Shaw

Shaw, Anna Howard, 1847-1919, American woman-suffrage leader, b. England. She emigrated (1851) to the United States in early childhood and grew up on a farm in Michigan. She received a degree in theology (1878) and one in medicine (1885) from Boston Univ. Although the Methodist Episcopal Church refused to allow her to preach, she was ordained (1880) by the Methodist Protestant denomination. She had filled several pastorates in Massachusetts when, in 1888, she met Susan B. Anthony and from then on devoted her life to working for woman suffrage. She was vice president at large (1892-1904) and president (1904-15) of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In Anthony's last years, she was her constant associate. Dr. Shaw campaigned in every state where a suffrage measure was under consideration; she was one of the most effective speakers of the movement.

Shaw, Artie, 1910-2004, American clarinetist and bandleader, b. New York City as Arthur Jacob Arshawsky. He began playing professionally as a teenager, becoming a studio musician in New York after 1929. In 1935 he formed his first band, an unusual grouping that included clarinet, string quartet, and rhythm section, which he used in a critically acclaimed performance of his jazz chamber piece Interlude in B Flat. A year later he established a more orthodox swing band, and with it recorded (1938) his first hit, a sweetly swinging version of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" that quickly became a jazz classic. In 1940 he organized a smaller band, the Gramercy Five, which he reformed several times with various combinations of musicians, and from the mid-1940s to the mid-50s he led a number of big bands. Considered one of swing's two great clarinetists (the other, his rival Benny Goodman), Shaw was a virtuoso at his instrument. Among his greatest hits were early 40s recordings of "Frenesi," "Stardust," "Moonglow," and "Dancing in the Dark." He retired from music in 1954.

Shaw, George Bernard, 1856-1950, Irish playwright and critic. He revolutionized the Victorian stage, then dominated by artificial melodramas, by presenting vigorous dramas of ideas. The lengthy prefaces to Shaw's plays reveal his mastery of English prose. In 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Early Life and Career

Born in Dublin, Shaw was the son of an unsuccessful merchant; his mother was a singer who eventually left her husband to teach singing in London. Shaw left school at 14 to work in an estate agent's office. In 1876 he went to London and for nine years was largely supported by his parents. He wrote five novels, several of them published in small socialist magazines. Shaw was himself an ardent socialist, a member of the Fabian Society, and a popular public speaker on behalf of socialism.

Work as a journalist led to his becoming a music critic for the Star in 1888 and for the World in 1890; his enthusiasm for Wagner proved infectious to his readers. As drama critic for the Saturday Review after 1895, he won readers to Ibsen; he had already written The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891). In 1898 Shaw married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a wealthy, wellborn Irishwoman. By this time his plays were beginning to be produced.

Plays

Although Shaw's plays focus on ideas and issues, they are vital and absorbing, enlivened by memorable characterizations, a brilliant command of language, and dazzling wit. His early plays were published as Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant (2 vol., 1898). The "unpleasant" plays were Widower's Houses (1892), on slum landlordism; The Philanderer (written 1893, produced 1905); and Mrs. Warren's Profession (written 1893, produced 1902), a jibe at the Victorian attitude toward prostitution. The "pleasant" plays were Arms and the Man (1894), satirizing romantic attitudes toward love and war; Candida (1893); and You Never Can Tell (written 1895).

In 1897 The Devil's Disciple, a play on the American Revolution, was produced with great success in New York City. It was published in the volume Three Plays for Puritans (1901) along with Caesar and Cleopatra (1899), notable for its realistic, humorous portraits of historical figures, and Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1900).

During the early 20th cent. Shaw wrote his greatest and most popular plays: Man and Superman (1903), in which an idealistic, cerebral man succumbs to marriage (the play contains an explicit articulation of a major Shavian theme—that man is the spiritual creator, whereas woman is the biological "life force" that must always triumph over him); Major Barbara (1905), which postulates that poverty is the cause of all evil; Androcles and the Lion (1912; a short play), a charming satire of Christianity; and Pygmalion (1913), which satirizes the English class system through the story of a cockney girl's transformation into a lady at the hands of a speech professor. The latter has proved to be Shaw's most successful work—as a play, as a motion picture, and as the basis for the musical and film My Fair Lady (1956; 1964).

Of Shaw's later plays, Saint Joan (1923) is the most memorable; it argues that Joan of Arc, a harbinger of Protestantism and nationalism, had to be killed because the world was not yet ready for her. In 1920 Shaw, much criticized for his antiwar stance, wrote Heartbreak House, a play that exposed the spiritual bankruptcy of the generation responsible for World War I.

