Bailey, Pearl (Mae) (b. March 29, 1918, Newport News, Va., U.S.—d. Aug. 17, 1990, Philadelphia, Pa.) U.S. singer and entertainer. She began her career at age 15, appearing in nightclubs and theatres and with jazz bands, including the Count Basie band. Her first Broadway musi¬ cal was St. Louis Woman in 1946; her first film was Variety Girl in 1947. She became known for her lively and earthy style. In 1952 she married the drummer and bandleader Louis Bellson, with whom she later often appeared. The most memorable of her Broadway roles, which included Carmen Jones (1954), was as Dolly Levi in an all-black production of Hello, Dolly! (1967-69).
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bailiff ► Baker v. Carr I 151
bailiff Officer of some U.S. courts whose duties include keeping order in the courtroom and guarding prisoners or jurors in deliberation. In medi¬ eval Europe, it was a title of some dignity and power, denoting a mano¬ rial superintendent or royal agent who collected fines and rent, served writs, assembled juries, made arrests, and executed the monarch’s orders. The bailiff’s authority was gradually eroded by the increasing need to use administrators with legal or other specialized training.
Bailly \ba-'ye\, Jean-Sylvain (b. Sept. 15, 1736, Paris, France—d. Nov. 12, 1793, Paris) French astronomer and politician. Noted for his computation of an orbit for Halley's Comet in 1759, he turned to politics with the outbreak of the French Revolution. He was chosen president of the Third Estate in May 1789 and was proclaimed the first mayor of Paris in July. He later lost popularity, particularly after his order to disperse a riotous crowd led to the massacre of the Champ de Mars (1791). He retired but was subsequently arrested, taken before the revolutionary tribunal, and guillotined.
Baily's beads Arc of bright spots seen during a total eclipse of the Sun, named for Francis Baily (1774-1844), the English astronomer who first called attention to them. Just before the Moon’s disk completely covers the Sun, the narrow crescent of sunlight may be broken in several places by mountains and valleys on the edge of the Moon’s disk; the resulting spots resemble a string of beads. The “diamond-ring effect” occurs when the very last rays of the Sun to be obscured look like a bright diamond on the solar corona.
Baird, Bil and Cora (respectively b. Aug. 15, 1904, Grand Island, Neb., U.S.—d. March 18, 1987, New York, N.Y.; b. Jan. 26, 1912, New York City—d. Dec. 6, 1967, New York City) U.S. puppeteers. Bil Baird (originally William Britton Baird) worked under the puppeteer Tony Sarg for five years then produced his own puppet shows from the mid 1930s. He and Cora Eisenberg married in 1937 and began to create original pup¬ pets, scenery, and music for their shows. They produced a series of tele¬ vision shows in the 1950s and opened their own marionette theatre in New York in 1966. Bil wrote The Art of the Puppet (1965) and trained pup¬ peteers such as Jim Henson.
Baird, John L(ogie) (b. Aug. 13, 1888, Helensburgh, Dunbarton, Scot.—d. June 14, 1946, Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, Eng.) Scottish engineer. Plagued by ill health, he gave up his job as an electric-power engineer in 1922 and devoted himself to television research. He produced televised objects in outline in 1924 and recognizable human faces in 1925, and in 1926 became the first person to televise pictures of objects in motion. He demonstrated colour television in 1928. The German post office gave him facilities to develop a television service in 1929. When the BBC televi¬ sion service began (1936), his system competed with that of Marconi Electric and Musical Industries; the BBC adopted the latter exclusively in 1937. Baird was reported to have completed research on stereoscopic television at the time of his death.
Bairiki Vbl-,re-ke\ Islet (pop., 2000: urban agglomeration, 36,717) and administrative centre, Kiribati. It is located on Tarawa Atoll, northern Gil¬ bert Islands. It has port facilities as well as an extension centre of the Uni¬ versity of the South Pacific.
