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October 02, 2022
Gillian Welch is 55 years old today
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings in studio
Photo by David McClister
Gillian Welch is 55 years old today.
Welch performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass and Americana.
Welch and Rawlings have released five critically acclaimed albums, and two under the name David Rawlings Machine. Their 1996 debut, Revival, and the 2001 release Time (The Revelator), were major folk albums.
Their 2003 album, Soul Journey, introduced electric guitar, drums and a more upbeat sound to their body of work. After a gap of eight years, they released their fifth studio album, The Harrow & The Harvest, in 2011, another acclaimed folk album.
Welch was an associate producer and performed on two songs of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. She has collaborated and recorded with Alison Krauss, Ryan Adams, Jay Farrar, Emmylou Harris, The Decemberists and Ani DiFranco.
Annie Leibovitz, photographer, is 73 years old today
Annie Leibovitz on the Chrysler Building, 1991
Photo by John Loengard
Annie Leibovitz, photographer, is 73 years old today.
Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is the third of six children. In high school, she became interested in various artistic endeavors, and began to write and play music. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied painting.
For several years, she continued to develop her photography skills while working various jobs, including a stint on a kibbutz in Amir, Israel for several months in 1969. When Leibovitz returned to the United States in 1970, she started her career as staff photographer, working for the just launched Rolling Stone magazine.
In 1973, publisher Jann Wenner named Leibovitz chief photographer of Rolling Stone, a job she would hold for 10 years. She worked for the magazine until 1983, and her intimate photographs of celebrities helped define the Rolling Stone look.
Richard Avedon's portraits were an important influence on Leibovitz. She learned that you can work for magazines and still do your own personal work, which for her was the most important thing.
Photographers such as Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson influenced her during her time at the San Francisco Art Institute. "Their style of personal reportage — taken in a graphic way — was what we were taught to emulate."
On December 8, 1980, Leibovitz had a photo shoot with John Lennon for Rolling Stone, promising him that he would make the cover. She had initially tried to get a picture with just Lennon alone, which is what Rolling Stone wanted, but Lennon insisted that both he and Yoko Ono be on the cover.
Leibovitz then tried to re-create something like the kissing scene from the Double Fantasy album cover, a picture that she loved. She had John remove his clothes and curl up next to Yoko.
Leibovitz recalls, "What is interesting is she said she'd take her top off and I said, 'Leave everything on' — not really preconceiving the picture at all.
Then he curled up next to her and it was very, very strong. You couldn't help but feel that he was cold and he looked like he was clinging on to her. I think it was amazing to look at the first Polaroid and they were both excited.
John said, “‘You've captured our relationship exactly. Promise me it'll be on the cover.' I looked him in the eye and we shook on it."
Leibovitz was the last person to professionally photograph Lennon — he was shot and killed five hours later.
In the 1980s, Leibovitz's new style of lighting and use of bold colors and poses got her a position with Vanity Fair magazine. She photographed celebrities for an international advertising campaign for American Express, winning her a Clio award in 1987.
In 1991, Leibovitz mounted an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. She was the second living portraitist and first woman to show there. She had also been made Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.
Also in 1991, Leibovitz emulated Margaret Bourke-White's feat, when she mounted one of the eagle gargoyles on the 61st floor of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan, where she photographed the dancer, David Parsons, cavorting on another eagle gargoyle.
Noted Life photographer and picture editor, John Loengard, made a gripping photo of Leibovitz at the climax of her danger. Loengard was photographing Leibovitz for the New York Times that day.
Leibovitz had a close romantic relationship with noted writer and essayist, Susan Sontag. They met in 1989, when both had already established notability in their careers. Leibovitz has suggested that Sontag mentored her and constructively criticized her work.
After Sontag's death in 2004, Newsweek published an article about Leibovitz that made reference to her decade-plus relationship with Sontag, stating that "The two first met in the late '80s, when Leibovitz photographed her for a book jacket. They never lived together, though they each had an apartment within view of the other's."
Don McLean, whose song popularized the expression "The Day the Music Died” in American Pie, is 77 years old today
Don McLean, whose song popularized the expression "The Day the Music Died” in American Pie, is 77 years old today.
A singer-songwriter, McLean made the 1971 album, American Pie, containing the renowned songs, "American Pie" and "Vincent.”
McLean’s family left Italy and settled in Port Chester, New York, at the end of the 19th century. As a teenager, McLean became interested in folk music, particularly the Weavers' 1955 recording, At Carnegie Hall.
Childhood asthma meant that McLean missed long periods of school, particularly music lessons. Although he slipped back in his studies, his love of music was allowed to flourish. He often performed shows for family and friends.
By 16, he had bought his first guitar (a Harmony acoustic archtop with a sunburst finish) and begun making contacts in the music business, becoming friends with the folk singer, Erik Darling, a latter-day member of the Weavers.
McLean recorded his first studio sessions (with singer Lisa Kindred) while still in prep school. He graduated from Iona Preparatory School in 1963, and briefly attended Villanova University, dropping out after four months. While at Villanova, he became friends with singer/songwriter, Jim Croce.
After leaving Villanova, McLean became associated with folk music agent, Harold Leventhal, and for the next six years performed at venues and events including the Bitter End and the Gaslight Cafe in New York, the Newport Folk Festival, the Cellar Door in Washington, D.C. and the Troubadour in Los Angeles.
Concurrently, McLean attended night school at Iona College and received a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1968. He turned down a scholarship to Columbia University Graduate School in favor of becoming resident singer at Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs, New York.
In 1968, with the help of a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, McLean began reaching a wider public, with visits to towns up and down the Hudson River. He learned the art of performing from his friend and mentor, Pete Seeger.
McLean accompanied Seeger on his Clearwater boat trip up the Hudson River in 1969 to raise awareness about environmental pollution in the river. During this time, McLean wrote songs that would appear on his first album.
McLean co-edited the book, Songs and Sketches of the First Clearwater Crew, with sketches by Thomas B. Allen for which Pete Seeger wrote the foreword. Seeger and McLean sang "Shenandoah" on the 1974 Clearwater album.
McLean recorded his first album, Tapestry, in 1969 in Berkeley, California during the student riots. After being rejected by 34 labels, the album was released by Mediarts and attracted good reviews but little notice outside the folk community.
