Columbus

The Springer Opera House is a historic live performance theater located in Downtown Columbus, Georgia. First opened February 21, 1871, the theater... was named the State Theatre of Georgia by Governor Jimmy Carter for its 100th anniversary season, a designation made permanent by the 1992 state legislature. The Springer has hosted legendary performers such as Edwin Booth, Ethel Barrymore, Agnes de Mille, and bandleader John Phillip Sousa. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and named a National Historic Landmark in 1978. Theatre has had a presence in Columbus, Georgia since the very first year of the city's existence. The first recorded performance in an enclosed theater building took place during July 1828. From 1828 to 1870, stages of various size and improvement came and went, but all would be considered primitive in comparison to what would follow. On June 19, 1869, just four years after the conclusion of the American Civil War, a meeting was held in the Columbus banking office of John King to establish a Public Hall Association for the purpose of establishing a performance hall that the city could be proud of. Under the leadership of King, W.
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The Octagon House in Columbus, Georgia, also known as May's Folly is an octagonal building built in 1829. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973.

Columbus Ironworks was built in 1853. It was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1969.

Dinglewood House is a National Register of Historic Places listed building located at 1429 Dinglewood St., Columbus, Georgia. Joel Hurt built the... Italianate house for his wife Frances and daughter Julia in 1858. Columbus architecture firm Barringer & Morton produced the drawings.
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Justin Guarini is an American singer/songwriter and actor who rose to fame in 2002 as the first runner-up on the debut season of the television show... American Idol. Guarini was born in Columbus, Georgia. His father, Eldrin Bell, is African American, and is a former Atlanta, Georgia, Chief of Police, and current Chairperson of Clayton County Commission . His mother, Kathy Pepino Guarini, is Italian American, and was a journalist for WTVM TV in Columbus, and later for CNN. Guarini was raised by his mother and stepfather, physicist Jerry Guarini, in Philadelphia's suburb of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Guarini's musical experience started at the age of four when he was accepted by the Atlanta Boy Choir. After moving to Pennsylvania in 1985, he joined the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Boys Choir. Throughout his school years Guarini sang in school choirs, and from 1996-2000 was the lead soloist in an award winning a cappella group named The Midnight Voices. The group released an independent album in 1999 with proceeds benefiting a music scholarship fund at Guarini's alma mater, Central Bucks High School East in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
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Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins was an African American autistic savant and musical prodigy on the piano. He had numerous original compositions published... and had a lengthy and largely successful performing career throughout the United States. During the 19th century, he was one of the most well-known American performing pianists. Wiggins was born on the Wiley Edward Jones Plantation in Harris County, Georgia. Blind at birth, he was sold in 1850 along with his enslaved parents, Charity and Mingo Wiggins, to a Columbus, Georgia lawyer, General James Neil Bethune. Bethune was "almost the pioneer free trader" in the United States and "the first [newspaper] editor in the south to openly advocate secession". The new owner renamed the child Thomas Greene Bethune or Thomas Wiggins Bethune . Because the blind lad could not perform work normally demanded of enslaved Africans, Tom was left to play and explore the Bethune plantation. At an early age, he evinced an interest in the piano after hearing the instrument played by Bethune's daughters.
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Jake Hess was an American Grammy Award-winning southern gospel singer. Hess was born Manchild Hess December 24, 1927, in Limestone County, Alabama.... Later, when he registered with the draft board in Lincoln, Nebraska, he gave his name as "William Jesse Hess." In 1997, when Hess was preparing to get a passport to travel overseas, he discovered that his birth certificate actually read Manchild Hess. His son, Jake Jr., named his recording company Manchild Records in honor of his father. He died January 4, 2004 in Opelika, Alabama after suffering a heart attack December 14, 2003, just days after a performance in Atlanta, Georgia. Hess' career started at the age of 16, when he joined the popular John Daniel Quartet, making his recorded debut on "Just a Prayer Away". After that, he sang with three of his brothers as the Hess Brothers Quartet. He also sang with the Sunny South Quartet and their rival, the Melody Masters Quartet. In the latter part of his life, Hess sang with The Old Friends Quartet which was featured on the Bill Gaither Homecoming videos. Hess sang lead with the Statesmen Quartet from 1948 until 1963.
