Actors and Others for Animals is a California 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation.  It is dedicated to eliminating pet overpopulation, ensuring the care and protection of pet companions and improving the quality of life economically challenged, disadvantaged and undeserved pet guardians by providing referral and financial assistance for spay/neuter and veterinary medical procedures together with other animal/human bond enriching programs. For more information visit www.actorsandothers.com

 

 

The Roar Foundation, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which exists solely to support The Shambala Preserve. Our mission is to educate the public about the dangers of private ownership of exotic animals. Huge numbers of exotic dangerous animals are bred and sold in the United States for illegal purposes. Private ownership presents a grave danger to the public and is cruel and unfair to these animals. More stringent legislation is needed to prohibit breeding and selling. We are actively involved in legislating this on federal and state levels.

Prior to 1983 I had been rescuing the exotic felines since 1972. Up to the present, The Shambala Preserve has given sanctuary to over 235 exotic felines - lion, tiger, cougar, black and spotted leopard, serval, bobcat, Asian leopard cat, snow leopard, cheetah, lynx, tigon, liger and African elephant. All have come to the Preserve after confiscation by authorities, such as California Fish and Game, U.S. Department of Agriculture, SPCA and Humane Societies. They are from roadside zoos and private citizens who realize they have purchased an animal they can no longer handle.

The exotic cat trade is a huge business. According to US. Fish and Wildlife it is on a par with illegal drugs. Once an animal is brought to Shambala, it remains here for the remainder of its life. As a true sanctuary, we do not buy, breed, sell, trade, or subject them to commercial use. Our only purpose is to allow these magnificent animals to live out their lives with care, understanding and dignity. Each has the best human, nutritional, medical, emotional and mental care possible.
There are many ways you can support The Roar Foundation: become a Member of the Roar Foundation, Adopt a Wild One, provide an item from the Shambala Wish List; attend a Safari Tour: visit The Trading Post, become a volunteer, attend one of our hugely popular and unique Sunset Safaris, and for a truly memorable experience, spend an entire night in one of Shambala’s authentic African Tents! All of these help to further Shambala’s educational efforts and support our mission. One special weekend a month, we hold the Safaris where Shambala opens the gates to the public for a small admission fee (by reservation only). All guests must be 18-yrs or older. Please come visit us and support our beautiful Wild Ones. For more information visit
www.Shambala.org

 

 

The National Association to Protect Children is a national pro-child, anti-crime membership association. We are founded on the belief that our first and most sacred obligation as parents, citizens and members of the human species is the protection of children. PROTECT is a bipartisan pro-child, anti-crime lobby whose sole focus is making the protection of children a top political and policy priority at the national, state and local levels.  In 2002, following a successful national volunteer effort to moderize North Carolina's incest law, the National Association to Protect Children (known as PROTECT) was established. PROTECT was the first single-issue lobby in America dedicated exclusively to the protection of children. We began operations in January of 2003. The next year, a charitable arm, then called Promise to Protect, was created, conducting very modest operations until 2008. In 2011, both organizations underwent strategic restructuring. Promise to Protect was renamed the National Association to Protect Children, and our original pro-child, anti-crime lobby kept the name PROTECT For more information visit www.PROTECT.org

In association with H.E.R.O. Child-Rescue Corps is comprised of an elite group of wounded veterans who will be taking to a new battlefield in November, by working with federal law enforcement to locate and rescue children from sexual exploitation and abuse. In this short video, members of the H.E.R.O. Child-Rescue Corps members explain their new mission at http://vimeo.com/m/77349698

 

 

 

We are offering an interview with Donelle Dadigan, the god daughter of MGM music legend Jose' Iturbi’s, who along with the Grammy nominated icon, Michael Feinstein, have just released “FROM HOLLYWOOD TO THE WORLD,” the rediscovered recordings by pianist and conductor José Iturbi in a richly illustrated 16-CD book edition

 

Jose’ Iturbi was the FIRST artist to sell a million Records, receive one of the earliest stars on the walk of fame, as well as himself in multiple MGM movies, worked with Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr, Gene Kelly, Esther Williams and many others.