McLean's major break came when Mediarts was taken over by United Artists Records. This secured major label promotion for his second album, American Pie. The album spawned two #1 hits in the title song and "Vincent.” American Pie's success made McLean an international star and piqued interest in his first album, which charted more than two years after its initial release.
McLean's magnum opus, "American Pie," is a sprawling, impressionistic ballad inspired partly by the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) in a plane crash on February 3, 1959. The song popularized the expression, "The Day the Music Died," in reference to this event.
Bob Dearborn, a disc jockey at WCFL, unraveled the lyrics and first published his interpretation on January 7, 1972, eight days before the song reached #1 nationally. Numerous other interpretations, which together largely converged on Dearborn's interpretation, quickly followed. McLean declined to say anything definitive about the lyrics until 1978.
Since then McLean has stated that the lyrics are also somewhat autobiographical and present an abstract story of his life from the mid-1950s until the time he wrote the song in the late 1960s. The song was recorded on May 26, 1971 and a month later received its first radio airplay on New York’s WNEW-FM and WPLJ-FM to mark the closing of The Fillmore East, a famous New York concert hall.
"American Pie" reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard magazine charts for four weeks in 1972, and remains McLean's most successful single release. With a running time of 8:36, it is also the longest song to reach #1.
Graham Greene was born 118 years ago today
Greene pours a drink, 1954
Photo by Kurt Hutton
Graham Greene was born 118 years ago today.
A writer, playwright and literary critic, Greene’s works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world.
Greene was noted for his ability to combine serious literary acclaim with widespread popularity.
Although Greene objected strongly to being described as a Roman Catholic novelist rather than as a novelist who happened to be Catholic, Catholic religious themes are at the root of much of his writing, especially the four major Catholic novels: Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter and The End of the Affair.
Several works such as The Confidential Agent, The Third Man, The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana and The Human Factor also show an avid interest in the workings of international politics and espionage.
Greene suffered from bipolar disorder, which had a profound effect on his writing and personal life.
In a letter to his wife, Vivien, he said he had "a character profoundly antagonistic to ordinary domestic life," and that "unfortunately, the disease is also one's material."
William Golding described Greene as "the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety."
Greene died in 1991 at age 86 in Switzerland.
Groucho Marx was born 133 years ago today
"I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it."
— Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx was born 133 years ago today.
A comedian, film and television star, Marx was known as a master of quick wit and widely considered one of the best comedians of the modern era. His rapid-fire, often impromptu delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers and imitators.
He made 13 feature films with his siblings, the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born. He also had a successful solo career, most notably as the host of the radio and television game show, You Bet Your Life.
His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included quirks such as a stooped posture, glasses, cigar and a thick greasepaint mustache and eyebrows.
These exaggerated features resulted in the creation of one of the world's most ubiquitous and recognizable novelty disguises, known as "Groucho glasses,” a one-piece mask consisting of horn-rimmed glasses, large plastic nose, bushy eyebrows and mustache.
Marx died at age 86 on August 19, 1977.
Rex Reed is 84 years old today
Rex Reed and Frank Beacham at a dinner party in New York City
Photo by Jim Gavin
Rex Reed is 84 years old today.
Reed is a film critic and former co-host of the syndicated television show, At the Movies. Until earlier this year, he wrote the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for The New York Observer.
Reed was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He has acted occasionally, such as in the movie version of Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge.
Reed appears in the 2009 documentary, For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism, explaining how important film critics were in the 1970s, and complaining about the proliferation of unqualified critical voices on the Internet.
Prior to his current job as film critic for The New York Observer, Reed was a film critic for Vogue, GQ, The New York Times and Women's Wear Daily. For thirteen years, he was an arts critic for the New York Daily News, and for five years was the film critic for the New York Post.
He is a member of New York Film Critics Circle and, because his reviews appear on the Internet, he is a member of New York Film Critics Online.
He is the author of eight books, four of which were best-selling profiles of celebrities: Do You Sleep in the Nude?, Conversations in the Raw, People Are Crazy Here and Valentines & Vitriol.
In the sixties and throughout the seventies, Reed was one of the highest-paid and most in-demand writers of celebrity profiles. His writing style is considered an exemplary example of The New Journalism and his profile of the aging Ava Gardner was included and praised in Tom Wolfe's anthology, The New Journalism.
Sting is 71 years old today
Photo by Frank W. Ockenfels III
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner — better known as Sting — is 71 years old today.
Sting is a musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor and philanthropist. Prior to starting his solo career, he was the principal songwriter, lead singer and bassist for the The Police.
Sting has varied his musical style throughout his career, incorporating distinct elements of jazz, reggae, classical, New Age and worldbeat into his music.
While young, Sting performed in jazz bands on evenings, weekends and during breaks from college and from teaching. He played with local jazz bands such as the Phoenix Jazzmen, the Newcastle Big Band and Last Exit.
Sting got his nickname after he performed wearing a black and yellow sweater with hooped stripes while onstage with the Phoenix Jazzmen. Bandleader Gordon Solomon thought that the sweater made him look like a bee, which prompted the nickname, "Sting.”
In the 1985 documentary, Bring on the Night, he was addressed by a journalist as "Gordon,” and replied: "My children call me Sting. My mother calls me Sting. Who is this Gordon character?"
Chubby Wise, bluegrass fiddler, was born 107 years ago today
Chubby Wise, bluegrass fiddler, was born 107 years ago today.
Wise began playing fiddle at age 15, working locally in the Jacksonville area. He joined the Jubilee Hillbillies in 1938, then began playing with Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in 1942, including dates at the Grand Ole Opry.
Wise worked with Monroe through 1948, then played with Clyde Moody in 1948-49. He also played with the York Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs and Connie B. Gay.
In 1954, Wise became a member of Hank Snow's Rainbow Ranch Boys, again appearing at the Grand Ole Opry. He remained with the group until 1970. He also worked as a session musician with Mac Wiseman and Red Allen.
Wise returned to Florida in 1984 and went into semi-retirement, though he continued to tour and record occasionally, such as with the Bass Mountain Boys in 1992.
Wise died on January 6, 1996 at age 81.
October 01, 2022
Albert Collins was born 90 years ago toda
Photo by Kirk West
Albert Collins was born 90 years ago today.
