ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – Our trivia question for this week is: What was the Palladium, and who went there?
Lex Gillespie is an independent producer and filmmaker. A Haverford College graduate, Gillespie began to work as a reporter and producer for public radio in 1988. He’s produced hundreds of features and documentaries for NPR and PRI on music, history and culture. He won two Peabody Awards for his series on American music history Let the Good Times Roll (2004) and Whole Lotta Shakin’ (2007). He was also a producer with the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History on the series Jazz Singers and Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was, which in 1998 won a Peabody and a silver baton from the duPont-Columbia Awards.
Gillespie’s first film, The Mamboniks, is a full-length documentary which explores and celebrates the love of Latin music among Jewish people during the exciting mambo era of the 1950s and early ‘60s. Much of this took place in the Catskills, an area north of New York City which became the quintessential vacation place for Jews from the city. Hotels there offered all kinds of entertainment for their guests, including sports and dancing, and many of the best-known actors and comedians of the last century got their professional start there.
You can write to Lex here: lexgillespie@yahoo.com
