New Orleans

The Presbytère, also known as The Presbytere, is an important historical building in New Orleans, Louisiana and is located in the French Quarter... along Jackson Square, adjacent to the St. Louis Cathedral. The Presbytère, originally called the Casa Curial , derives its name from the fact that it was built on the site of the residence, or presbytere, of the Capuchin monks. While intended to house clergy, it was never used as a religious residence. It was designed in 1791 to match the Cabildo, or Town Hall, on the other side of St. Louis Cathedral. The second floor, however, was not completed until 1813. The building initially was used for commercial purposes until 1834 when it was used by the Louisiana Supreme Court. In 1847 the structure's mansard roof was added. In 1853, cathedral officials sold the Presbytère to the city and in 1908 the city sold it to the state. In 1911 it became part of the Louisiana State Museum. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970. In 2005, the cupola was replaced atop the Presbytère. The cupola had been missing since the New Orleans Hurricane of 1915.
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The Cabildo was the seat of colonial government in New Orleans, Louisiana, and is now a museum. The Cabildo is located along Jackson Square, adjacent... to St. Louis Cathedral. The original Cabildo was destroyed in the Great New Orleans Fire . The Cabildo was rebuilt between 1795-99 as the home of the Spanish municipal government in New Orleans, and the mansard roof was later added, in French style. The building took its name from the governing body who met there — the "Illustrious Cabildo," or city council. The Cabildo was the site of the Louisiana Purchase transfer ceremonies in 1803, and continued to be used by the New Orleans city council until the mid 1850s. The building's main hall, the Sala Capitular , was originally utilized as a courtroom. The Spanish used the courtroom from 1799–1803, and from 1803-1812 it was used by the Louisiana territorial superior court. After the American Civil War, it was the home of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 1868-1910. The Sala Capitular was the site of several landmark court cases, including Plessy v. Ferguson.
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The Mercedes-Benz Superdome, previously known as the Louisiana Superdome and colloquially known as the Superdome, is a sports and exhibition arena... located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Plans were drawn up in 1967 by the New Orleans modernist architectural firm of Curtis and Davis. It is home to the NFL's New Orleans Saints, the NCAA's Division I-A Tulane Green Wave football team , the State Farm Bayou Classic, the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, the Allstate Sugar Bowl and, every fourth year, the BCS National Championship game. It is one of the few facilities in the US which can host major sporting events, such as the Super Bowl and the Final Four; as such, given New Orleans' popularity as a tourist destination, whenever it bids to host such an event it routinely makes the "short list" of candidates being considered. It has been chosen to host Super Bowl XLVII in February 2013. It is the largest fixed domed structure in the world. Its steel frame covers a 13-acre expanse. Its 273-foot dome is made of a Lamella multi-ringed frame and has a diameter of 680 feet .
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Avron B. Fogelman Arena is a 3,600-seat multi-purpose arena on Tulane University's Uptown campus in New Orleans, Louisiana, built in 1933. Fogelman... is the on-campus home of the Tulane Green Wave men's and women's basketball teams and the women's volleyball team. The men's basketball team also plays selected games at the New Orleans Arena. The structure was originally built as Tulane Gym with funds earned from Tulane's appearance in the Rose Bowl football game of New Year's Day, 1932, and for many years it was known around campus as "Rose Bowl Gym." During World War II, the building housed V-12 students. In 1988-'89, the structure was thoroughly remodeled and refurbished, and was at that time named in honor of Memphis businessman and Tulane alumnus Avron B. Fogelman, whose donations enabled the restoration to take place. The renovations were made in anticipation of the return of the Green Wave men's basketball program for the 1989-90 season after it was shut down for three seasons in the wake of a point shaving scandal involving future NBA player John "Hot Rod" Williams.
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The Ogden Museum of Southern Art is located in New Orleans, within the Central Business District adjacent to Lee Circle. It is associated with the... University of New Orleans. Its focus is the visual arts and culture of the American South within the context of the region's history and culture. The collection consists of work by artists from or associated with fifteen southern states and the District of Columbia. It is based upon the founding donation of more than 1,100 works from New Orleans businessman Roger H. Ogden's private collection. Since this original donation the museum’s collection of paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, wood and crafts has grown to include more than 4,000 works donated from individuals and collectors from across the US. The collection is the largest and most comprehensive collection of Southern art in the world and embodies the visual heritage and history of the American South from 1733 to the present.
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The New Orleans Museum of Art is the oldest fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans. It is situated within City Park, a short distance from the... intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Esplanade Avenue, and near the terminus of the "Canal Street - City Park" streetcar line. It was established in 1911 as the Delgado Museum of Art. The New Orleans Museum of Art was initially funded through a charitable grant by local philanthropist and art collector Isaac Delgado. The museum building itself was partly designed by the former chief engineer of New Orleans Benjamin Morgan Harrod. The museum includes the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, a 5-acre landscaped area behind the main building. The gated garden features fifty modern sculptures set among live oaks, pines, magnolias, camellias, lagoons, several bridges, and a walking trail. The museum also includes a gift shop, a small theater for film screenings, and the "Courtyard Cafe: A Ralph Brennan Restaurant." Although City Park suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Katrina, the museum is elevated and located on relatively high ground.