An electric blues guitarist and singer with a distinctive guitar style, Collins was noted for his powerful playing and his use of altered tunings and capo. His long association with the Fender Telecaster led to the title, "The Master of the Telecaster.“
Collins was born in Leona, Texas and introduced to the guitar at an early age through his cousin, Lightnin' Hopkins, also a Leona resident, who frequently played at family reunions. In 1938, his family relocated to Marquez, Texas, eventually settling in Houston in 1941. He later attended Jack Yates High School.
Collins initially took piano lessons when he was young. During periods when his piano tutor was unavailable, his cousin, Willow Young, would loan him his guitar and taught Collins the altered tuning that he used throughout his career.
At 12, Collins made the decision to concentrate on learning the guitar after hearing "Boogie Chillen'" by John Lee Hooker. At 18, Collins started his own group, the Rhythm Rockers, in which he honed his craft while remaining in employment including four years working on a ranch in Normangee, Texas. That was followed by twelve years of driving a truck for various companies.
Collins initially played an Epiphone guitar during his first two years with the Rhythm Rockers, but in 1952 after seeing Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown playing a Fender Esquire he decided to purchase a Fender.
Collins had wanted to buy a Telecaster, but due to their cost he opted instead to buy an Esquire which he then took to the Parker Music Company in Houston to have it fitted with a genuine Telecaster neck. This would remain his main guitar up until his move to California and the guitar he used on his earliest recordings including his signature song, "Frosty.“
In 1954, Collins, then 22 and still without a record release, was joined in the Rhythm Rockers by the 17-year-old Johnny Copeland, who had just left the Dukes of Rhythm (a band he had started with Houston blues musician, Joe "Guitar" Hughes).
Collins started to play regularly in Houston most notably at Shady's Playhouse where James "Widemouth" Brown (brother of Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown) and other well-known Houston blues musicians would meet for the Blue Monday jams.
By the mid 1950s, he had established his reputation as a local guitarist of note and had started to appear regularly at a Fifth Ward club called Walter's Lounge with the group, Big Tiny and the Thunderbirds. The saxophonist and music teacher, Henry Hayes, had heard about Collins from Joe "Guitar" Hughes.
After seeing him perform live, Hayes encouraged Collins to record a single for Kangaroo Records — a label he had started with his friend, M. L. Young. Collins recorded his debut single ,"The Freeze" b/w "Collins Shuffle," for Kangaroo Records at Gold Star Studios, Houston, in the spring of 1958 with Henry Hayes on saxophone.
Texas blues bands of this period incorporated a horn section and Collins later credited Hayes with teaching him how to arrange for horns. In 1964, he recorded "Frosty" at Gulf Coast Recording Studio, Beaumont, Texas, for Hall Records owned by Bill Hall, who had signed Collins on the recommendation of Cowboy Jack Clement.
Clement was a songwriter and producer who had engineered sessions for Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash at Sun Records. His debut album, The Cool Sounds Of Albert Collins, was released in 1965 on the TCF label and consisted of previously released instrumentals including, "Thaw Out" and "Don't Lose Your Cool.”
On June 19, 1968, the group, Canned Heat, were playing at the Music Hall in Houston and a friend of theirs mentioned that Collins was playing at the Ponderosa Club which they attended. After Collins had finished playing, they introduced themselves and offered to help secure an agent for him as well as an introduction to Imperial Records in California.
With the offer of a record deal and regular live work, Collins made the decision to move. Relocating at first to Kansas City in July, 1968, he played in the organ trio of keyboardist Lawrence Wright. In November, he moved to Palo Alto, California.
Collins chose Love Can Be Found Anywhere (Even In A Guitar) from the lyrics of Canned Heat's "Fried Hockey Boogie" as the title for his 1968 Imperial album in honor of Canned Heat and their lead-singer, Bob Hite, who had also provided the liner notes for the album.
In the spring of 1969, he was hired by Bob Krasnow to play on the Ike and Tina Turner album, The Hunter, which was released on Krasnow's Blue Thumb label. The move to California was proving to be the right decision for Collins. He soon established himself as a regular act on the West Coast circuit playing at the Fillmore West and Whisky a Go Go.
He also played at the "Newport 69" festival in Northridge, California, in June and the Gold Rush Festival at Lake Amador, California, in October.
Collins was performing at the Paléo Festival in Nyon, Switzerland, in July, 1993 when he was taken ill. He was diagnosed in mid August with lung cancer which had metastasized to his liver. He had an expected survival time of four months. Tracks from his last album Live '92/'93 were recorded at shows that September.
Albert Collins died on November 24, 1993 at the age of 61.
Collins was an inspiration to a generation of Texas guitar players including Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughn. He was amongst a small group of Texas blues players, along with Johnny "Guitar" Watson and Johnny Copeland, who together shaped the legacy of T-Bone Walker into a modern blues template that was to have a major influence on many later players.
Here, Collins performs “Frosty” with Duke Robillard and Debbie Davies
On this day in 1924 — 98 years ago — future President Jimmy Carter was born in Plains, Georgia
In the early 1980s, Frank Beacham and Carol Dickman engag former President Carter in a long conversation about woodworking. Carter’s former staff had given him some tools and he was making furniture, which he was quite excited about.
On this day in 1924 — 98 years ago — future President Jimmy Carter was born in Plains, Georgia.
Carter was the son of a peanut farmer and was the first president to be born in a hospital. He was raised a devoted Southern Baptist and graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1946. He married Rosalynn Smith later that year.
After graduation, Carter served in the Navy’s new nuclear submarine program and was looking forward to a career in the Navy when his father passed away in 1953. The Carters dutifully returned to Georgia and took over the family farm.
Back in Plains, Carter became involved in local politics, serving first on the school board and working his way up to a seat on the George State Planning Commission. In 1962, he was elected to the George Senate. Nine years later, he became governor.
A liberal Democrat, Carter launched a campaign against Republican presidential incumbent, Gerald Ford, in 1974, after former President Richard Nixon had resigned due to his involvement in the Watergate scandal. Ford, who assumed office immediately upon Nixon’s resignation in 1974, pardoned his former boss, enraging many who thought Nixon should have had to stand trial.
Carter’s "Washington outsider" persona helped him win the White House in 1976. Carter’s tenure as president was most notable for his alternative-energy policies, racial-equality programs and friendly overtures toward Russia.
He was instrumental in brokering a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt and signed an arms-reduction treaty with the Soviet Union (SALT II). These triumphs, however, were overshadowed by his inability to lead the nation out of a crippling energy crunch caused by the OPEC oil embargo of 1973.