Among Shaw's other plays are John Bull's Other Island (1904), The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), Fanny's First Play (1911), Back to Methuselah (1922), The Apple Cart (1928), Too True to Be Good (1932), The Millionairess (1936), In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939), and Buoyant Billions (1949). Perhaps his most popular nonfiction work is The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928).

Shaw, Henry Wheeler: see Billings, Josh.

Shaw, Lemuel, 1781-1861, American jurist, b. Barnstable, Mass. After a career in the Massachusetts state legislature, Shaw served as chief justice for the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts (1830-60). In Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842), Shaw provided an important precedent in labor relations by arguing that members of labor unions were not engaging in criminal conspiracies against their employers. In Roberts v. City of Boston (1849), a forerunner of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), he ruled that the segregation of black schoolchildren was not a violation of the Massachusetts state constitution. His decision in Commonwealth v. Alger (1851) was an early and influential attempt to define the limits of state police power. In Brown v. Kendall (1850), Shaw established negligence as the dominant standard of tort law, and ruled that injured plaintiffs have the burden of proving that the defendant was negligent.

Shaw, Leslie Mortier, 1848-1932, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (1902-7), b. Morristown, Vt. Admitted to the Iowa bar in 1876, he organized (1880) a banking firm that specialized in agricultural credit. His strong defense of the gold standard in the 1896 presidential campaign won for him the Republican nomination for governor of Iowa the following year; he served (1898-1902) two terms. As Treasury Secretary under President Theodore Roosevelt, Shaw used government revenues to help expand the nation's money supply. After 1907, he returned to banking, and engaged in extensive writing and public lecturing. Shaw wrote Current Issues (1908) and Vanishing Landmarks (1919).

Shaw, Richard Norman, 1831-1912, English architect. Breaking away from contemporary Victorian house designs and returning to the Queen Anne and Georgian styles and to traditional English craftsmanship and use of materials, Shaw became the leader of a revolution in domestic architecture. He is considered the father of the modern Queen Anne style. He designed numerous London and country houses. The economical small houses that he designed in the late 1870s for the Bedford Park housing development had beneficial influence throughout England. His most important work was the New Scotland Yard (1887-90). Shaw wrote Architectural Sketches from the Continent (1858).

Shaw, Robert Gould, 1837-63, Union hero in the American Civil War, b. Boston. An ardent white abolitionist, he was colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first body of black troops raised in a free state. He was killed leading the regiment in the attack on Fort Wagner, Charleston, S.C. A sculptured figure of him by Augustus Saint-Gaudens is on Boston Common.

Shaw, Robert Lawson, 1916-99, American conductor, b. Red Bluff, Calif. Moving to New York City after college, he founded and led the Fred Waring Glee Club (1938-45) and the Collegiate Chorale (1941-54). In 1946 he became head of the choral division of the Julliard School, a post he held until 1950. Two years later he organized the Robert Shaw Chorale, which became one of America's most illustrious vocal groups and made his name virtually synonymous with choral singing. Shaw innovatively arranged his singers in quartets of bass, tenor, alto, and soprano instead of the traditional four blocks of similar voices, creating a richer vocal sound. His chorale developed a diverse repertoire, commissioned new works, made many recordings, and toured nationally and internationally until 1966. Also active in orchestral music, Shaw conducted the San Diego Symphony (1953-58), was associate conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra (1956-67) under George Szell, and directed (1967-88) the Atlanta Symphony, transforming it into a respected professional ensemble.

Shaw, Run Run, 1907-, Chinese film mogul, best known of the six Shaw brothers who founded an Asian movie empire. In Shanghai, he and brother Runme Shaw established the Shaw Organization (1926) and Shaw Studios (1930), both of which became major factors in the growth and production of Asian films. The siblings set up production and distribution facilities for their movies, many of which were shown in Shaw-owned theaters in SE Asia and in a network of Chinatown cinemas worldwide. In Hong Kong during the late 1950s Shaw founded the colony's then-largest privately owned film studio and soon became known as Asia's movie king, producing flashy, action-packed historical and martial-art features until 1985. His kung-fu epics were particulary popular in the West and influenced a number of Western filmmakers, e.g., Quentin Tarantino. Shaw since has focused much of his attention on television, founding and running Television Broadcasts Ltd. (TVB), which creates programming for Hong Kong and overseas Chinese audiences. In the early 21st cent. he was the driving force behind the construction of Hong Kong Movie City, a studio and production facility. Shaw also has become a major philanthropist, donating billions to charity and establishing the Shaw Prize for scientific achievement. He was knighted in 1974.

