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A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, listeners can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

Bette Davis presided over Hollywood at a time in which the film industry was at its most influential. Every actress, from Katharine Hepburn to Ingrid Bergman and Ginger Rodgers, themselves now considered among Hollywood's greatest icons, lived in the shadow of Bette Davis.

While performing, Louis Armstrong appeared lost in a reverie. It was a condition that imbued his performances with a kind of mythical flair, as if one were watching a man consumed by a moment of transcendence.

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history’s most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees?

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees?

By the time Willie Hughes Nelson was born in 1933, several of the genres he would later cover and dominate had already passed through an entire generation of pioneering artists. The tradition of authentic country music was handed down by such groups as the Carter family, and the boundaries of style and sound were well set by the time Nelson picked up his first guitar.

Growing up in the shadow of one of America's most famous actors would be intimidating for anyone, but few have emerged out of that shadow like Jane Fonda, the oldest daughter of screen legend Henry Fonda. In fact, when Jane costarred with her father in the last film he made, On Golden Pond, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for it. However, she has accomplished more than enough in her own career to make her father proud, winning two Academy Awards, an Emmy, and seven Golden Globe Awards herself.

When the American Film Institute ranked its top 50 screen legends of the 20th century, only one team of performers earned a collective spot: the Marx Brothers. Famous throughout the country for nearly half a century, several of the Marx Brothers performed together for over 40 years, and their nicknames - Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Gummo and Zeppo - are all well known today, especially Groucho.

Virtually all famous actors are regaled by the public, but even still, Fred Astaire occupies a privileged position in American pop culture. The specific films in which Astaire acted may not be especially famous in their own right - most people likely cannot recall the title of Top Hat (1935), his most decorated film - but Astaire's dancing prowess invariably creates a lasting impact on viewers.

Movie stars are revered for their ability to captivate audiences, and perhaps no actor has done it as well as Cary Grant, the epitome of the suave, debonair actor who may have been rivaled only by dancer extraordinaire Fred Astaire. Grant offered a version of the male actor that stood in stark contrast with the gangster heroes and hard-boiled film noir detectives that populated the screen throughout his career.

Today, the name Clint Eastwood conjures up many different and unforgettable images. While many will always associate him as the quintessential Western hero in classics like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, new generations know him as a critically acclaimed director and even an outspoken conservative firebrand.

The life of Joan Crawford is one of the most famous Hollywood rags-to-riches tales. While it is common to think of Hollywood as a land offering great opportunity to hardworking actresses, the Horatio Alger myth rarely applies in reality, but it applied almost perfectly to Joan Crawford. Joan Crawford's life and career also shed light on the treatment of women in pop culture and in cinema during the early 20th century. Her career was not only limited to film acting, as she acted in musical revues and was previously an unabashed flapper during the Roaring Twenties.

In the 1950s, popular music in the United States, Britain, and Europe jumped cultural tracks and went off in all directions, each form enjoying its own fan base, and its own way of overlapping with fellow genres.

Only a select few actors become international stars in their time, but none had as unique a career as Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin was the first true film star, and he managed to do so even when films were still silent. He has been honored with too many awards to count, and the fact that his name remains instantly recognizable nearly a century after his first film is a testament to his influence.

Americans have loved traveling circuses for generations, and none represents the country's love of entertainment quite like the most famous of them all, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Circus promoters have long been viewed as somewhat shady hucksters, but none could top Phineas Taylor Barnum, who used a blend of traditional circus entertainment, freak show exhibits, and outright hoaxes to create "The Greatest Show on Earth".

Everything about Rudolph Valentino, from his body to the characters he played, was exotic. His career may have been abbreviated by his premature death at the age of 31, but Valentino popularized the (somewhat racist) stereotype of the "Latin lover" in Hollywood, and even his name was markedly more out of the ordinary than those of other actors.

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, listeners can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

Like many pop cultural icons (and rock icons in particular), Freddie Mercury is one of the most recognizable figures of the 20th century and yet one of the more enigmatic personalities as well. To be sure, anyone who was alive during the reign of Queen is well aware of who Mercury was and the sound of his music (even those who despise rock music are familiar with the blasting, deliriously over-the-top rhythms of songs like "We Are the Champions").

Biographers of Will Rogers are always faced with a tough task, because the list of things Will Rogers didn't do is a much shorter one than the list of things he did. By the time he died in 1935 in a plane crash in Alaska, he was one of the most famous men in the world and one of the most versatile celebrities. With a career spanning several decades and most of his life, Rogers not only dabbled in vaudeville, film, writing, and politics but reached the pinnacle of most of those professions, even if they were more like hobbies to him.

It would be nearly impossible for someone to pack more action into 32 years than Bruce Lee, whose name remains practically synonymous with martial arts excellence and kung-fu movies. He was undoubtedly the forerunner to martial arts stars who came in his wake, including Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that he grew up as a sickly child. His upbringing was simultaneously one of great privilege and hardship, which had a huge impact on his career down the road.