Tucson

El Tiradito is a shrine and popular local spot in the Old Barrio area of downtown Tucson, Arizona. The shrine consists of the crumbling remains of a... brick building, with a large metal rack for candles and desert plants now occupying the interior. Large, glass-encased candles, frequently depicting saints of the Roman Catholic Church are lit and left burning at the shrine, both on the stand and along the ledges of the building. Small slips of paper containing prayers or messages of thanks are also often pressed into cracks in the walls or left elsewhere at the shrine, as are other memorial objects. In addition to the faithful who leave these religious objects, El Tiradito is frequented and favored by many Tucsonans, including writers, poets, and other members of the town's artistic community. According to the Phoenix New Times publication, El Tiradito is the only Catholic shrine in the United States dedicated to a sinner buried in unconsecrated ground. It is said that the man buried there died fighting for the love of a woman. Visitors to this area light candles for the man, hoping his soul will be freed from purgatory.
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Old Tucson Studios is a movie studio and theme park just west of Tucson, Arizona, adjacent to the Tucson Mountains and close to the western portion... of Saguaro National Park. Built in 1939 for the movie Arizona, it has been used for the filming of several movies and television westerns since then, such as Little House on the Prairie. Opened to the public in 1960, historical tours are offered about the movies filmed there, along with live cast entertainment featuring stunt shows and shootouts. Old Tucson Studios was originally built in 1938 by Columbia Pictures on a Pima County-owned site as a replica of 1860s Tucson for the movie Arizona, starring William Holden and Jean Arthur. Workers built more than 50 buildings in 40 days. Many of those structures are still standing. After Arizona completed filming, the location lay dormant for several years, until the filming of The Bells of St. Mary's , starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. Other early movies filmed on this set included The Last Round-Up with Gene Autry and Winchester '73 with James Stewart and The Last Outpost with Ronald Reagan. The 1950s saw the filming of Gunfight at the O.K.
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The Southern Arizona Transportation Museum is a railroad museum in Tucson, Arizona. The museum does not charge for admission. Guided tours of the... facility are available for a small fee, by appointment only. The museum offers community events, downtown historic walking tours , railroad safety education, an oral history program and an active collections department preserving artifacts pertaining to transportation in southern Arizona. Southern Pacific locomotive #1673 is on display at the museum. The 2-6-0 M-4b Mogul locomotive was built for the Southern Pacific Railroad by Schenectady Locomotive Works in November 1900. The locomotive is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The depot lobby is currently used as a waiting room for rail passengers using Amtrak passenger rail and the rest of the depot and buildings are leased to various businesses. The Southern Arizona Transportation Museum is located in the former records vault building at the former Southern Pacific Depot, recently renovated by the City of Tucson in 2004.
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Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After traveling... and living in numerous locations while growing up in his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success was as a solo singer. Throughout his life Denver recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he composed. He performed primarily with an acoustic guitar and sang about his joy in nature, his enthusiasm for music, and relationship trials. Denver's music appeared on a variety of charts including country & western, the Billboard Hot 100, and adult contemporary, in all earning him 12 gold and 4 platinum albums with his signature songs "Sunshine on My Shoulders", "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "Leaving on a Jet Plane", "Rocky Mountain High", "Annie's Song", and "Calypso". Denver further starred in films and several notable television specials in the 1970s and 1980s.
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Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy... Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden Globe nominations. A singer, songwriter, and record producer, she is recognized as a definitive interpreter of songs. Being one of music's most versatile and commercially successful female singers in U.S. history, she is recognized for her many public stages of self-reinvention and incarnations. With a one-time standing as the Queen of Rock, where she was bestowed the title of "highest paid woman in rock", and known as the First Lady of Rock, she has more recently emerged as music matriarch, international arts advocate and human rights advocate. Ronstadt has collaborated with artists from a diverse spectrum of genres—including Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, Carla Bley, The Chieftains, Gram Parsons, Dolly Parton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle and has lent her voice to over 120 albums around the world.
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Kerri Allyson Strug is a retired American gymnast from Tucson, Arizona. She was a member of the Magnificent Seven, the victorious all-around women's... gymnastics team that represented the United States at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, and is best remembered for performing the vault despite having injured her ankle. She is of Russian/Jewish descent. Strug began competing in gymnastics at the age of eight. Her sister Lisa was already competing in gymnastics at the time that Strug was born. Strug was trained by American coach Jim Gault until January 1991, when she moved to Romanian coach Béla Károlyi. At that time, she also joined the United States National Team. In 1992, at age 14, she won a team bronze medal at the Barcelona Olympics, at which she was the youngest member of the entire U.S. team. Throughout the Team Compulsories and Optionals, she and Kim Zmeskal competed for the final US available spot to compete in the all-around. She was eventually edged out by Zmeskal, with Shannon Miller and Betty Okino as the other two American gymnasts to qualify for the all-around.