On top of his administration’s failure to effectively combat the energy crisis, which in turn contributed to rapidly rising inflation, Carter’s administration was forced to deal with another crisis.
In 1979, an Islamist student group in Iran stormed the U.S. embassy in Teheran, holding 70 Americans hostage for 444 days. Carter’s failure to secure the release of the hostages, the ongoing recession and a growing movement toward conservatism in America contributed to Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential campaign.
The Carters have since stayed active in national and international affairs. In 1982, they founded the Carter Center in Atlanta to advocate for human rights and to alleviate "unnecessary human suffering" around the world.
Since 1984, the Carters have given their time each year to build homes and raise awareness of homelessness with the international charitable organization Habitat for Humanity.
In 2002, Carter won the prestigious Nobel Prize for his efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights and to promote economic and social development.
On August 3, 2015, Carter underwent elective surgery to remove "a small mass" on his liver and his prognosis for a full recovery was initially said to be "excellent." On August 12, however, Carter announced he had been diagnosed with cancer that had metastasized, without specifying where the cancer had originated.
On August 20, he disclosed that melanoma had been found in his brain and liver, and that he had begun treatment with the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab and was about to start radiation therapy. His healthcare is being managed by Emory Healthcare of Atlanta.
On December 6, 2015, Carter issued a statement that his medical scans no longer showed any cancer.
I had many encounters with Carter through the years. He even used my office to make phone calls when he was campaigning for president. I later travelled to Europe and the Normandy coast in France with Carter when he was president in 1979.
James Whitmore, actor, was born 101 years ago today
James Whitmore playing South Carolina Governor Robert McNair and Robert Rockwell playing S. C. Attorney General Dan McLeod. The recording was done in Whitmore’s living room.
Photo by Frank Beacham
James Whitmore, actor, was born 101 years ago today.
Whitmore won a Tony Award, a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award, and was nominated for two Academy Awards for many great films.
I had a chance to work with Whitmore, who played Gov. Robert McNair in my radio drama, The Orangeburg Massacre.
Ironically, McNair himself, who hated being portrayed at all, respected Whitmore and was a fan of Harry!, his one-man show on Harry Truman, for which Whitmore was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
McNair met with me, probably because he wanted to know more about working with Whitmore than anything else.
In case you didn’t know, The Orangeburg Massacre is the story of the killing of three black S.C. State College students by white highway patrol in Orangeburg, S.C in 1968. McNair and other state officials covered up the murders.
In his later years, Whitmore did commercials for “Miracle Grow” plant food. In his yard, he always posed with beautiful flowers in the ads.
Since we recorded the show at his home in Malibu Canyon, I was amazed to learn that those commercials were actually shot there and the plants in his yard were real. Whitmore, an engaging man, showed me his flowers and told me he really used Miracle Grow on them. It worked, he said.
Whitmore was diagnosed with lung cancer in November, 2008, from which he died at the age of 87 on February 6, 2009 at his Malibu home.
Earl Slick is 69 years old today
Earl Slick is 69 years old today.
Born in Brooklyn, Slick is a guitarist best known for his collaborations with David Bowie, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Robert Smith, although he has also worked with other artists including John Waite, Tim Curry and David Coverdale.
Slick also released several solo recordings.
In the early 1970s, he gained his reputation on New York music scene as a guitarist while playing in a band, Mack Truck, featuring both singer-songwriter Jimmie Mack and his brother, drummer Jack Mack.
His work with Scottish singer-songwriter, Jim Diamond, was as the duo Slick Diamond. They toured and gave performances for a short time in the late 1970s.
Slick was initially hired by David Bowie to replace Mick Ronson as lead guitarist for the Diamond Dogs tour in 1974 (the live album, David Live, was culled from this tour).
Slick also played lead guitar on Bowie's Young Americans and Station To Station albums, released in 1975 and 1976 respectively.
It was Slick's powerful playing that made the latter album's, "Stay," an enduring favorite of fans of Bowie and of guitar virtuosity alike.
After running afoul of Bowie's management, Slick was replaced as lead guitarist for the 1976 Station To Station tour by Stacey Heydon.
Slick continued working in the studio with former Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, but also formed his own solo band, releasing both Razor Sharp and Earl Slick Band in 1976.
Slick performed on Lennon and Ono's album, Double Fantasy.
During the sessions for Double Fantasy, the material for 1984's Milk and Honey was recorded as well. Slick also joined Ono in the studio for her solo album, Season of Glass.
Betsy Siggins Schmidt, major witness to the folk music movement in the 1960s, is 83 years old today
Betsy Siggins Schmidt with Bob Dylan backstage at the Wang Theatre, Boston, November, 2009
Betsy Siggins Schmidt, major witness to the folk music movement in the 1960s, is 83 years old today.
Schmidt ran Club 47, the legendary folk club in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Her Boston University freshman roommate was Joan Baez. Her first husband was a member of the Charles River Valley Boys. She hung out with Bob Dylan in Cambridge and New York, and had the Rev. Gary Davis sleep on her couch.
Today, Schmidt has founded the New England Folk Archives.
Her first husband was Bob Siggins of the Charles River Valley Boys. After a divorce, she married Benno Schmidt, the future president of Yale University.
In an interview with the Examiner, Schmidt said of Dylan in his early days:
"Dylan was a funny enigma. He talked about people and life. He was well into who he was going to be, but in such a way we could hang out with him. There was no wall up around him. He and Joan were very funny together! I found him so unique. We went to Washington Square in New York, and he smoked, his leg would be shaking, and he'd talk about Rimbaud. I not sure what he was talking about, but it was cool to listen to.
"He is one of the great wordsmiths," she said. "People say he's a recluse, but you don't need to do everything in public. He's given so much, and he's still doing a lot."
On this day in 1920 — 102 years ago — Scientific American magazine reported that the rapidly developing medium of radio would soon be used to broadcast music. A revolution in the role of music in everyday life was about to be born
In an 1888 novel — Looking Backward: 2000-1887 — author Edward Bellamy imagined a scene in which a time-traveler from 1887 reacts to a technological advance from the early 21st century that he describes as "an arrangement for providing everybody with music in their homes, perfect in quality, unlimited in quantity, suited to every mood, and beginning and ceasing at will."
In Bellamy's imagination, this astonishing feat was accomplished by a vast network of wires connecting individual homes with centrally located concert halls staffed round-the-clock with live performers.
