Don Cornelius

Donald Cortez "Don" Cornelius was an American television show host and producer who departed this life tragically at the age of 75. He created the dance and music franchise Soul Train. He hosted this hit show from 1971 until 1993. Born 1936 in Chicago, Illinois, he joined the United States Marine Corps and served 18 months in Korea starting in 1956. Ten years later, he landed a job as an announcer, news reporter and disc jockey on Chicago radio station WVON. A year later, in 1967, Cornelius joined Chicago television station WCIU-TV in 1967 and hosted a news program called "A Black's View of the News." In 1970, he launched "Soul Train" on WCIU-TV as a daily local show. The program entered national syndication and moved to Los Angeles the following year with such acts such as Madonna and Michael Jackson gracing the stage. In 2005 Cornelius made the quote, "We can't make it important to anybody else. Some of the audience we serve doesn't really care about what you did yesterday and you have to be cogniz