Portrait of Oscar Brown

Birthday profile

Oscar Brown

Oscar Brown, American singer-songwriter, playwright, and actor (died 2005)

Born
October 10, 1926
Died
May 29, 2005
Zodiac sign
Libra
Birth year
1926

About Oscar Brown

Oscar Brown Jr. was an American singer, songwriter, playwright, poet, actor, and civil rights activist. Aside from his career, Brown ran unsuccessfully for office in both the Illinois state legislature and the U.S. Congress. Brown wrote many songs, 12 albums, and more than a dozen musical plays. After graduating from Englewood High School, Brown attended first the University of Wisconsin–Madison and then Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, but he dropped out of college and never returned. During Brown's twenties, he worked as the "world's first Black newscaster" for Negro Newsfront, a Chicago radio program that he co-produced with Vernon Jarrett. Unfortunately, they discovered Oscar not arriving on time. His first major contribution to a recorded work was a collaboration with Max Roach, We Insist! (1960), which was an early record celebrating the black freedom movement in the United States.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Oscar Brown was born

Oscar Brown was born in 1926. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1926

  • #1 song"Bye Bye Blackbird"
  • Top movieThe General (Buster Keaton)
  • Best-selling bookThe Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGertrude Ederle swims the English Channel
  • Top headlineA.A. Milne publishes Winnie-the-Pooh
  • Technology milestoneFirst demonstration of television
  • Defining fadFlagpole sitting
  • Notable inventionPop-up toaster
  • World population2.01 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderCalvin Coolidge
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population117.4M

1926 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Oscar Brown's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19262026
Gas$0.23$3.45/gal
Average home$6,000$435,000
Average income$3,620$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population117.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, MusicBrainz, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.