As it turned out, this vision of the year 2000 would come to pass far sooner than Bellamy imagined, and without all the pesky wires.
On this day in 1920 — 102 years ago — Scientific American magazine reported that the rapidly developing medium of radio would soon be used to broadcast music. A revolution in the role of music in everyday life was about to be born.
"It has been well known for some years that by placing a form of telephone transmitter in a concert hall or at any point where music is being played the sound may be carried over telephone wires to an ordinary telephone receiver at a distant point," began the bulletin in the October 1, 1920 issue of the popular science monthly, "but it is only recently that a method of transmitting music by radio has been found possible."
Arguments about radio's origins persist to this day, but its basic workings had been understood for upwards of 20 years at the time of this announcement. It was only in the years immediately following World War I, however, that radio made the transition from scientific curiosity to practical technology.
By late 1919, experiments had begun in Britain, the United States and elsewhere that would lead to the breakthrough use of radio not just as a replacement for the telegraph, but as a communications and entertainment medium.
Some of those experiments were taking place in the laboratory of the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., where station WWV was established to test various means of radio transmission.
Relying significantly on amateur radio operators in the local area for feedback on its experiments, the Bureau began successfully testing the transmission of music in late 1919 and early 1920. It was those experiments that led to the public announcement in Scientific American.
"Music can be performed at any place, radiated into the air through an ordinary radio transmitting set and received at any other place, even though hundreds of miles away," the report continued, noting that "the music received can be made as loud as desired by suitable operation of the receiving apparatus."
"Experimental concerts are at present being conducted every Friday evening from 8:30 to 11:00 by the Radio Laboratory of the Bureau of Standards....The possibilities of such centralized radio concerts are great and extremely interesting."
Thanks History.com
Richard Harris was born 92 years ago today
Richard Harris was born 92 years ago today.
An Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer, Harris had a Top Ten hit with his 1968 recording of Jimmy Webb's song, "MacArthur Park.”
Harris appeared on stage and in many films, and is perhaps best known for his role as King Arthur in the 1967 film, Camelot, and the subsequent 1982 Broadway revival of the show. He is also known for playing Albus Dumbledore in the first two films in the Harry Potter series, his final works.
He played an aristocrat and prisoner in A Man Called Horse (1970), Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator (2000), Saint John in Apocalypse Revelation (2002), gunfighter and Dom Frollo in the 1997 TV movie version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Harris was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in August, 2002, after being hospitalized with pneumonia. He died on Oct. 25, 2002 at age 72. His death came two and a half weeks before the American premiere of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
For years, whenever he was in London, Harris resided at the Savoy Hotel. According to the hotel archivist, Susan Scott, as Harris was being taken from the hotel on a stretcher, shortly before his death, he warned the diners, "It was the food!"
On this day in 1962 — 60 years ago — Johnny Carson took over from Jack Paar as host of the The Tonight Show on NBC
Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon visit the Kennedy Space Center on July 20, 1969 to watch the first moon launch, Apollo 11
Photo by Frank Beacham
On this day in 1962 — 60 years ago — Johnny Carson took over from Jack Paar as host of the The Tonight Show on NBC.
Carson went on to become one of the biggest figures in entertainment in the 20th century.
Born in Corning, Iowa, Carson grew up in Norfolk, Nebraska, served in the U.S. Navy in the mid-1940s and attended the University of Nebraska.
By the early 1950s, he was living in California and working in radio and the emerging medium of television. He later moved to New York City and in 1957 became the host of the popular game show, Who Do You Trust?
In 1958, Carson appeared on The Tonight Show as a substitute for its host, Jack Paar. The Tonight Show had originated in 1951 in Los Angeles as a radio program hosted by Steve Allen. In 1954, the program moved to TV and in 1956, Jack Parr replaced Allen as the host.
Carson took over permanent hosting duties from Parr on October 1, 1962. He hosted the show from New York City until 1972, when it relocated to Burbank, California.
Each edition of The Tonight Show began with Carson’s sidekick Ed McMahon announcing, “Heeere’s Johnny!” Carson, who became known for his relaxed, affable stage presence and dapper appearance, performed an opening monologue of jokes, punctuated by his trademark golf swing.
Following the monologue, he would banter with McMahon and the show’s bandleader, Doc Severinsen, and sometimes perform skits and play characters such as Carnac the Magnificent, an “all-knowing seer” and the elderly, Aunt Blabby. Carson then conducted interviews.
The Tonight Show featured sit-downs with the day’s biggest movie and TV stars, as well as athletes, politicians, singers, comedians and animal acts.
On December 17, 1969, The Tonight Show drew its largest audience when some 58 million people tuned in for the on-air wedding of the singer Tiny Tim to a teenage fan known as Miss Vicki.
Carson’s move to Burbank from New York City meant a realignment of American pop culture from East Coast to West Coast, from Broadway to Hollywood.
Once the Tonight show ceased to be televised live from 11:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. and began being taped in the early evening, it lost some of the spontaneity and sense of danger that live performance brings (and also, eventually, a half-hour of its running time). The practice of taping is now the norm, and virtually all live entertainment programming on national television has become a thing of the past.
After three decades with the Tonight Show, Carson decided to retire. He hosted his final show on May 22, 1992. Comedian Jay Leno took over hosting duties the following day. Carson, who was married four times, stayed largely out of the public spotlight after retiring.
On January 23, 2005, the late-night TV legend died at the age of 79 of complications from emphysema.
On this day in 1982 — 40 years ago — Sony launched its first CD player, the CDP-101, for $730 in the United States
On this day in 1982 — 40 years ago — Sony launched its first CD player, the CDP-101, for $730 in the United States.
Today, that’s the equivalent of about $1,630.
On this day in 1965 — 57 years ago — Bob Dylan appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York City
On this day in 1965 — 57 years ago — Bob Dylan appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
He introduced his new touring band, made up of guitarist Robbie Robertson, organist Garth Hudson, bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manual and drummer Levon Helm.
The new sidemen became known simply as The Band.
September 30, 2022
Marty Stuart is 64 years old today
Marty Stuart performs at the tribute for Sun Records at Lincoln Center, New York City, 2011
Photo by Frank Beacham
Marty Stuart is 64 years old today.
A country music singer-songwriter, Stuart is known for both his traditional style, and eclectic merging of rockabilly, honky tonk and traditional country music.
