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Baylor University

(Encyclopedia)Baylor University, mainly at Waco, Tex.; coeducational; chartered and opened 1845 by Baptists (see Baylor, Robert E. B.) at Independence, moved 1886 and absorbed Waco Univ. (chartered 1861). The libra...

Sirk, Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Sirk, Douglas, 1900–87, German-American film director, b. Hamburg as Claus Detlef Sierck. A successful director in German theater and film, he fled the Nazi regime in 1937. Two years later he emigra...

Skinner, Otis

(Encyclopedia)Skinner, Otis, 1858–1942, American actor, b. Cambridge, Mass. Skinner made his New York debut in 1879. After years as supporting player to Booth and Barrett, he toured with Augustin Daly and later w...

Wiesbaden

(Encyclopedia)Wiesbaden vēsˈbäˌdən, vĭsˈ– [key], city (1994 pop. 270,873), capital of Hesse, central Germany, on the Rhine River, at the southern foot of the Taunus Mts. The city, an industrial center and ...

Johnson, Philip Cortelyou

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Philip Cortelyou, 1906–2005, American architect, museum curator, and historian, b. Cleveland, grad. Harvard Univ. (B.A., 1927). One of the first Americans to study modern European architect...

minstrel show

(Encyclopedia)minstrel show, stage entertainment by white performers made up as blacks. Thomas Dartmouth Rice, who gave (c.1828) the first solo performance in blackface and introduced the song-and-dance act Jim Cro...

Knussen, Oliver

(Encyclopedia)Knussen, Oliver (Stuart Oliver Knussen), 1952–2018, British composer, conductor, and teacher, b. Glasgow, Scotland. A musical prodigy, he began to compose at age 6 and studied with, among others, Gu...

Powell, Dawn

(Encyclopedia)Powell, Dawn, 1896–1965, American novelist, b. Mt. Gilead, Ohio. She came to New York City in 1918 and settled several years later in Greenwich Village, where she spent most of the rest of her life ...

flamenco

(Encyclopedia)flamenco, Spanish music and dance typical of the Romani (Gypsy), or gitano. Flamenco dancing is characterized by colorful costumes, intense and erotic movements, stamping of the feet (zapateado), and ...

Swift, Taylor Alison

(Encyclopedia) Swift, Taylor Alison, 1989- , American singer-songwriter, b. West Reading, Pa. A precocious songwriter, Swift moved to Nashville at age 15 hoping ...