The Polar Music Prize, music’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, will be awarded to St. Louis’ own Chuck Berry Aug. 26 at a gala in Stockholm. Famed theater/ opera director Peter Sellars also will be honored with the award, presented by King Carl XVI of Sweden. Previous honorees include Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, B.B. King, Renee Fleming and Dizzy Gillespie. The prize was established 25 years ago to break down musical boundaries by uniting artists of all genres. Winners receive a trophy and $150,000.
Beauty and body-care products from Kind Soap Co., a Webster Groves shop specializing in natural soaps and moisturizers, will be featured in the gift lounge at the Aug. 25 Emmy Awards. Owner Jean Scholtes is creating gift sets containing Bulgarian rose soap, shea butter hand cream and Goodnight Kisses Lip Treatment to distribute to celebs during the weekend-long Emmy festivities.
Ameristar Casino Resort Spa St. Charles has been awarded AAA Four Diamond ‘best of the Midwest’ and ‘best casino’ honors for the third consecutive year. In addition, the casino/ spa has been named to Expedia’s 2014 Insiders Select list, an annual ranking of best-reviewed hotels as determined by the online travel agency. Only 650 of more than 290,000 bookable properties made the list.
EntrepreneurialSTL, created by five regional civic organizations, has been nominated for a 2014 Mid-America Chapter Emmy Award. The video features interviews with local entrepreneurs who promote St. Louis as a fertile environment for start-up projects and business es. Released last spring on various social media platforms, it was produced by the St. Louis Civic Pride Foundation and Coolfire in partnership with the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, St. Louis Regional Chamber, Partnership for Downtown St. Louis and Accelerate St. Louis.
Dr. Richard Wahl has been named head of radiology at Washington University School of Medicine. He’ll also serve as director of Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology. The appointment begins Oct. 1. Wahl, a Washington U. grad and former resident and fellow at the School of Medicine, is now a professor and director of the division of nuclear medicine at Johns Hopkins University. He was among the first to use radioimmunotherapy to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and has been a leader in using PET scans to diagnose a broad array of cancers and other diseases.
Famed Cardinals catcher and Emmy-winning sportscaster Tim McCarver recently got a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. McCarver, who was 17 when he joined the Cards in 1959, was an All-Star in 1966 and ’67. He moved to the broadcast booth in 1980 and called 24 World Series games from 1985 to 2013. His star is at 6144 Delmar Blvd. in The Loop, right across from Moonrise Hotel.