Stuart is also a photographer, who has captured many iconic images surrounding country music and its stars. When I asked him the secret to his notable photographs, he responded, “I have access.”
Born as John Martin Stuart in Philadelphia, Mississippi on September 30, 1958, Stuart has become known as one of country music's most eclectic artists, performing and recording diverse types of country music. He is of French, English, Choctaw and Colombian descent.
From an early age, he was obsessed with country music. He was so obsessed, in fact, that he taught himself how to play the guitar and mandolin. At the age of 12, Stuart started performing with the bluegrass group, The Sullivans.
He later met Lester Flatt’s band member, Roland White. White invited Stuart to play with him and the Nashville Grass at the Labor Day gig in Delaware, 1972.
After this, White asked him to join the band permanently and Stuart accepted. This made White responsible for the rest of Stuart's education. Marty stayed with Lester Flatt until Flatt broke up the band in 1978 due to his failing health.
In 1979, Flatt died. Stuart pushed forward and worked with fiddler, Vassar Clements, and guitarist, Doc Watson.
In 1980, he joined Johnny Cash's backing band. The previous year, Stuart made his first solo album, With a Little Help From My Friends, on Ridge Runner Records
In 1983, Stuart married Johnny Cash's daughter, Cindy. They divorced five years later in 1988.
In 1985, Stuart accompanied Johnny Cash to Memphis and played on the "Class of '55" album that also featured Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis. At the end of the session, Perkins presented him with his guitar.
Later that year, Stuart left Cash's band and landed a solo recording contract with Columbia Records. The following year, he released a self-titled album on the label, which produced a Top 20 hit on the Billboard country charts, "Arlene."
In 1991, Stuart co-wrote a song with Travis Tritt called, "The Whiskey Ain't Workin'." The song was recorded as a duet on Tritt's 1991 album, It's All About to Change, and that became Stuart’s biggest hit.
In 1992, his former record company, Columbia finally released his album, Let There Be Country. That same year, Stuart released the album, This One's Gonna Hurt You, on MCA.
The album's title track, a duet with Travis Tritt, was released as a single, and became another Top Ten hit for Stuart. This One's Gonna Hurt You became Marty's first gold album.
His collection of music memorabilia and photography was exhibited at the Tennessee State Museum in 2007 as "Sparkle & Twang: Marty Stuart's American Musical Odyssey." In October, 2008, the "Sparkle & Twang" exhibit opened at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, OH.
Here, Stuart performs “Doing My Time” with Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash, Last Portrait, September 8, 2003
Photo by Marty Stuart
“I was over at (Johnny’s) house and I had just been to Folsom, California. I had been given a gate pass to go to the prison to see where he made his Folsom Prison album, and at that point I was just looking for anything to talk to him about — we recorded, we talked, just anything to keep him entertained, because June had recently passed away. So I went next door to have a cup of coffee and just share with him my impressions of Folsom Prison.
I started a song and I took it next door to John, and we actually wrote this song called ‘Hangman’ that we did on a record called Ghost Train, and it was the last song that he ever wrote. We just finished this song together. And he was sitting there in his chair looking so pretty in the light, the late-afternoon light was coming in from behind and I said, ‘JR, let me take your picture.’ I knew he didn't want to, but he let me. There were three frames. In the first two, he just kind of looked tired and weary, but on the third frame I said, ‘JR!’ and he sat up straight and pulled on that black collar, and he became Johnny Cash. Four days later, he was gone.”
— Marty Stuart
Johnny Mathis is 87 years old today
Stars like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin were established enough to survive the rock-and-roll revolution, but the arrival of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry et al., in the late-1950s did no favors for most of the artists who occupied the top of the pre-rock-and-roll pop charts.
Names like Perez Prado, Gogi Grant and Guy Mitchell, for instance, have been largely lost to history, though one young newcomer working in a style far more "square" than that of his contemporaries managed to survive and even thrive.
Born on this day in 1935 — 87 years ago — Johnny Mathis went on to become one of the most successful recording artists of all time.
Mathis was born in Gilmer, Texas, and raised in San Francisco the fourth of seven children. He showed an aptitude for music very early on, and he began his formal, classical voice training at the age of 13.
As promising as his future in music seemed to be, however, there was question during his teens as to whether he should devote himself to sports instead.
As a four-letter athlete at George Washington High School, Mathis broke a high-jump record previously held by NBA legend Bill Russell, and while a student at San Francisco State University, he was invited to the U.S. trials in track and field for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
With his father's guidance, however, Mathis chose to dedicate himself to what was beginning to look like a good chance of success as a musician. While doing weekend gigs in various San Francisco nightclubs the previous year, Mathis came to the attention of George Avakian, head of jazz A&R for Columbia Records.
As the widely circulated legend has it, after hearing Mathis for the very first time, Avakian wired a telegram to Columbia headquarters reading, "Have found phenomenal 19-year-old boy who could go all the way. Send blank contracts."
After Johnny passed on his chance at making the Olympic team, he headed to New York to record his debut album. While that first album had little impact, Mathis's next recordings, under the supervision of Columbia's Mitch Miller, established him as a star.
The singles, "Wonderful, Wonderful" and "It's Not For Me To Say," sailed up the pop charts in the summer of 1957, quickly followed that same year by the hits "Chances Are," "Twelfth Of Never" and, in the next five years, by 13 more Top 40 hits, including "A Certain Smile" (1958), "Misty" (1959) and "Gina" (1962).
So popular during the dawn of rock and roll was the smooth pop stylist Johnny Mathis that his 1958 album, Johnny's Greatest Hits, spent an astonishing 490 weeks on the Billboard magazine album charts — a record finally broken by Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon in 1982.
On June 21, 2014, Mathis was inducted into the Great American Songbook Hall Of Fame along with Linda Ronstadt, Shirley Jones and Nat King Cole (his daughter Natalie Cole accepted the award on his behalf).
The awards were presented by The Center for the Performing Arts Artistic Director Michael Feinstein. Defined on their website, "Conceived as an enduring testament to the Great American Songbook, the Hall of Fame honors performers and composers responsible for creating America’s soundtrack."
Mathis continues to perform live, but from 2000 forward, he limited his concert performances to under sixty per year. Both Mathis and Barbra Streisand carry the distinction of having the longest tenure of any recording artist on the Columbia Records label.
