1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [5]
Astaire, Fred (1899–1987) Born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska, Astaire started dancing in vaudeville at age four, then teamed with his sister, Adele. He made a screen test for MGM in 1932, eliciting from studio head Louis B. Meyer the comment, “Can’t act, can’t sing. Balding. Can dance a little.” Despite this, he was cast in Dancing Lady (1933) then was teamed with Ginger Rogers in RKO’s Flying Down to Rio. The picture launched his cinematic dancing career, which extended into the late 1950s and featured a uniquely elegant tap style in which Astaire seemingly danced on air.
Astor, John Jacob (1763–1848) Born in Waldorf, Germany, Astor opened a fur shop in New York City in 1786, having “learned” the fur trade at sea, on the ship that brought him to America. A boldly energetic entrepreneur, he sent fur traders to the far corners of the North American continent, creating the American Fur Company—the nation’s first business monopoly—in the process amassing a great fortune (which financed the building of much of early 19th-century New York City) and motivating the exploration and initial settlement of the Far West.
Attucks, Crispus (1723?–1770) Almost nothing is known about the life of Attucks, except that he was a black man (perhaps partly Natick Indian) and very likely had been a fugitive from slavery since 1750. In 1770, he became the first of five Americans killed (three died instantly, two died later of their wounds) in the confrontation between British soldiers and Bostonians known as the “Boston Massacre” of March 5, 1770. This fugitive slave is generally counted as the first to fall in the cause of liberty.
Audubon, John James (1785–1851) Audubon was born in Santo Domingo (modern Haiti) and lived for a time in France before he immigrated to the United States in 1803. He pursued various business ventures in the States, but his true passion was studying, drawing, and painting birds. His masterwork, The Birds of America, based on firsthand exploration and observation, was published between 1827 and 1838 with an extraordinary five-volume text titled Ornithological Biography accompanying it. His work is treasured by scientists as well as lovers of art and birds, and he was one of the first Americans to receive international acclaim for cultural and scientific achievements.
Austin, Stephen F. (1793–1836) In 1821, Moses Austin (1767–1821) secured a land grant from Mexico to establish a colony in the Mexican state of Texas. He died before the project began, and it was his son, Stephen, who founded in 1822 a colony of several hundred families on the Brazos River. This became the core of the American settlement of Texas, which resulted ultimately in the colony’s war for independence (1836) and the United States-Mexico War (1846–1848).
Bacon, Nathaniel (1647–1676) Bacon, a Virginia planter who advocated unlimited territorial expansion of the colony, led what some have labeled the “first American revolution,” an unauthorized military expedition against the Indians in 1676. When Governor William Berkeley opposed him on the grounds that it would trigger a major Indian war, Bacon rose against him and the Virginia House of Burgesses. He attracted a substantial popular following, but succumbed to disease at the very height of the rebellion, causing the movement to collapse.
Baez, Joan (1941– ) The daughter of a physicist, Baez was at the forefront of the “folk revival” of the 1960s, capturing a new, youthful audience for traditional American music. Through this music, she protested racial injustice and the Vietnam War. Baez was in the vanguard of “hippie” culture.
Baker, Josephine (1906–1975) After growing up fatherless and poor in St. Louis, Baker toured with a Philadelphia dance troupe at age 16, then broke into Broadway. She went to Paris in 1925 and created a sensation with her “danse sauvage.” Becoming a French citizen in 1937, she worked with the resistance and Red Cross during World War II and also entertained Allied troops. After the war, Baker adopted babies of various nationalities