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Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records... as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included rappers Juvenile, B.G., and Young Turk. Hot Boys debuted with Get It How U Live! that year. Lil Wayne gained most of his success with the group's major selling album Guerrilla Warfare, released in 1999. Also in 1999, Lil Wayne released his Platinum debut album Tha Block Is Hot, selling over one million copies in the U.S. Although his next two albums Lights Out and 500 Degreez were not as successful , Lil Wayne reached higher popularity in 2004 with Tha Carter, which included the single "Go D.J." Wayne also appeared on the Destiny's Child top ten single "Soldier" that year. In 2005, the sequel to Tha Carter, Tha Carter II, was released. In 2006 and 2007, Lil Wayne released several mixtapes and appeared on several popular rap and R&B singles.
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John Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne... for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising Arizona as an escaped convict, in Barton Fink as a jovial insurance salesman, in The Big Lebowski as a volatile bowler and in O Brother Where Art Thou? as a cultured, cycloptic thief. Additionally, Goodman's voice work can be heard in numerous Disney films, including the voice for "Sulley" in Monsters, Inc. He has contributed to more than 50 films and hosted Saturday Night Live twelve times. Goodman was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His mother, Virginia Roos , was a store clerk and waitress who worked at Jack and Phil's Bar-B-Que, and his father, Leslie F. Goodman, was a postal worker who died of a heart attack in 1955. He has a sister, Elisabeth, and a brother, Leslie, with his extended family living in St. Louis, Missouri. Goodman went to Affton High School, where he played football and dabbled in theater.
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Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music... combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll. Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider prominence in the early 1970s with a wildly theatrical stage show inspired by medicine shows, Mardi Gras costumes and voodoo ceremonies. Rebennack has recorded over 20 albums and in 1973 scored a top-20 hit with the jaunty funk-flavored "Right Place Wrong Time", still perhaps his best-known song. The winner of five Grammy Awards, Rebennack was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by singer John Legend on Monday, March 14, 2011. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, his professional musical career began there in the 1950s.
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Carl Weathers is an American actor, as well as former professional football player in the United States and Canada. He is best known for playing... Apollo Creed in the Rocky series of films. He also played Dillon in Predator, Chubbs Peterson in Happy Gilmore and Little Nicky, and played a very frugal fictionalized version of himself in the television series Arrested Development. Weathers was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in 1966 and then went to Long Beach City College and San Diego State University. Outside of acting, he is a member of both Big Brothers and the United States Olympic Committee. In February 1973 he married Mary Ann Castle with whom he has two children. They were divorced in July 1983. In February 1984 he married Rhona Unsell. He married Jennifer Peterson, his third wife, in 2007. They divorced in 2009. Weathers played football both collegiately and professionally as a linebacker.
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Emeril John Lagasse is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, and cookbook author. A regional James Beard Award winner,... he is perhaps most notable for his Food Network shows Emeril Live and Essence of Emeril as well as catchphrases such as “Kick it up a notch!” and “Bam!” The "Emeril Empire" of media, products and restaurants generates an estimated US$150 million annually in revenue. Lagasse was born on October 15, 1959, in Fall River, Massachusetts to a Canadian Québécois father, John, and Portuguese mother, Hilda. He worked in a Portuguese bakery as a teenager where he discovered his talent for cooking and subsequently enrolled in a culinary arts program at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School. His talents as a percussionist earned him a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music but he chose instead to attend Johnson & Wales University in hopes of becoming a chef. He met his first wife, Elizabeth Kief, while working at a restaurant called "Venus De Milo" to pay his way through school.
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James Jonah "Jim" Cummings is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 100 roles. He has appeared in classic animated movies such as... Aladdin and The Lion King, as well as taking on roles in more current films, such as Bee Movie, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Cummings relocated to New Orleans, where he designed and painted Mardi Gras floats, worked as a river boat deck hand and sang and played drums in the regionally successful rock band, "FUSION". He later married and moved to Anaheim, California, where he managed a video store in the early 1980s, before launching his voice-acting career in late 1984. Cummings and his ex wife Stevie have two young daughters. Cummings also has two older children from a previous marriage. Contrary to popular belief he is not related to fellow voice actor Brian Cummings. At Disney, Cummings not only replaced Hal Smith as the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh in 1988 , but also began voicing Tigger in 1990, replacing Paul Winchell .