With the exception of a four-year break to record for Mercury Records in the mid-1960s, he has been with Columbia Records throughout his career, from 1956 to 1963 and from 1968 to the present.
Thanks History.com
Truman Capote, writer, was born 98 years ago today
Photo by Arnold Newman
Truman Capote, writer, was born 98 years ago today.
Capote was an author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella, Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958), and the true crime novel, In Cold Blood (1966), which he labeled a "nonfiction novel."
At least 20 films and television dramas have been produced of Capote’s novels, stories and screenplays. He rose above a childhood troubled by divorce, a long absence from his mother and multiple migrations.
Capote had discovered his calling as a writer by the age of 11, and for the rest of his childhood he honed his writing ability. He began his professional career writing short stories.
The critical success of one story, "Miriam" (1945), attracted the attention of Random House publisher, Bennett Cerf, resulting in a contract to write, Other Voices, Other Rooms, in 1948.
Capote earned the most fame with In Cold Blood (1966), a journalistic work about the murder of a Kansas farm family in their home, a book Capote spent four years writing, with much help from Harper Lee, who later wrote, To Kill a Mockingbird.
Capote, in his U.N. Plaza apartment, parodies the famous 1948 author photo of himself that was used for his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms
Truman Capote — A Personal Remembrance
In the late 1970s, I found myself at a tiny bar at the Pier House in Key West, Florida sitting between Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote — both drunk and drug-fueled to the hilt.
I already knew Tennessee and joined him and Truman at the bar. When he introduced me to Truman, I will never forget Truman’s cold, almost slimy handshake, which was like gripping a slippery fish.
I sat between them at the bar and listened to drunken gibberish for over an hour. I don’t remember much of what was said that night, but I remember being a kid in a room with two inebriated literary giants.
I always regretted that I had so little to say that evening. In later years, Williams became my favorite Southern playwright. But in those early years, I didn’t understand his work well enough to have an intelligent conversation with him. It is such a waste to be so young and uneducated!
I later learned this was Truman’s only trip to Key West from Tennessee Williams himself. Here’s an except of his story from Dotson Rader’s 1985 book, “Tennessee: Cry of the Heart.”
"...(Capote) had flown to Key West from Mexico, where he was to stay with Mrs. [Lee] Radiwill but left in a hurry because the mosquitoes were terrible. So he came to Key West from the Yucatan. He had never been on the island before, and I suspect that he never will be there again.
He was robbed the first night, losing all his credit cards, his address book and about two thousand dollars. He said that he wasn't in his hotel room when the robbery occurred, but the police found no evidence of forced entry. I think he was cleaned out by some street boy he invited home for a private session!
Truman came to Key West because he sold excerpts of his book [Answered Prayers] to Esquire. He made one of the conditions of the contract that the editor of the magazine [Don Erickson] had to fly to Key West to pick up the manuscript.
He did that because Hemingway used to make Arnold [Gingrich, the editor/found of Esquire] came to Key West to edit his stories before they were published. Truman was not about to get one thing less that Hemingway.
"One night Truman, Jimmy Kirkwood, and a friend of Truman's, I, and some other men went to dinner. His friend was very drunk. The restaurant was full of tourists in double-knit suits, and since it was quite late, most of them were as tipsy as Truman's boyfriend. Some distance away, at a round table, sat three couples. Truman noticed them staring at us, and he said, "Watch out! They'll be coming over for autographs!"
And a few minutes later, one of the women at the table got up and came over, carrying a menu. She asked Truman to autograph the menu. He did. She left, and a few minutes later her husband came to our table and glared at Truman.
"Are you Truman Capote?" And Truman said, "I was this morning!" And the man unzipped his pants, and pulled out his cock. He said, holding it in the palm of his hand, "Can you put your signature on this?
And Truman looked down at the cock, and up again, and he said:
"I don't know about my signature. But I can initial it!"
Frankie Lymon was born 80 years ago today
Frankie Lymon was born 80 years ago today.
A rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, Lymon was the boy soprano lead singer of a New York City-based early rock and roll group, The Teenagers. The group was composed of five boys, all in their early to mid teens.
The original lineup of the Teenagers, an integrated group, included three African American members, Frankie Lymon, Jimmy Merchant and Sherman Garnes, and two Puerto Rican members, Herman Santiago and Joe Negroni.
The Teenagers' first single, 1956's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” was also their biggest hit. After Lymon went solo in mid-1957, both his career and those of the Teenagers fell into decline.
At age 25, he was found dead in his grandmother's bathroom from a heroin overdose. His life inspired the 1998 film, Why Do Fools Fall In Love?.
Here is Lymon and the Teenagers on live TV in 1956 doing “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”
Cissy Houston is 89 years old today
Cissy Houston is 89 years old today.
Houston is soul and gospel singer. After a successful career singing backup for such artists as Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, she embarked on a solo career.
She is the mother of singer, Whitney Houston, grandmother of Whitney's daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, aunt of singers Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick and a cousin of opera singer, Leontyne Price.
Born Emily Drinkard in Newark to Nitcholas and Delia Mae Drinkard, she was the eighth child. The Drinkards had owned a substantial amount of farmland in Blakely, Georgia, during a time when it was unusual for blacks to own large portions of land. The asset was gradually depleted as they sold small portions of the land over time, to resolve the continued legal troubles of a close relative.
After Dinkard’s three oldest siblings were born, the family relocated to New Jersey during the Second Great Migration. Her parents emphasized the children getting educated and being involved in the church, and her father encouraged Houston and her siblings to sing.
In 1938, five-year-old Cissy's mother, Delia, suffered a stroke and died of cerebral hemorrhage three years later. Her father died of stomach cancer in 1951 when Drinkard was 18.
In 1955, Drinkard married Freddie Garland and had a son, Gary Garland, an NBA basketball player and DePaul University Athletic Hall of Famer. They divorced soon after.
In 1963, she married John Russell Houston, Jr., a Newark City administrator and entertainment executive. The couple had a son, Michael Houston, who became a songwriter, and a daughter, Whitney Houston, who became a singer.
In 1963, then about to give birth to daughter, Whitney, Cissy formed the Sweet Inspirations with Doris Troy and niece, Dee Dee Warwick. Later, under contract to Atlantic Records, Sylvia Shemwell, Estelle Brown and Myrna Smith formed the line-up.
During the mid-1960s, the Sweet Inspirations provided backup vocals for a variety of artists, including Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Lou Rawls, The Drifters, Dusty Springfield and Houston's niece, Dionne Warwick.