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Donna D'Errico is an American actress and model. She was chosen Playboy Playmate of the Month for September 1995. Her centerfold was photographed by... Richard Fegley. Before appearing in Playboy, D'Errico had a Las Vegas based limousine company. D'Errico had a starring role on the television series Baywatch. She was also a host of the show Battlebots and starred in Candyman: Day of the Dead. For a time, D'Errico owned Zen Spa, a day spa in Calabasas, California. Since leaving Baywatch, she has been in numerous independent films such as Intervention, Inconceivable, and The Making Of Plus One. D'Errico divorced rock musician Nikki Sixx in 2007, after nine years of marriage. They had separated shortly after their daughter Frankie-Jean's birth, and reconciled months later when Sixx completed rehab. They separated again on April 27, 2006, and divorced June 2007, with D'Errico claiming irreconcilable differences. At the time of the divorce, Frankie-Jean was 5 years old, and D'Errico's son Rhyan, from a previous marriage, was 13 years old.
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Frederick Marty Jannetty is an American professional wrestler, best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation as part of tag team The... Rockers with partner Shawn Michaels, and later as a singles competitor. While in the WWF, he became a one time Intercontinental Champion and a one time Tag Team Champion with the 1-2-3 Kid. With Michaels, The Rockers became two time World Tag Team Champions in the American Wrestling Association. Jannetty began his wrestling career in April 1984, wrestling in the National Wrestling Alliance's Central States division. He wrestled in singles and tag team competition with various partners, including "Bulldog" Bob Brown and Dave Peterson and with Tommy Rogers as the Uptown Boys, until joining forces with fellow rookie Shawn Michaels in late 1985. The two teamed as The Midnight Rockers and quickly won the Central States Tag Team Championship from The Batten Twins. In 1986, the duo left the NWA for the American Wrestling Association. In the AWA, Jannetty and Michaels quickly built a reputation as a talented tag team, performing many acrobatic moves in tandem and electrifying crowds with their athleticism.
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Daniel Ray Whitten was an American musician and songwriter best known for his work with Neil Young and Crazy Horse, and for the song "I Don't Want... To Talk About It", a hit for Rita Coolidge, Rod Stewart and Everything but the Girl. Whitten was born on May 8, 1943, in Columbus, Georgia. His parents split up when he was young. He and his sister, Brenda, lived with their mother, who worked long hours as a waitress. His mother remarried when he was 9 and the family moved to Canton, Ohio. Whitten joined Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina among others in the doo-wop group Danny and the Memories. After recording an obscure single, "Can't Help Loving That Girl of Mine", core members of the group moved to San Francisco where they morphed into a folk-psychedelic rock act called The Psyrcle. Whitten played guitar, Molina drums, and Talbot played bass and piano. By 1967, the group took on brothers George and Leon Whitsell on additional guitars and vocals, as well as violinist Bobby Notkoff, the sextet calling themselves The Rockets.
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Frederick Marty Jannetty is an American professional wrestler, best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation as part of tag team The... Rockers with partner Shawn Michaels, and later as a singles competitor. While in the WWF, he became a one time Intercontinental Champion and a one time Tag Team Champion with the 1-2-3 Kid. With Michaels, The Rockers became two time World Tag Team Champions in the American Wrestling Association. Jannetty began his wrestling career in April 1984, wrestling in the National Wrestling Alliance's Central States division. He wrestled in singles and tag team competition with various partners, including "Bulldog" Bob Brown and Dave Peterson and with Tommy Rogers as the Uptown Boys, until joining forces with fellow rookie Shawn Michaels in late 1985. The two teamed as The Midnight Rockers and quickly won the Central States Tag Team Championship from The Batten Twins. In 1986, the duo left the NWA for the American Wrestling Association. In the AWA, Jannetty and Michaels quickly built a reputation as a talented tag team, performing many acrobatic moves in tandem and electrifying crowds with their athleticism.
