Gary Lewis (born Gary Harold Lee Levitch, July 31, 1946 in Los Angeles, California, United States) is an American musician who was the leader of Gary Lewis & the Playboys.

Early life

Gary Lewis is the son of comedian and actor Jerry Lewis. His mother, Patti Lewis (née Esther Calonico), a singer at the time with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra, reportedly intended to name him after her favorite actor, Cary Grant, but a clerical error led to his naming as "Gary".

He received a set of drums as a gift for his 14th birthday in 1960. When he was 18, Lewis formed what would become Gary Lewis & the Playboys (then known as "Gary and the Playboys") with four other friends. Joking at the lateness of bandmates to practice, Lewis referred to them as "playboys", and the name stuck. Lewis was the drummer, but at that time singing duties were held by guitarist Dave Walker. As the band started, Gary's mother was quietly funding the purchases of equipment, as they believed Gary's father would not have supported the band. This could explain why, even though he lived down the street from the Lewis family, producer Snuff Garrett wasn't aware of Gary's band until a mutual friend, conductor Lou Brown, informed him that the band was playing at Disneyland and that Garrett should give them a listen.

Gary Lewis may refer to:

Gary Lewis (born Gary Stevenson on 30 November 1958) is a Scottish actor. He's had parts in Billy Elliot, Gangs of New York, Eragon and Three and Out, as well as a major role in the television docudrama, Supervolcano.

Early life

Born and raised in the tough Easterhouse area of Glasgow, Lewis has described in interviews the dichotomy of his upbringing: his parents stressed the value of education, yet his formal studies were left wanting. When he left school, he lacked a sense of purpose, taking a job as a road-sweeper to earn a living. Later, Lewis found employment in the local library. Encouraged by his brother, an English teacher at a Glasgow secondary school (Stonelaw High School), he read voraciously and thought about pursuing a career as an actor.

Acting career

Theatre

Although he had pursued amateur theatrics, Lewis was 32 when he committed to acting, joining Robert Carlyle's newly formed Raindog Theatre. His career received a boost when he was befriended by actor-director Peter Mullan whom he met at a socialist lecture.

Witi Tame Ihimaera-Smiler, DCNZM, QSM (born 7 February 1944), generally known as Witi Ihimaera /ˈwɪti ɪhiˈmaɪrə/, is a New Zealand author, and is often regarded as one of the most prominent Māori writers alive.

Biography

Ihimaera was born near Gisborne, a town in the east of New Zealand's North Island and is of Māori descent (Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki) and Anglo-Saxon descent through his father, Tom. He attended Church College of New Zealand in Temple View, Hamilton, New Zealand. He was the first Māori writer to publish both a novel and a book of short stories. He began to work as a diplomat at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1973, and served at various diplomatic posts in Canberra, New York, and Washington, D.C. Ihimaera remained at the Ministry until 1989, although his time there was broken by several fellowships at the University of Otago in 1975 and Victoria University of Wellington in 1982 (where he graduated with a BA). In 1990, he took up a position at the University of Auckland, where he became Professor, and Distinguished Creative Fellow in Māori Literature. He retired from this position in 2010.

Lewis was an American satellite which was to have been operated by NASA as part of the Small Satellite Technology Initiative. It carried two experimental Earth imaging instruments, and an ultraviolet astronomy payload. Due to a design flaw it failed within three days of reaching orbit, before it became operational.

Lewis was a 288 kilograms (635 lb) spacecraft, which was designed to operate for between one and three years. It was built by TRW under a contract which was signed on 11 July 1994. Its primary instruments were the Hyperspectral Imager, the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array and the Ultraviolet Cosmic Background experiment. A number of technology demonstration payloads were also flown.

Launch

Lewis was launched by a LMLV-1 (Athena I) rocket flying from Space Launch Complex 6 at the Vandenberg Air Force Base. The launch was originally scheduled to take place in September 1996, but it was delayed due to technical problems affecting the rocket. Launch finally occurred at 06:51:01 GMT on 23 August 1997, and Lewis was successfully placed into a parking orbit with an apogee of 134 kilometres (83 mi), a perigee of 124 kilometres (77 mi), and 97.5 degrees of inclination. Lewis was to have raised itself into a higher orbit, at an altitude of 523 kilometres (325 mi).

A lewis (sometimes called a lewisson) is one of a category of lifting devices used by stonemasons to lift large stones into place with a crane, chain block, or winch. It is inserted into a specially prepared hole, or seating, in the top of a stone, directly above its centre of mass. It works by applying principles of the lever and utilises the weight of the stone to act on the long lever-arms which in turn results in a very high reaction force and friction where the short lever-arms make contact with the stone inside the hole and thereby prevents slipping.

Etymology

The name lewis may come from the Latin levo -avi, -atum meaning to levitate or lift, but the Oxford English Dictionary Online states, "the formation and the phonology are not easily explained on this hypothesis", preferring "origin obscure", and speculating that the term may derive from a personal name. The Romans used the lewis. The specially shaped hole that is shaped to fit the device is known as a lewis hole. Lewis holes in the uppermost masonry coursings are neatly repaired with matching indented plugs after the stone has been set in place.

Lewis (first name and dates unknown) was an English cricketer who was associated with Middlesex and made his first-class debut in 1830.

References

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