As a child Fanny's mother took her to every show they could get at and started her love for performing at a very young age. Even though she was the third of four children and had a drunk as a father, her mother still made time for Fanny and cheered her, on her journey to her dream. After winning an amateur talent contest at age 13 singing "When you know you're not forgotten by the girl you can't forget" at Keeney's Theater in Brooklyn. She then quit school at the age of 14 to become a performer on the "low-down" burlesque circuits. She later changed her name to Fanny Brice and got her first professional job in the chorus of The Talk of the Town but ironicely she got fired during rehearsals by the big current star George M. Cohen.
In 1960, Vivian took Debbie and her siblings to live with her in Mexico. After almost two years in Mexico, the Allen family returned to Texas, where the twelve year old Debbie auditioned for the Houston Ballet School. Debbie’s performance was good enough for admission, however the school denied her entry based on the color of her skin. Fortunately, a year later, a Russian instructor at the school who saw Debbie perform and secretly enrolled the aspiring dancer. When the admissions department discovered what had happened, they were going kick her out but they were so impressed with her skills that they let Allen stay in the program.
They closed their eyes but when the piano started playing she did not get up. When she opened her eyes, she immediately felt an overwhelming sense of embarrassment. They concluded that her hearing loss was over time because her language development was normal and her lip reading skill were at an expert level. At the age of 5 she received her first hearing aid and was kept in the mainstream system. Mainstream Education is keeping a student with special
Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in the town of Tuskegee on February 4, 1913 (Badertscher) She received a good education despite the discrimination against African Americans in that era. Her mother was a schoolteacher and home-schooled Rosa until she was 11 years old. Rosa then lived with her aunt in Montgomery, attending the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls. She was forced to drop out of Booker T. Washington High School because of her family illness, but received her high school diploma in 1934 (Badertscher) Rosa Parks was later married to Raymond Parks. He was a barber and supported Rosa through thick and thin and they were both members of the NAACP.
Deaf children were never taught a language because they were shunned and sent to mentally retarded schools (this new language they created was almost out of desperation). Since the brain is open to language until the age of 12 or 13, creating a language came easy to these children. Their language was true and precise with rule and order. Deaf people who are not open to sign language or oralism must feel like they cannot express their feelings; it is like they are closed behind a wall they cannot get through. A great example from this film is when we met a woman with two children who could not speak; she does not even know her own name as well as the names of her two children.
Lisa’s mother, a teacher in DISD, divorced the father four years ago and intentionally moved to Highland Park for the quality of the school district. Lisa is four foot, four inches and weighs seventy-five pounds. Lisa’s mother believes her daughter is about to go through a growth spurt as her stomach area appears to still have some “belly fat” and her trunk has yet to elongate. Lisa’s room was decorated in pink and held a wide assortment of toys, dolls, movies, and electronic equipment such as a television, DVD player, game system, and a laptop. She is a fourth grade student at John S. Armstrong Elementary School in Highland Park and was eager to show us her homework assignments and various worksheets she had recently completed at school.
Shelley Beattie Shelley Beattie was born on August 24, 1967 in Santa Ana, California to Laura Mitchell and Jack Beattie. She went deaf after accidently swallowing a bottle of aspirin at the age of three. She became deaf in one ear and partially in the other. She didn’t think her deafness was a disabililty. No one knew she was deaf until she was in the sixth grade.
Cherilyn Sarkisian was born on May 20, 1946 in El Centro, California to a John Sarkisian a refugee who worked as a truck driver and Georgia Holt an aspiring actress and sometimes a model. Cher faced tribes and tribulation when her parents divorced. Due to financial problem Cher ended up in a temporary foster home till her mother came back to get her. Cher’s mother remarried again to a banker named Gilbert Capierre who later adopted her. When Cher was young she was diagnosed with dyslexia but didn’t let that stop her from her dream in 1941 she saw the movie Dumbo q“and I pead my pants” she realized that she wanted to become a singer and a dancing animal.
(Sue was played by Deanne Bray, who is also deaf). She was born on May 24, 1950 in Boardman, Ohio and at the age of 18 months, became deaf. The explanation of how she became deaf is not definitely known. Sue went on, at seven years of age, to become the youngest Ohio State freestyle figure-skating champ ever. She earned a bachelor’s degree and went to grad school.
Born in Brooklyn, New York but raised in Detroit, Aaliyah got her first major exposure appearing on the syndicated television series "Star Search" (1983) where she awed the audience with her amazing voice and talent. Withdrawing from the celebrity scene for a few years, Aaliyah lived the life of a normal teenage girl, attending Detroit's Performing Arts High School where she majored in dance. It was around this same time that Aaliyah met singer/composer R. Kelly. Kelly assisted Aaliyah with the production of her debut album "Age Ain't Nothing But A number" which scored several number hits, specifically "Back and