Torrance Journal for Applied Creativity

Red Skelton. Great satirist, pantomimist,
and humorist whose repertoire of
characters became a spotlight on the
American people.
Mark Twain. Satirist, author, essayist,
lecturer, and creator and performer of
one-man shows
Internet Innovators
Tim Berners-Lee. World Wide Web
inventor
Jeff Bezos. Developed sophisticated
methods for selling books and other
products online.
Vint Cerf. Internet and email pioneer
Jack Dorsey. Founder of Twitter
Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Founders
of Google and developers of Google
search engine
Jimmie Wales. Co-founder of Wikipedia
Mark Zuckerberg. Founder of Facebook
Jazz Musicians and Composers
Louis Armstrong. Jazz trumpet player
who combined performance with
vocal and small ensemble innovations
and served as a model and inspiration
for jazz musicians.
Duke Ellington. Innovative band leader
and jazz composer
George and Ira Gershwin. Pioneers of
jazz and musical composition
Benny Goodman. Swing clarinetist
and big band leader
Wynton Marsalis. Trumpet player and
Director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center
Orchestra, New York City
Charles Mingus. Double bass player,
composer, and bandleader
Artie Shaw. Swing clarinetist and big
band leader
Jazz and Popular Singers
Tony Bennett. Sings show tunes, popular
standards, and jazz, and has been
performing since the 1950s.
Rosemary Clooney. Jazz singer who
performed catchy tunes that stayed in
listeners’ minds.
Nat King Cole. Known for having the
most silky, vibrant, and melodic voice
of any popular singer (e.g., Mona
Lisa); one of the first African Americans
to host a TV show.
Harry Connick, Jr. New Orleans jazz
popular singer and pianist; also played
in Hollywood Movies (e.g., Memphis
Belle, 1990).
Bing Crosby. Greatest crooner of the
20th century
Doris Day. Started singing in big bands
in 1939 and appeared in numerous
movies (e.g., Young Man with a Horn,
1950, with Kirk Douglas and Lauren
Bacall, and Love Me or Leave Me,
1955, with James Cagney
Michael Feinstein. Music educator;
interpreter of the Great American
Songbook.
Ella Fitzgerald. Called “The First Lady
of Song” and interpreted much of the
Great American Songbook; became
the most popular jazz singer for over
half a century.
Lena Horne. Had a singing and acting
career of more than 70 years in film,
television, and Broadway; noted for
her rendition of Stormy Weather
(1933).
Al Jolson. Dynamic vaudeville and
movie singer and performer; appeared
in first talkie movie (The Jazz
Singer, 1927); famous for a number of
songs (e.g., My Mammy, 1918, Rock-
A-Bye Your Baby with A Dixie Melody,
1918, Swanee, 1919, California, Here I
Come, 1924).
Elvis Presley. Worldwide entertainer;
brought Rock-and-Roll to the forefront
of American popular music.
Frank Sinatra. Dynamic singer of lyrical
expression and movie actor; sold
about 150 million records worldwide
with such notable songs as, Strangers
in the Night (1966), My Kind of Town
(Chicago Is) (1964), and My Way
(1969).
Literature and Poetry
Saul Bellow. Nobel Prize winner in
literature. His best known works
were The Adventures of Augie March
(1953), Seize the Day (1956), Henderson
the Rain King (1959), Herzog
(1964), Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970),
Humboldt's Gift (1976) and Ravelstein
(2000).
Jorge Luis Borges. Argentinian poet
and fiction writer of enormous depth
and imagination. Best known works
are Ficciones (1962) and El Aleph
(1949).
Geraldine Brooks. Pulitzer Prize
winner, noted for her book, People
of the Book (2008), a story about the
disappearance of the Bosnian (Sarajevo)
Haggadah used in Jewish Passover
Seders.
Emily Dickinson. New England poet
who mastered the art of turning
thought into beauty.
Annie Dillard. Pulitzer Prize winner for
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974); outstanding
nature writer, fiction writer
and author of books on writing.
Rita Dove. Pulitzer Prize winner, poet
and professor, University of Virginia.
Themes of her poetry reflect the
true sense of multiculturalism and a
wide range of cultural and intellectual
interests.
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