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Traci Adell was an American model and actress for several years in her early/mid twenties in Los Angeles. She was chosen as Playboy magazine's... Playmate of the Month for its July 1994 issue after being discovered in Playboy's 40th Anniversary Playmate Search in the summer of 1993. Traci's brief experiences in the entertainment and modeling industries included guest appearances on episodes of TV series and movies such as "Married with Children," "Dumb and Dumber," "Renegade," "The Naked Truth," "Dream On," "Almost Perfect," "Life 101," and "T.N.T." as well as being featured in several music videos. In 1997 Traci changed professions to pursue a career in education, where she excelled, found her passion and pursued her dreams outside of the entertainment industry and within the classrooms of LAUSD. Traci went on to receive her Masters degree in Education and worked for UCLA as an instructor and coordinator of mathematics professional development programs/institutes for elementary school teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Traci attended High School in Germantown, Tennessee where she was named senior "Class Beauty" and "Winterfest Queen." Traci attended Memphis State University where she majored in Political Science with a minor in Broadcast Journalism in 1991. Traci began modeling in Memphis when she was discovered and the winner of "Black Velvet's Model Search" competition and was then chosen to model for the "Girls of Memphis" swimsuit calendar. She also modeled and appeared in local publications such as "Memphis Magazine" and the "Commercial Appeal." Traci currently lives in LA and has not been affiliated with Playboy or the entertainment industry since the mid 90's.
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China Lee, born Margaret Lee, is an American model and actress. She was Playboy's Playmate of the Month for the August 1964 issue. Her centerfold... was photographed by Pompeo Posar. She was the first Asian American Playmate. According to her Playmate profile, her name is pronounced "chee-na" to rhyme with "Tina". Lee was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to Chinese parents who had emigrated to the United States after their marriage. The family owned a laundry. She is the youngest of eight children and the younger sister of Harry Lee, who served as the sheriff of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana for about 28 years. Lee worked as a hairstylist and waitress, then as a Playboy Club Bunny, before appearing in Playboy. She had been a "Training Bunny," which required her to travel to different Playboy Clubs to teach prospective Bunnies their duties. Lee appeared at the end of Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily?, performing a striptease. She married comedian Mort Sahl in 1967. They divorced in 1991. Their only child, Mort Sahl, Jr. died on March 27, 1996 at the age of 19.
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Christy Shae Marks is an American model and actress of Cherokee, Irish, and French heritage. Shae Marks was born in New Orleans, Louisiana where she... spent most of childhood. According to her Playmate Profile, she was a tomboy growing up. Soon after her tenth birthday, Marks's family moved to Peachtree City, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. While in high school she played soccer and tennis and was involved in swimming and cheerleading. After graduating from McIntosh high school, she briefly majored in journalism at the University of West Georgia, but later dropped out and moved back to New Orleans. Shae Marks was discovered by Playboy when she was 20 years old at the World Gym in Houston, Texas. One month later, in October 1993, she flew to Los Angeles, California , did a test shoot for a centerfold and was accepted as Playmate of the Month for May 1994. During her stint with Playboy, Marks was a traveling representative for the company, visiting such ports of call as Hong Kong and Denmark.
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Neferteri Sheba Shepherd is an African-American model and actress. She was chosen as Playboy's Playmate of the Month in July 2000 and has appeared... in numerous Playboy videos.
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Bryant Charles Gumbel is an American television journalist and sportscaster. He is best known for his 15 years as co-host of NBC's The Today Show.... He is the younger brother of sportscaster Greg Gumbel. Gumbel was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the son of Rhea Alice , a city clerk, and Richard Dunbar Gumbel, a judge. He graduated from Bates College in 1970. Gumbel began his television career in October 1972, when he was made a sportscaster for KNBC-TV out of Los Angeles. Gumbel was hired by NBC Sports in the fall of 1975 as co-host of its National Football League pre-game show GrandStand with Jack Buck. From 1975 until January 1982 Gumbel hosted numerous sporting events for NBC including Major League Baseball, college basketball and the National Football League. Gumbel returned to sportscasting for NBC when he hosted the prime time coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics from Seoul and the PGA Tour in 1990. One of Gumbel's more memorable moments during his time at NBC Sports occurred in 1982, when he was on-site for the "Epic in Miami" NFL playoff game between the San Diego Chargers and Miami Dolphins.
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Severn Teakle Darden, Jr. was a comedian and actor, and an original member of The Second City Chicago-based comedy troupe as well as its... predecessor, the Compass Players. He is probably best known in the film industry for playing the Himmler-like Kolp in the Planet of the Apes films. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, he attended the University of Chicago. Darden’s offbeat and intellectual sense of humor, appropriate for someone who attended the University of Chicago and in fact a major element in the style of The Second City at that time, is evident throughout his work. One example of his offbeat humor is the way he squeezed the phrase "Know thyself" into the seven-character limitation of a New Mexico license plate: NOYOSEF. Darden appeared in various movies and television series. His best performance is probably in the comedy The President's Analyst; there he has a major role as Kropotkin, a Soviet agent with a laid-back persona . An early film, "LUV" , in which he played a junk dealer, also starred Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk, Elaine May, and Nina Wayne.
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