(born Jan. 9, 1781, Barnstable, Mass., U.S.—died March 30, 1861, Boston, Mass.) U.S. jurist. He was educated at Harvard University. In 1822 he drafted the first municipal charter for Boston virtually without precedents to guide him; it remained in effect until 1913. In 1830 he was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, where he served for 30 years. His rulings were formative in the development of both Massachusetts and national jurisprudence. In particular, his ruling in favour of a striking labour union (1842) provided the first major precedent for removing unions from the province of the law of conspiracy, and his decision upholding the city's segregated schools (1849) was later reflected in the “separate but equal” doctrine propounded by the Supreme Court of the United States in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), though it also led Massachusetts to pass the only 19th-century American desegregation law. His daughter married Herman Melville.

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(born July 26, 1856, Dublin, Ire.—died Nov. 2, 1950, Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, Eng.) Irish playwright and critic. After moving to London in 1876, he worked for years as a music and art critic, wrote book and theatre reviews, and was an active member of the socialist Fabian Society. In his first play, Widowers' Houses (1892), he emphasized social and economic issues instead of romance, adopting the ironic comedic tone that would characterize all his work. He described his first plays as “unpleasant” because they forced the spectator to face unpleasant facts; these plays include Mrs. Warren's Profession (1893), which concerns prostitution and was barred from performance until 1902. He then wrote four “pleasant” plays, including the comedies Arms and the Man (1894) and Candida (1895). His next plays include Caesar and Cleopatra (1899) and Man and Superman (1905). He used high comedy to explore society's foibles in Major Barbara (1905), The Doctor's Dilemma (1911), and Pygmalion (1913), his comedic masterpiece. Other notable plays include Androcles and the Lion (1912), Heartbreak House (1919), and Saint Joan (1923). His other writings and speeches made him a controversial public figure for much of his life. He received the Nobel Prize in 1925.

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orig. Arthur Jacob Arshawsky

(born May 23, 1910, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 30, 2004, Newbury Park, Calif.) U.S. clarinetist and leader of one of the most popular big bands of the swing era. Shaw was a technically brilliant clarinetist and worked freelance before leading his own groups. In 1935 he performed with a string quartet, later expanding the group into a more conventional dance band. He led a U.S. Navy band during World War II and afterward led various ensembles until his retirement in 1954. His best-known recordings are “Begin the Beguine” and “Frenesi.”

Learn more about Shaw, Artie with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 14, 1847, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, Eng.—died July 2, 1919, Moylan, Pa., U.S.) U.S. minister and suffragist. She arrived in the U.S. with her family in 1851. By age 15 she was a frontier schoolteacher, and in 1880 she became the first woman minister of the Methodist Protestant Church. She took up the causes of temperance and woman suffrage in 1885 and became an important spokesperson for both. She earned a medical degree the next year and later served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (1904–15). She performed home-front war work during World War I, for which she received the Distinguished Service Medal in 1919. She died shortly before women gained the right to vote.

Learn more about Shaw, Anna Howard with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 9, 1781, Barnstable, Mass., U.S.—died March 30, 1861, Boston, Mass.) U.S. jurist. He was educated at Harvard University. In 1822 he drafted the first municipal charter for Boston virtually without precedents to guide him; it remained in effect until 1913. In 1830 he was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, where he served for 30 years. His rulings were formative in the development of both Massachusetts and national jurisprudence. In particular, his ruling in favour of a striking labour union (1842) provided the first major precedent for removing unions from the province of the law of conspiracy, and his decision upholding the city's segregated schools (1849) was later reflected in the “separate but equal” doctrine propounded by the Supreme Court of the United States in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), though it also led Massachusetts to pass the only 19th-century American desegregation law. His daughter married Herman Melville.

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(born April 12, 1838, Switzerland county, Ind., U.S.—died March 11, 1913, New York, N.Y.) U.S. surgeon and librarian. He worked for the U.S. Army 1861–95. He fostered the growth of the surgeon general's library in Washington, D.C., developing what would become the National Library of Medicine, the world's largest medical reference centre. He founded the monthly Index Medicus (1879), still one of the primary U.S. medical bibliographies, and published the first Index Catalogue (1880–95). He also designed Johns Hopkins Hospital and was its medical adviser, ran national vital statistics programs, led the U.S. effort to end yellow fever, and was the first director of the New York Public Library. His organization of U.S. medical institutions was central to modernization of hospital care and maintenance of public health.