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Sean Michael Elliott is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA. ‎ Elliott was born in Tucson, Arizona and was youngest... of three boys. He was a very intelligent boy growing up and attended the G.A.T.E. program at Tolson Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona. He played high school basketball at Cholla High School on Tucson's west side, and after graduating in 1985, remained in Tucson to play college basketball at the University of Arizona. Under the tutelage of Lute Olson, Elliott was selected as a consensus all-American during his junior and senior years, and led the Wildcats to the Final Four in his junior year . After an exceptional senior season, Elliott won the Wooden Award. He is still the University of Arizona's all-time leading scorer. He played for the US national team in the 1986 FIBA World Championship, winning the gold medal. Elliott was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 1989 NBA Draft under Coach Larry Brown, and spent the majority of his career with the Spurs. Elliott spent the 1993–94 season with the Detroit Pistons.
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Garry Emmanuel Shandling is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for his work in It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry... Sanders Show. Shandling began his career writing for sitcoms such as Sanford and Son and Welcome Back, Kotter. He made a successful stand-up performance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and became a frequent guest-host on the show. Shandling was for a time considered the leading contender to replace Carson . In 1986 he created It's Garry Shandling's Show, for the pay cable channel Showtime. It was nominated for four Emmy Awards and lasted until 1990. His second show, The Larry Sanders Show, which began airing on HBO in 1992, was even more successful. Shandling was nominated for 18 Emmy Awards for the show and won in 1998, along with Peter Tolan, for writing the series finale. During his three-decade career, Shandling has been nominated for 19 Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, along with many other awards and nominations. Shandling was born in Chicago, Illinois, into a Jewish family.
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Barbara Eden is an American film and television actress and singer who is best known for starring as the title role in the sitcom I Dream of... Jeannie. Eden was born Barbara Jean Morehead in Tucson, Arizona, the daughter of Alice Mary and Hubert Henry Morehead. Her parents divorced when she was three; she and her mother Alice moved to San Francisco, where later her mother married Harrison Connor Huffman, a telephone lineman. The Great Depression deeply affected the Huffman family, and as they were unable to afford many luxuries, Barbara's mother entertained the children by singing songs. This musical background left a lasting impression on the actress, who began taking acting classes because she felt it might help her improve her singing. Her first public performance was singing in the church choir, where she sang the solos. When she was 14 she sang in local bands for $10 a night in night clubs. At age 16 she became a member of Actor's Equity. She studied singing at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and acting with the Elizabeth Holloway School of Theatre.
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Kerri Allyson Strug is a retired American gymnast from Tucson, Arizona. She was a member of the Magnificent Seven, the victorious all-around women's... gymnastics team that represented the United States at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, and is best remembered for performing the vault despite having injured her ankle. She is of Russian/Jewish descent. Strug began competing in gymnastics at the age of eight. Her sister Lisa was already competing in gymnastics at the time that Strug was born. Strug was trained by American coach Jim Gault until January 1991, when she moved to Romanian coach Béla Károlyi. At that time, she also joined the United States National Team. In 1992, at age 14, she won a team bronze medal at the Barcelona Olympics, at which she was the youngest member of the entire U.S. team. Throughout the Team Compulsories and Optionals, she and Kim Zmeskal competed for the final US available spot to compete in the all-around. She was eventually edged out by Zmeskal, with Shannon Miller and Betty Okino as the other two American gymnasts to qualify for the all-around.
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Linda Eder is an American singer and actress. She made her Broadway debut in the musical Jekyll & Hyde, for which she received 1997 Drama Desk... and Outer Critics Circle Nominations, as well as the Theatre World Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Eder is also featured on the concept albums of several other Broadway shows, such as The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Civil War. Her name is pronounced "EDD-er". Eder was born in Tucson, Arizona on February 3, 1961 and raised in Brainerd, Minnesota. Her parents, Georg and Leila , exposed her to music at an early age. She cites Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, and Eileen Farrell as her childhood inspiration. Eder cites Garland, specifically, as her greatest influence. Before her work on Broadway, Eder gained experience in the entertainment industry. She teamed up with classmate Paul Todd, who had won international awards for his piano and organ playing, and began the "Paul and Linda Show". After the duo went separate ways, Eder was a lounge singer at Harrah's Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
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Sean Michael Elliott is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA. ‎ Elliott was born in Tucson, Arizona and was youngest... of three boys. He was a very intelligent boy growing up and attended the G.A.T.E. program at Tolson Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona. He played high school basketball at Cholla High School on Tucson's west side, and after graduating in 1985, remained in Tucson to play college basketball at the University of Arizona. Under the tutelage of Lute Olson, Elliott was selected as a consensus all-American during his junior and senior years, and led the Wildcats to the Final Four in his junior year . After an exceptional senior season, Elliott won the Wooden Award. He is still the University of Arizona's all-time leading scorer. He played for the US national team in the 1986 FIBA World Championship, winning the gold medal. Elliott was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 1989 NBA Draft under Coach Larry Brown, and spent the majority of his career with the Spurs. Elliott spent the 1993–94 season with the Detroit Pistons.