 

The José Iturbi set #19439836502 has been submitted in the following categories for GRAMMY consideration:

 

BEST HISTORICAL ALBUM, 

Producers: Michael Feinstein, Robert Russ, Donelle Dadigan

Engineers: Nancy Conforti, Jennifer Nulsen, Andreas K. Meyer

 

BEST ALBUM NOTES

Author: Michael Feinstein

 

BEST PACKAGING - BOXED OR LIMITED EDITION

Producers: Michael Feinstein, Robert Russ, Donelle Dadigan

Designer: Donelle Dadigan/Michael Feinstein/(EC:KO) Communications /Jochen Rudelt/Marvin J Deitz/

 

Please review the materials below and let us know if you require any additional materials or have interest in speaking to Ms Donelle Dadigan about her experiences with her famous godfather.

 

FROM HOLLYWOOD TO THE WORLD

The Rediscovered Recordings by
Pianist and Conductor José Iturbi
in a richly illustrated 16-CD book edition

 

 

Once upon a time in the 1940s and 1950s in America, classical music and its stars were a natural part of many big Hollywood movies. This golden age saw the creation of famous musical hits such as Anchors Aweigh with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra or That Midnight Kiss with Mario Lanza, in which a spirited piano virtuoso and conductor always played himself: José Iturbi. Nowadays known only to connoisseurs and aficionados, the native Spaniard was at the time, along with Oscar Levant (An American in Paris), one of the most commercially successful classical artists in Hollywood. When the film A Song to Remember was released in 1945, for example, Iturbi’s recording of a Chopin Polonaise sold 800,000 copies. Shortly thereafter, his recording company, RCA Victor, paid him over $118,000 in semiannual royalties – a record at the time. And Iturbi’s passion wasn’t just for music: he completed 1,400 hours of flying as a pilot, enjoyed riding motorcycles fast, and excelled as an amateur boxer. This edition is a tribute to an era when classical music from films made its journey around the world. It contains all the recordings made by José Iturbi and his sister Amparo Iturbi for RCA Victor from 1933 to 1955, painstakingly restored and remastered from the original records and tapes, including numerous previously unreleased recordings. The 188-page coffee-table book includes a detailed biographical essay by “Ambassador for the American Songbook” and producer of this set Michael Feinstein, extensive documentation with photographs and facsimiles from the José Iturbi Foundation archives, and a complete session and release discography.

 

  • The complete RCA Victor Recordings by José Iturbi from 1933 to 1953, including his piano duo recordings with sister Amparo Iturbi as well as Amparo Iturbi’s solo recordings on 16 CDs, restored and remastered from the original lacquer discs and analogue tapes using high-resolution 24 bit/192 kHz mastering technology with about 95% of the recordings appearing on CD for the first time and 23 pieces previously unreleased.
  • A new, captivating essay by GRAMMY®-nominated singer, pianist, and music anthropologist Michael Feinstein on the life and work of José Iturbi.
  • Complete session discography as well a complete documentation of José Iturbi’s commercial releases on 78rpm and LP.
  • Photo book with previously unseen photos and facsimiles from the Iturbi Archives in Hollywood.

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

 

Temperamental, volatile Spanish-born pianist and conductor José Iturbi was a child prodigy, giving piano recitals by the age of seven and supplementing the family income by playing for up to 14 hours daily at a silent cinema theatre. He was an honors graduate from the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris, and, by the age of 24, occupied Franz Liszt’s former post as leader of the piano department of the Geneva Conservatory. In 1928, he made his London début as a concert pianist and the following year played Beethoven’s G major Concerto to great critical and audience acclaim under Leopold Stokowski’s direction in Philadelphia.

