

To me, at least, he was always very warm, very welcoming. He could sometimes seem cool, calculating, even ruthless in his dealings with people, but part of that was a way to make sure he wasn’t being cheated, or taken advantage of. “The music, the travel, his love life which was definitely complicated. “I was amazed at how he was able to exercise so much control over so many aspects of his life,” Bill Ray said. Here, presents a selection of Ray’s photos many of which never ran in LIFE magazine that reveal a Ray Charles most of us have never seen. In a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers, his most famous work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, was voted the number two childrens picture book, bested only by Where the Wild Things Are.

LIFE photographer Bill Ray spent a solid month with Charles during this pivotal time in the singer’s career, chronicling performances at celebrated venues like Carnegie Hall as well as hanging out with the legend in the studio, backstage at concerts and on the road and in the air between shows. Eric Carle (1929 2021) was a highly acclaimed and beloved author, illustrator, and creator of more than seventy picture books for young children. (He’d been arrested for possession for the third time in 1965, and agreed to rehab in order to avoid jail time.) After getting clean he reemerged with hits like “I Don’t Need No Doctor,” “Crying Time” and other songs in various genres, including blues-inflected country, that revealed his powers as an entertainer to be not merely undiminished, but perhaps stronger than ever.

In 1966, Charles’s career was on the rebound after a forced hiatus in rehab the previous year for his longtime heroin addiction. A prodigious pianist, soulful songwriter and vocalist of astonishing range and power, Charles transformed the pop-culture landscape with his melding of gospel, blues and R&B music during the 1950s.

After Tim Wonnacott left Bargain Hunt, Knowles became one of a number of ‘guest presenters’ hosting the show.In July 1966, LIFE magazine published a story in which Frank Sinatra called Ray Charles “the only genius in our business.” Whether or not he was the only genius in show business is debatable but there’s no getting around the fact that the genius Ray Charles was one of the most influential American musicians in history.
ERIC SMARKY CHARLES TV
As of 2012, he is on the UK TV show Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is. He is the challenger setter and adjudicator on BBC Two’s Antiques Master assisting host Sandi Toksvig. He has presented the 20 episodes of Restoration Roadshow on BBC for several weeks in the summer of 2010. He has also featured in such programs as Going for a Song, Going, Going, Gone, Noel’s House Party, Call My Bluff, and 20th Century Roadshow. He first came into the limelight as a ceramics expert on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. He also has edited works such as Miller’s: Art Nouveau & Art Deco. He is also a published author on subjects such as Victoriana, Royal memorabilia, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and René Lalique. In 2019, he joined The Hoard as executive chairman and opened a gallery, The Hoard on The Pantiles in Royal Tunbridge Wells in early 2020. He went back to London to continue with directing the Decorative Arts Department and left in 2013 to join Dreweatts and Bloomsbury. By the year 1992, he was given responsibility for setting up Bonham’s offices in Bristol. He became part of the London auction house Bonhams auctioneers as a porter in the ceramics department in 1976 and became head of the department in 1981. Eric Knowles Biography – Eric Knowles WikiĮric Knowles Biography – Eric Knowles WikiĮric Knowles is a British antiques expert and television personality, whose main interest is in ceramics and glass.