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Barbara Eden is an American film and television actress and singer who is best known for starring as the title role in the sitcom I Dream of... Jeannie. Eden was born Barbara Jean Morehead in Tucson, Arizona, the daughter of Alice Mary and Hubert Henry Morehead. Her parents divorced when she was three; she and her mother Alice moved to San Francisco, where later her mother married Harrison Connor Huffman, a telephone lineman. The Great Depression deeply affected the Huffman family, and as they were unable to afford many luxuries, Barbara's mother entertained the children by singing songs. This musical background left a lasting impression on the actress, who began taking acting classes because she felt it might help her improve her singing. Her first public performance was singing in the church choir, where she sang the solos. When she was 14 she sang in local bands for $10 a night in night clubs. At age 16 she became a member of Actor's Equity. She studied singing at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and acting with the Elizabeth Holloway School of Theatre.
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With her intriguing multicultural beauty and true innocence, multi-talented Sharon Leal is one of the most appealing actresses in Hollywood today.... Sharon was born October 17th 1979 in Tucson, Arizona and raised in Fresno, California, Sharon Leal began singing at an early age and later discovered her passion for acting while attending performing arts high school. Her professional career began in regional theater productions of "Ain't Misbehavin'," "Into the Woods," and "Little Shop of Horrors." Soon thereafter, Leal moved to New York and landed major roles on Broadway in "Miss Saigon" and "Rent." Leal went on to star in the original musical, "Bright Lights Big City," at the New York Theater Workshop, and was also featured on the production's soundtrack. While in New York, she staged cabarets and continued to hone her skills when she produced an original production of "Stormy Weather" at the Manhattan Theatre Club, in which she starred as the legendary Lena Horne. From the New York stage, Sharon easily transitioned into television and film. Her television credits include a series regular role on CW's "Hellcats" and four seasons on David E. Kelley's hit FOX drama, "Boston Public." Her guest starring roles include episodes of "Las Vegas" and "CSI: Miami." She also had recurring roles on NBC's "LAX," with Blair Underwood, and ABC's "Private Practice," as Sonya, the love interest to Taye Diggs' character. In 2006, Sharon received international attention as a co-star of the Golden Globe Award-winning blockbuster film, "Dreamgirls," opposite Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy. She portrayed Michelle Morris, the singer that replaced Effie White in the female trio, The Dreams. In "Dreamgirls," Sharon showcased her remarkable vocal skills and was heard on the popular movie soundtrack. Named one of Entertainment Weekly's "Breakout Stars" in 2007, Sharon soared into the stratosphere as the star of two highly successful ensemble films; the #1 box office hit, "Why Did I Get Married?," with Tyler Perry, Janet Jackson and Jill Scott, and the popular holiday feature, "This Christmas," alongside Idris Elba, Regina King and Mekhi Phifer. Her performance in the latter project won her the 2008 Asian Excellence Award for Outstanding Film Actress. Sharon starred with Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac in the 2008 musical feature film, "Soul Men." In 2010, she reprised her role in the highly-anticipated sequel, "Why Did I Get Married Too?," which grossed over $60 million at the domestic box office. Her independent film credits include "Face the Music," "Motives 2," "Linewatch," and the short film, "What Are the Odds," for which she won the Best Supporting Actress Award at the New York Independent Film Festival. Up next, she stars in "On the 7th Day," the highly-anticipated sequel to T.D. Jakes' "Woman Thou Art Loosed.
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Martin Brian Spanjers is an American actor. He is best known for playing the role of Rory Hennessy in the ABC television sitcom 8 Simples Rules for... Dating My Teenage Daughter. Spanjers was born in Tucson, Arizona, the son of Sara, an artist, and Frank Spanjers, a facilities administrator. He has an older brother, Matt. Spanjers auditioned for the starring role of Malcolm in Malcolm in the Middle, almost getting it, but did get a guest spot in the show's pilot episode. Although he didn't make it to Malcolm, he was able to show up in 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter. Spanjers made a guest appearance as Davie in the first episode of the fourth season of Cold Case, "Rampage". He made guest appearances in many other TV shows as well. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Spanjers's most recent film appearance came as the voice for Sugimura in the English dub of the Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart in 2006. Spanjers appeared as Randy Randinger in the sports spoof The Comebacks, released on October 19, 2007. He also recently shot a commercial for Pizza Hut double stuffed pizza, Sprint Nextel and for T-Mobile.
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