 

He arrived in New York in October of 1929 and made his US début on the 11th – less than two weeks before the stock market crashed on Wall Street – performing to “thunderous ovations” with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski. Esquire reported: “Before he had played many bars, the orchestra musicians were whispering to their partners and the audience had settled into a death-like quiet. When he arose the deafening uproar assured him he had run neck-to-neck with the winged steed Pegasus.” On his return in 1930, the demand for tickets at his Carnegie Hall recital was such that several hundred chairs had to be placed on the stage. The New York Times critic rhapsodized over “arpeggios which seemed to glow and melt in the atmosphere like clouds of golden incense” and remarked on “beauty and reverie conveyed with such an intelligence, proportion, objectivity … The melodies were sensuously sung. The audience was rapturous.”

 

Nearly three decades later José Iturbi’s concerts in America were still packed. He was as warmly received at California’s Chino State Prison, where inmates begged for Debussy’s Clair de lune, as he was at the White House in Washington DC, where Harry Truman demanded an obscure Chopin waltz. Pianists as dissimilar as William Kapell, Thelonious Monk and Julius Katchen were infatuated by his Mozart playing. 

 

Iturbi signed with Victor in 1933 and over the next two decades recorded music by Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Chabrier, Saint-Saëns, Falla, Debussy, Albéniz, Rachmaninoff and Milhaud. The repertoire included concertos and solo pieces, as well as works for two pianos, with and without orchestra, in which he was joined by his sister Amparo Iturbi, a famous pianist in her own right who frequently appeared with her brother. His and her solo albums as well as their duet recordings are all included in Sony Classical’s new Iturbi box.

 

Iturbi enjoyed an almost pop star-like status and became the only classical artist of his day to win two gold records. In 1946, RCA-Victor paid Iturbi the record sum of $118,029 for six months royalties, primarily for his recording of Chopin’s Polonaise in A-flat (the record went on to sell 2 million copies by 1974). From the 1950s until just prior to his death in 1980, Iturbi continued to draw large audiences worldwide. He regularly went on tour (his last from 1976 to 1977), travelling up to 50,000 miles a year between continents.

 

Iturbi’s private life was as hectic as his work schedule. He had married in 1916, but his wife died tragically just 12 years later. From the 1930s, he frequently dated movie stars even before his own involvement with Hollywood. He was a man of contradictions. A speed freak, Iturbi used to ride his motor bike and assorted sports cars with reckless abandon. When they weren’t fast enough, he would get aboard his own aircraft, “El Turia”. By 1946 he had logged 1,400 flying hours, frequently travelling across entire continents between recitals.

 

José Iturbi was one of the great concert pianists and conductors of the 20th century. The proof is contained in this special collection of the complete RCA Victor recordings made by José himself and by his sister, the concert pianist Amparo Iturbi. It is an important contribution toward the preservation and restoration of their original masters, bringing them to listeners worldwide, both now and for generations to come. The set captures José Iturbi’s historic and compelling performances in state-of-the-art remastering, and includes a one-of-a-kind picture book packed with information, nostalgic photographs and helpful captions highlighting José and Amparo Iturbi’s lives and careers, including their sold-out concerts, those amazing MGM musicals, and more. I know that the wonderful text and photos will surely put a knowing smile on your face, as will the many reminiscences that these remastered – and in some cases never-before-heard – recordings will evoke.

Donelle Dadigan / President and Co-founder of the José Iturbi Foundation & President and Founder of The Hollywood Museum

 

In the 21st century, the general conception of concert pianists has changed in the eyes of the public and thus it is hard to understand by contemporary standards the tremendous fame and influence Jose Iturbi enjoyed. Working on the restoration of his recordings for this collection was a staggering experience, not only because of the enormity of his recorded output, but also due to an otherworldly artistry and high level of discipline that propelled him to dizzying heights of popularity. It became clear that music was his God and made everything else possible. The passion he had in life, sometimes resulting in provocative headlines, was the fuel for his art. The magnetism of that passion still resounds in the recordings. His music lives, and I am excited for new generations to discover what makes him essential and enduring.

– Michael Feinstein / Founder of The Great American Songbook Foundation

 

 For interviews, press, high res photos and official biography please send an email to harlan@bhbpr.com or call 626.296.3757