, but in the top 10? Umm… I don’t think so.
I believe everything except #1 is in alphabetical order, so you can think of him as #10 if you want to.
I don’t think putting Armstrong in the top ten is tokenism in any way. The man was a giant. His Hot Five and Hot Seven records made other musicians aware of the possibilities of jazz as a form, and his vocals influenced singers like Bing Crosby and Billie Holiday. He was also really famous - just about everyone in the western world knew who he was and what he looked and sounded like. The man was a big, big star for a long time, and his work merited the fame.
I didn’t realize the last 100 years ended in 1969.
As much as I love Lucy, she would get bumped to #11. Sinatra would take the top spot.
I would throw Lassie out of the top 100. She was a character played by several dogs.
And I would exclude the Sex Pistols.
Maybe we should add Don Cherry for the Canadians. (snort!)
I was thinking the same thing.
The top 100 contains Pac Man, Woody Allen, Kurt Cobain, Vaclav Havel, Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Tupac Shakur, all of whom made their marks well after 1969.
As for getting in the top 10, I’d suspect that earlier acts have something of a head start because it’s easier to see evidence of their lasting popularity. Eminem might be the biggest name of all (hypothetical example), but it’s harder to see that just a few years after he broke big, whereas Brando and the Beatles’ impacts are obvious to everyone by now, love 'em or not.
My thoughts exactly…
Not to mention Pedro Almodovar, Bob Marley, The Sex Pistols, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and Oprah Winfrey.