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Daniel Ray Whitten was an American musician and songwriter best known for his work with Neil Young and Crazy Horse, and for the song "I Don't Want... To Talk About It", a hit for Rita Coolidge, Rod Stewart and Everything but the Girl. Whitten was born on May 8, 1943, in Columbus, Georgia. His parents split up when he was young. He and his sister, Brenda, lived with their mother, who worked long hours as a waitress. His mother remarried when he was 9 and the family moved to Canton, Ohio. Whitten joined Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina among others in the doo-wop group Danny and the Memories. After recording an obscure single, "Can't Help Loving That Girl of Mine", core members of the group moved to San Francisco where they morphed into a folk-psychedelic rock act called The Psyrcle. Whitten played guitar, Molina drums, and Talbot played bass and piano. By 1967, the group took on brothers George and Leon Whitsell on additional guitars and vocals, as well as violinist Bobby Notkoff, the sextet calling themselves The Rockets.
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Dallas Austin is an American songwriter, record producer, and musician, based in Atlanta, Georgia. Some of his most notable clients include Michael... Jackson, TLC, Boyz II Men, Pink, Monica, Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Stacie Orrico, Another Bad Creation, Fishbone, Sugababes, Anastacia, Namie Amuro, Kim Zolciak from the Real Housewives of Atlanta and McFly. Austin was a member of Highland Place Mobsters on the influential hip hop label LaFace in the early 1990s before embarking on a career as a full-time producer. Highland Place Mobsters, a derivative of MCA Records 80's group "Glasswurk", contributed to the soundtracks for the movies White Men Can't Jump and Boomerang. As a producer and songwriter, Austin was first noticed in the mid 80's when his childhood manager, producer/drummer William "Vybe Chyle" Burke introduced him to Joyce Irby who signed him to Diva One Music. Since then Austin has crafted hits for LaFace and TLC , including the hit singles "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg", "What About Your Friends", "Creep", "Silly Ho" and "Unpretty".
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Robert R. Parrish was an American actor, film editor, film director, and writer. He received an Academy Award for Film Editing for the 1947 film,... Body and Soul. Parrish was the son of factory cashier Gordon R. Parrish and Laura R. Parrish. In the mid-1920s, the family moved from Georgia to Los Angeles and Parrish and his sisters Beverly and Helen began obtaining work as actors soon thereafter. Parrish made his film debut in the 1927 Our Gang short Olympic Games. He appeared in the anti-war classic All Quiet on the Western Front and Charles Chaplin's City Lights , and in several films for John Ford. Ford then enlisted him as an assistant editor in 1936 on Mary of Scotland, and as a sound editor on Young Mr Lincoln . Parrish worked as an assistant editor and sound editor on other Ford movies as Drums Along the Mohawk and The Grapes of Wrath .
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Arnetia Walker is an American actress whose most famous roles are as Nurse Annie Roland in the NBC sitcom Nurses and Ms. Ross in the WB dramedy... Popular. Born in Columbus, Georgia, Walker was attending New York’s prestigious High School of the Performing Arts when she was cast in her Broadway debut, "The Sign in Sidney Brustien’s Window" by Lorraine Hansberry. She went on to stand by for Stephanie Mills as Dorothy in the original Broadway run of The Wiz. In 1987 she starred in the Broadway revival of Dreamgirls in the role of Lorrell Robinson, and eventually achieved the distinction of being the only woman to have played all three of that show’s principal characters. In March 2008 Arnetia can be seen in the role of Grandma Clara in the feature film comedy College Road Trip, starring Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symoné. Walker’s films include For Love of the Game, Love Crimes, Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. She also appeared in the HBO movie Cast a Deadly Spell.
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Helen Parrish was an American movie actress, the daughter of stage and bit film actress Laura Parrish. She started in movies at the age of five,... getting her first part playing Babe Ruth's daughter in the silent film, Babe Comes Home in 1927. She featured in the Our Gang comedy shorts and sometimes played the lead character as a child co-starring some of the great female stars of the day. In her teens she made herself known as a kid sister. But during this time, she is probably most notable as an irritant of Deanna Durbin in several of her vehicles, playing a jealous, spiteful rival. Their first film together, Mad About Music , worked so well that they soon formed a sort of Shirley Temple/Jane Withers team in a couple of other movie confections for Universal. In their second film together, Three Smart Girls Grow Up , Parrish replaced Barbara Read as sister Kay Craig.
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