Learn more about Billings, John Shaw with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born July 26, 1856, Dublin, Ire.—died Nov. 2, 1950, Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, Eng.) Irish playwright and critic. After moving to London in 1876, he worked for years as a music and art critic, wrote book and theatre reviews, and was an active member of the socialist Fabian Society. In his first play, Widowers' Houses (1892), he emphasized social and economic issues instead of romance, adopting the ironic comedic tone that would characterize all his work. He described his first plays as “unpleasant” because they forced the spectator to face unpleasant facts; these plays include Mrs. Warren's Profession (1893), which concerns prostitution and was barred from performance until 1902. He then wrote four “pleasant” plays, including the comedies Arms and the Man (1894) and Candida (1895). His next plays include Caesar and Cleopatra (1899) and Man and Superman (1905). He used high comedy to explore society's foibles in Major Barbara (1905), The Doctor's Dilemma (1911), and Pygmalion (1913), his comedic masterpiece. Other notable plays include Androcles and the Lion (1912), Heartbreak House (1919), and Saint Joan (1923). His other writings and speeches made him a controversial public figure for much of his life. He received the Nobel Prize in 1925.

Learn more about Shaw, George Bernard with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 12, 1838, Switzerland county, Ind., U.S.—died March 11, 1913, New York, N.Y.) U.S. surgeon and librarian. He worked for the U.S. Army 1861–95. He fostered the growth of the surgeon general's library in Washington, D.C., developing what would become the National Library of Medicine, the world's largest medical reference centre. He founded the monthly Index Medicus (1879), still one of the primary U.S. medical bibliographies, and published the first Index Catalogue (1880–95). He also designed Johns Hopkins Hospital and was its medical adviser, ran national vital statistics programs, led the U.S. effort to end yellow fever, and was the first director of the New York Public Library. His organization of U.S. medical institutions was central to modernization of hospital care and maintenance of public health.

Learn more about Billings, John Shaw with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Arthur Jacob Arshawsky

(born May 23, 1910, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 30, 2004, Newbury Park, Calif.) U.S. clarinetist and leader of one of the most popular big bands of the swing era. Shaw was a technically brilliant clarinetist and worked freelance before leading his own groups. In 1935 he performed with a string quartet, later expanding the group into a more conventional dance band. He led a U.S. Navy band during World War II and afterward led various ensembles until his retirement in 1954. His best-known recordings are “Begin the Beguine” and “Frenesi.”

Learn more about Shaw, Artie with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 14, 1847, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, Eng.—died July 2, 1919, Moylan, Pa., U.S.) U.S. minister and suffragist. She arrived in the U.S. with her family in 1851. By age 15 she was a frontier schoolteacher, and in 1880 she became the first woman minister of the Methodist Protestant Church. She took up the causes of temperance and woman suffrage in 1885 and became an important spokesperson for both. She earned a medical degree the next year and later served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (1904–15). She performed home-front war work during World War I, for which she received the Distinguished Service Medal in 1919. She died shortly before women gained the right to vote.

Learn more about Shaw, Anna Howard with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Shaw is a city in Bolivar and Sunflower Counties in the U.S. state of Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region. The population was 2,312 at the 2000 census.

Geography

Shaw is located at (33.601549, -90.770720). The city is almost entirely in Bolivar County. A small portion extends east into adjacent Sunflower County. In the 2000 census, all of the city's 2,313 residents lived in Bolivar County. Although no residents lived in the Sunflower County portion in 2000, that figure had risen to 1 by 2006.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.1 square miles (2.9 km²).None of the area is covered with water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,312 people, 753 households, and 573 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,082.8 people per square mile (804.2/km²). There were 785 housing units at an average density of 707.2/sq mi (273.1/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 7.31% White, 92.08% African American, 0.04% Native American, 0.09% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.22% from other races, and 0.22% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.99% of the population.

There were 753 households out of which 37.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.5% were married couples living together, 37.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.9% were non-families. 21.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.07 and the average family size was 3.58.

In the city the population was spread out with 33.9% under the age of 18, 11.7% from 18 to 24, 25.6% from 25 to 44, 18.9% from 45 to 64, and 9.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29 years. For every 100 females there were 82.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 74.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $18,878, and the median income for a family was $19,393. Males had a median income of $21,181 versus $18,816 for females. The per capita income for the city was $9,070. About 41.3% of families and 41.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 53.5% of those under age 18 and 31.3% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Most of Shaw is served by the Shaw School District, while the small portion of the city that lies in Sunflower County is served by the Sunflower County School District.

Famous residents

• David Honeyboy Edwards, blues singer and guitarist (b. 1915)
• Dave Meadows "Boo" Ferriss - Famous professional baseball player (Boston Red Sox)

Crime

1914-06-30: Mr. Jack Farmer, an African American resident of Shaw, was being searched for by a Vigilante Posse for the alleged murder of Mr. Earl Chase, a White resident. The search got so frustrated that two ancillary murders took place. Ms. Jennie Collins, an African American who was thought to have assisted Mr. Farmer in his flight, and Mr. James Jolly, a White member of the posse who was mistaken for Mr. Farmer in the darkness, were shot. The posse was sweeping through a local swamp because it was supposed that Mr. Farmer was hiding there. Mr. Farmer was never found.

References

External links