Ask American Profile

The Wiggles, Charo, Alex Trebek, Johnny and June Cash

Everybody in our house loves watching The Wiggles on the Disney Channel. What can you tell me about them?
—Martha Dunston, Fort Payne, Ala.

The Wiggles began as a class project in the late 1980s for three "mates" who were studying early childhood education at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Anthony Field, Murray Cook and Greg Page began writing children’s songs, and by graduation they’d recorded a tape and launched careers as a singing group for the preschool set. (They were joined by Jeff Fatt in 1991.) Over the last 15 years, the globe-trotting Wiggles have performed all over the United States and Australia and released numerous CDs, videos and other products aimed at getting kids to smile and sing along to their silly, wholesome, cleverly crafted songs, such as "Toot Toot, Chugga Lugga, Big Red Car," "The Monkey Dance" and "Rockabye Your Bear."

I remember seeing Charo frequently on The Tonight Show in the 1970s. Was that her real name, and what’s she doing these days?
—Barbara M., Baker City, Ore.

Charo, whose real name is Maria Rosario Pilar Martinez Molina Baeza, was born in Murcia, Spain. She learned to play classical and flamenco guitar in her early teens and came to the United States as part of famed Latin maestro Xavier Cugat’s orchestra. Eventually performing solo under her nickname of Charo, she became a headliner in Las Vegas, a hit recording artist and a familiar fixture on talk and variety programs, including The Tonight Show, where she appeared more than 45 times. Her new CD, Charo and Guitar, finds her returning to her roots and applying her string-strumming talent to a collection of classical and contemporary guitar tunes.

Please tell me about Alex Trebek of Jeopardy! He’s the best-dressed host on television.
—Katie Wall, Belmont, N.C.

The smartly dressed host, who recently donated to charity his entire collection of some 250 Perry Ellis suits he wore over the last 22 years of Jeopardy!, is a native of Ontario, Canada, and has won three daytime Emmy awards for Outstanding Game Show Host. Trebek lives with his wife, Jean, and their two children, Emily and Matthew, in California’s San Fernando Valley.

I would like to know where Johnny Cash and wife June Carter Cash are buried.
—Karen Holmes, Windsor, Conn.

After his death in September 2003, Cash, 71, was buried alongside his beloved June in the Hendersonville Memory Gardens in Hendersonville, Tenn., near their longtime home. June died earlier that spring. Known as "The Man in Black" for his somber attire, worn in a show of solidarity with the poor and downtrodden, Cash was interred in a black coffin.

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