Lola Falana (born Loletha Elaine Falana on September 11, 1942 in Camden, New Jersey) is an American dancer and actress of Cuban and African American descent. Falana's father left Cuba to become a welder in the United States, where he met his wife. Lola spent most of her childhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. is the 254th day of the year (255th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The City of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey in the United States. ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... Nickname: City of Brotherly Love, Philly, the Quaker City Motto: Philadelphia maneto (Let brotherly love continue) Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701 Mayor John F. Street (D) Area    - City 369. ...

Biography

By the age of three she was dancing, and by age five she was singing in the church choir. By the time she was in junior high school, she was already dancing in nightclubs to which she was escorted by her mother. Pursuing a musical career became so important to Falana that, against her parents' wishes, she left Germantown High School (Philadelphia) a few months before graduation and moved to New York City. Germantown High School is a secondary school located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ...

Her first dancing gig was at "Small's Paradise" in Harlem. Dinah Washington, the “Queen of Blues”, was influential in fostering Lola’s early career.At one time one of the most beautiful woman in the world. The Apollo Theater on 125th Street; the Hotel Theresa is visible in the background. ... This article or section includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ...

While dancing in a nightclub, Falana was discovered by Sammy Davis Jr., who gave her a featured role in his 1964 Broadway musical Golden Boy. Lola's first single, "My Baby", was recorded for Mercury Records in 1965. Later in her career she recorded under Frank Sinatra's record label. In the late 1960s Falana was mentored by Davis. In 1966 Davis cast her, along with himself, Ossie Davis, and Cicely Tyson, in her first film role in the film, A Man Called Adam. Sammy Davis, Jr. ... Original Broadway poster Golden Boy is a musical with a book by Clifford Odets and William Gibson, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse. ... Mercury Records was a record label founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge. ... Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American jazz-oriented popular singer and Academy Award-winning actor. ... Ossie Davis in The Green Pastures, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1951 Ossie Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an African American film actor, director and social activist. ... Cicely Tyson (born December 19, 1933) is an Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated American actress. ...

Falana became a major star of Italian cinema beginning in 1967. In Italy she learned to speak fluent Italian while starring in three movies, the first of which was considered a spaghetti western. She was known as the "Black Venus". During this time she was busy touring with Davis as a singer and dancer, making films in Italy, and reprising her role in Golden Boy during its revival in London. The history of Italian cinema began a just few months after the Lumière brothers had discovered it, and it was precisely with a few seconds of film in which Pope Leo XIII was blessing the camera. ... Movie poster for Once Upon a Time in the West Spaghetti Western is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western film that emerged in the mid-1960s, so named because most of them were produced by Italian studios. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

In 1969 Falana ended her close working relationship with Sammy Davis Jr., though the two remained friends. "If I didn't break away," Lola told TV Guide, "I would always be known as the little dancer with Sammy Davis Jr. ... I wanted to be known as something more." The previous year, Sammy Davis Jr. was divorced by his second wife, May Britt, after Davis admitted to having had an affair with Falana. TV Guide is the name of two North American weekly magazines about television programming, one in the United States and one in Canada. ...

Falana posed for Playboy magazine in 1970. She was also the first black woman to model for a line of cosmetics that was not targeted solely to blacks, in the successful Faberge Tigress perfume ads. In those early years, she also starred in a few movies considered to be of the Blaxploitation genre. Playboy is an American mens magazine, founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, which has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc. ... Fabergé may refer to: Peter Carl Fabergé, the jeweler House of Fabergé, his firm Fabergé eggs, his most famous works Fabergé line of Victor Mayer This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Shaft (1971) Blaxploitation is a film genre that emerged in the United States in the early 1970s when many exploitation films were made that targeted the urban African American audience; the word itself is a portmanteau of the words “black” and “exploitation. ...

American TV audiences became familiar with Falana during the early 1970s. She often appeared on The Joey Bishop Show and The Hollywood Palace, displaying her talent for music, dance, and light comedy. These appearances led to more opportunities. The Hollywood Palace was an hour-long television variety show produced by Nick Vanoff. ...

She was the first supporting player hired by Bill Cosby for his much-anticipated variety hour, The New Bill Cosby Show, which made its debut on September 11, 1972 (her 30th birthday) on CBS. Cosby had met Falana in his college days, when he was a struggling comic and she was a 14-year-old dancing for $10 dollars a show in Philadelphia nightclubs.^{[citation needed]} Throughout the mid-1970s Falana made guest appearances on many popular TV shows, including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Laugh-In and The Flip Wilson Show. She also starred in her own television specials. William Henry Bill Cosby, Jr. ... is the 254th day of the year (255th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... CBS Broadcasting, Inc. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Rowan & Martins Laugh-In was a United States comedy television show broadcast from January 22, 1968 through 1973 over the NBC Network. ... Flip Wilson in character as Geraldine Jones, on a recently released best of DVD set. ...