Baja Vba-,ha\ California Spanish "Lower California" Peninsula, northwestern Mexico. Bounded by the U.S. to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Gulf of California to the east, it is about 760 mi (1,220 km) long and has an area of 55,366 sq mi (143,396 sq km). Politically, it is divided into the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. It has more than 2,000 mi (3,200 km) of coastline, with sheltered harbours on both the western and gulf coasts. The area had been inhabited for some 9,000 years when the Spanish arrived in 1533. Jesuit missionaries estab¬ lished permanent settlements in the late 17th century, but the native Indi¬ ans were practically exterminated in epidemics introduced by the Spanish. The area was separated from what is now the U.S. state of California by treaty in 1848 following the Mexican War.
Baja California formerly Baja California Norte State (pop., 2000: 2,487,367), northern Baja California peninsula, northwestern Mexico. It covers an area of 27,071 sq mi (70,114 sq km), and its capital is Mexicali. Although long inhabited, it remained sparsely populated until the 1950s, when it experienced phenomenal growth. This was partly because of its proximity to the U.S. border; numerous foreign companies have established assembly oriented factories (maquiladoras) in the region, a trend accelerated by the establishment of NAFTA in 1994.
Baja California Sur State (pop., 2000: 423,516), southern Baja Cali¬ fornia peninsula, northwestern Mexico. It occupies an area of 28,369 sq mi (73, 475 sq km), and its capital is La Paz. It became a state in 1974. It is sparsely populated and remains relatively underdeveloped. Much new acreage of cotton has been planted near La Paz, but subsistence agricul¬ ture is most common. An increase in tourism and improved communica¬ tions have begun to alleviate the state’s isolation.
Baker, Chet orig. Chesney Henry Baker (b. Dec. 23, 1929, Yale, Okla., U.S.—d. May 13, 1988, Amsterdam, Neth.) U.S. trumpeter and singer. After playing in army bands he attracted attention during engage¬ ments with Charlie Parker and Gerry Mulligan in 1952 and 1953. His sub¬ dued tone and gentle phrasing made him the epitome of the cool jazz (see bebop) of the 1950s. With recordings such as “My Funny Valentine” he established his plaintive, fragile approach as a vocalist, which mirrored his trumpet style. Much of his later career, interrupted several times by legal problems stemming from drug addiction, was spent in Europe.
Baker, Josephine orig. Freda Josephine McDonald (b. June 3, 1906, St. Louis, Mo., U.S.—d. April 12, 1975, Paris, France) U.S.-born French entertainer. She joined a dance troupe at age 16 and soon moved to New York City, where she performed in Harlem nightclubs and on Broadway in Chocolate Dandies (1924). She went to Paris in 1925 to dance in La Revue negre. To French audiences she personified the exoti¬ cism and vitality of African Ameri¬ can culture, and she became Paris’s most popular music-hall entertainer, receiving star billing at the Foues Bergere. In World War II she worked with the Red Cross and entertained Free French troops. From 1950 she adopted numerous orphans of all nationalities as “an experiment in broth¬ erhood.” She returned periodically to the U.S. to advance the cause of civil rights.
Baker, Newton D(iehl) (b. Dec. 3, 1871, Martinsburg, W.Va., U.S.—d. Dec. 25, 1937, Cleveland, Ohio) U.S. secretary of war. He prac¬ ticed law in Martinsburg from 1897. After moving to Cleveland, he was elected mayor (1912-16). He helped obtain the 1912 Democratic presi¬ dential nomination for Woodrow Wilson, who appointed him secretary of war (1916-21). Although he was a pacifist, Baker developed a plan for the military draft and oversaw the mobilization of more than four million men during World War I. In 1928 he was appointed to the International Court of Arbitration at The Hague.
Baker, Philip John Noel- See Philip Noel-Baker
Baker, Russell (Wayne) (b. Aug. 14, 1925, Loudoun county, Va., U.S.) U.S. newspaper columnist. Baker joined the Baltimore Sun in 1947. In 1954 he moved to the Washington bureau of the New York Times, and in the early 1960s he began his syndicated “Observer” column. Initially concentrating on political satire, he later found other subjects to skewer as well. In 1979 he won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. His books include the autobiographies Growing Up (1982, Pulitzer Prize) and The Good Times (1989). In 1993 he became host of the television program Masterpiece Theatre.