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Ralph Cooper
Best known for founding (in 1934) and emceeing the Amateur Night at the historic Apollo Theater, where talents such as Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday received early exposure. Cooper also played supporting roles in Hollywood features such as Josef von Sternberg's "Blonde Venus" (1932), Henry King's "Lloyd's of London" (1936) and Irving Cummings' "White Hunter" (1936), and choreographed Cummings' Shirley Temple vehicle, "Poor Little Rich Girl" (1936).