In 1975 her disco record "There's A Man Out There Somewhere" reached #67 on the Billboard R&B chart. That same year, she returned to Broadway as the lead in the musical Doctor Jazz. Although the production closed after just five performances, Lola was nominated for a Tony Award and won the 1975 Theater World Award. Disco is a genre of dance-oriented pop music that was popularized in dance clubs (discothèques) in the mid-1970s, and which dominated mainstream pop until the late 1970s. ... Doctor Jazz is a popular dixieland song originally written by Joe King Oliver and Walter Melrose in the 1920s. ... What is popularly called the Tony Award (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theater, including musical theater, primarily honoring productions on Broadway in New York. ...

With help from Sammy Davis, Falana brought her act to Las Vegas and became a top draw there. By the late 1970s, she was considered the Queen of Las Vegas. She played to sold-out crowds at The Sands, The Riviera, and the MGM Grand hotels. Finally The Aladdin offered her $100,000 a week to perform. At the time, Falana was the highest paid female performer in Las Vegas. Her show ran twenty weeks a year and became a major tourist attraction. For further information, see Las Vegas metropolitan area and Las Vegas Strip. ... The Rat Pack (Peter, Frank, Sammy, and Dean) The Sands Hotel was a legendary Las Vegas, Nevada hotel/casino that operated from December 15, 1952 to June 30, 1996. ... The Riviera, or The Riv, is a hotel and casino located on the famed Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. ... ... The Aladdin is an Arabian Nights theme hotel and casino located at 3667 Las Vegas Boulevard South on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. ...

While still playing to sell-out crowds in Las Vegas, Falana joined the cast of a short-lived CBS soap opera, Capitol. Capitol was the name of a soap opera which aired on CBS from March 29, 1982 to March 20, 1987. ...

Health problems

Soon after the show was cancelled in 1987, she suffered a major setback; a relapse of multiple sclerosis. Falana's relapse was severe; her left side was paralyzed, she became partially blind, and her voice and hearing were impaired. Recovery lasted a year and a half, during which she spent most of her time praying. Falana attributes her recovery to a spiritual experience which she described as "Being able to feel the presence of the Lord."

She converted to Roman Catholicism and worked her newly-found spirituality into her everyday life. Though she performed again in Las Vegas shows in 1987, her practice of religion and faith became the center of her life. The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. ... The south end of The Strip; approximately one third of the entire Strip is represented here. ...

After another bout with multiple sclerosis in 1996, Falana returned to Philadelphia and lived with her parents for a short time. No longer performing, she now tours the country with a message of hope and spirituality. When not on tour, she lives a quiet life in Las Vegas working on the apostolate she founded, The Lambs of God Ministry. The ministry is focused on helping children who have been orphaned in Sub-Saharan Africa, and works closely with the group Save Sub-Saharan Orphans. The lay apostolate is made up from laymen and consecrated religious who exercise a ministry in cooperation with the Catholic Church. ... A political map showing national divisions in relation to deonte Shepard Club Of America Free burgers for new members the ecological break (Sub-Saharan Africa in green) A geographical map of Africa, showing the ecological break that defines the sub-Saharan area Sub-Saharan Africa is the term used to...

Her last known musical performance was in 1997, at Wayne Newton's theater in Branson, Missouri. Carson Wayne Newton (born April 3, 1942, in Roanoke, Virginia) is an American singer and entertainer based in Las Vegas, Nevada. ... A typical busy night on The Strip (Hwy 76) The Titanic Museum is shaped to look like the real Titanic and is a popular tourist attraction in Branson The Duttons performing their famous song where they all play each others violins at their theater in Branson Missouri Herkimer and Cecil...

Marital life

From 1971 to 1975, Lola Falana was married to Feliciano “Butch” Tavares, one of five brothers of the popular R&B band Tavares. Tavares (also known as The Tavares Brothers) is a successful American R&B, disco, and soul music band, comprised five brothers from New Bedford, Massachusetts. ...

Trivia

The SCTV character “Lola Heatherton,” played by Catherine O’Hara, was derived from the first name of Lola Falana and the last name of Joey Heatherton. SCTV can refer to a number of things, including the following: SCTV (Indonesia) from Surya Citra Television, headquartered in Indonesia. ... Catherine OHara (born March 4, 1954 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian actress and comedian. ... Long Island, New York-born Joey Heatherton was christened Davenie Johanna Heatherton in 1944. ...

External links

• Lola Falana at the Internet Movie Database