They appeared on Van Morrison's single, “Brown Eyed Girl.” Houston performed the operatic soprano melody on the Aretha Franklin hit, “Ain't No Way.” In 1967, The Sweet Inspirations sang background vocals for The Jimi Hendrix Experience on the track "Burning of the Midnight Lamp.”
In 1969, they were hired to sing backing vocals for Elvis Presley in Las Vegas on his return to live performances during July and August, 1969. Presley often introduced them at shows by saying, "They really live up to their name ladies and gentleman, The Sweet Inspirations!" Many of these performances can be heard on the All Shook Up and Live In Las Vegas live records.
Houston, along with Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick, sang the background vocals on the original recording of “Time Is On My Side” by Kai Winding, released by Verve Records in October, 1963.
On September 29, 2014, at 81 years old, Cissy sang backup to a standing-ovation performance with Aretha Franklin of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep," and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Buddy Rich, jazz drummer and bandleader, was born 105 years ago today
Photo by Buddy Fishman
Buddy Rich, jazz drummer and bandleader, was born 105 years ago today.
Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuoso technique, power, groove and speed.
Born in Brooklyn to Jewish vaudevillians Robert and Bess Rich, Rich’s talent for rhythm was first noted by his father. He saw that Buddy could keep a steady beat with spoons at the age of one.
At 18 months old, Rich began playing drums in vaudeville, billed as, "Traps the Drum Wonder." At the peak of Rich's childhood career, he was reportedly the second-highest paid child entertainer in the world (after Jackie Coogan). At 11, he was performing as a bandleader.
Rich received no formal drum instruction, and went so far as to claim that instruction would only degrade his musical talent. He also never admitted to practicing, claiming to play the drums only during performances and was not known to read music.
Buddy Rich remained active performing until the end of his life. On April 2, 1987, Rich died at age 69 of heart failure following surgery for a malignant brain tumor.
In 1895 — 127 years ago today — the New York Times reported a sighting of a giant sea serpent off the shore at Spring Lake, New Jersey
In 1895 — 127 years ago today — the New York Times reported a sighting of a giant sea serpent off the shore at Spring Lake, New Jersey.
There were other sightings too in the New York City area, including several at the Brooklyn Bridge.
Phillip N. Jackson, vice president of the Newark Electric Light and Power Co., said he saw the creature — which traveled through the water at great speed and was about 100 feet long.
A number of folds in the creature’s body were plainly seen as it rose and fell, Jackson said.
Another witness told Scientific American that the body of the long creature was as large around as a flour barrel. “The nose and mouth resembled those of an alligator, but there were no tentacles to be seen. The body was smooth and round and of dark color,” the witness, Willard P. Shaw of 41 Wall Street, said.
Shaw also said the creature was about 100 feet long and travelled about 50 miles an hour and jumped from the water several times.
An image of the serpent was created by Currier & Ives.
September 29, 2022
Jerry Lee Lewis is 87 years old today
Jerry Lee Lewis is 87 years old today.
The rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist is known as "The Killer.” An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis had hits in the late 1950s with songs such as "Great Balls of Fire,” "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On,” "Breathless" and "High School Confidential.”
However, Lewis' rock 'n' roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to 13-year-old Myra Gale Brown. Brown was Lewis's first cousin once removed and he was 22 years old. The publicity over the marriage caused an uproar and his British tour was cancelled after only three concerts.
Lewis had little success in the charts following the scandal until his popularity recovered in the late 1960s after he extended his career to country and western music with songs such as "Another Place, Another Time.” More country hits soon followed over the late 1960s and through the 1970s.
Lewis's successes continued throughout the decade and he embraced his rock 'n' roll past with songs such as a cover of the Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace" and "Rockin' My Life Away.”
In the 21st century, Lewis continues to tour to audiences around the world and still releases new albums. One recent album, titled Last Man Standing, is his best selling to date at over a million copies sold worldwide.
Lewis’s live album, Live at the Star Club, Hamburg, is often regarded by many as one of the wildest and greatest rock and roll concert albums ever.
Lewis is the last surviving member of Sun Records' Million Dollar Quartet and the Class of '55 album, which altogether included Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley, as well as Lewis himself.
Here, Lewis performs “Great Balls of Fire”
Jerry Lee Lewis' piano at his home in Mississippi
Photo by Jim Herrington
Gene Autry, the singing cowboy, was born 115 years ago today
Gene Autry and his horse, Champion
Gene Autry, the singing cowboy, was born 115 years ago today.
From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 films and 91 episodes of The Gene Autry Show television series. During the 1930s and 1940s, he personified the straight-shooting hero — honest, brave and true. He profoundly touched the lives of millions of Americans.
Autry was also one of the most important figures in the history of country music, considered the second major influential artist of the genre's development after Jimmie Rodgers. His singing cowboy movies were the first vehicle to carry country music to a national audience.
In addition to his signature song, "Back in the Saddle Again,” Autry is still remembered for his Christmas holiday songs, "Here Comes Santa Claus,” which he wrote, "Frosty the Snowman” and his biggest hit, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Autry was owner of a television station and several radio stations in Southern California. He also owned the Los Angeles and California Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997.
Autry is a member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is the only person to be awarded stars in all five categories on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for film, television, music, radio and live performance. The town of Gene Autry, Oklahoma was named in his honor.
Included for many years on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans, Autry slipped to their "near miss" category in 1995 with an estimated net worth of $320 million.
Gene Autry died of lymphoma three days after his 91st birthday at his home in Studio City, California. His death on October 2, 1998 came fewer than three months after the death of another celebrated cowboy of the silver screen, radio and TV — Roy Rogers.
Here, Johnny Cash answers his son’s question, “Daddy, Who Is Gene Autry”
Anita Ekberg was born 91 years ago today
Anita Ekberg, London, 1955
Photo Bob Haswell
Anita Ekberg was born 91 years ago today.
A Swedish-Italian actress, model and sex symbol, Ekberg played the role of Sylvia in the Federico Fellini film, La Dolce Vita in 1960.
Ekberg worked primarily in Italy, of which she became a permanent resident in 1964. In her teens, she was a fashion model. Ekberg entered the Miss Malmö competition in 1950 at her mother's urging, leading to the Miss Sweden contest which she won.
She consequently went to the United States to compete for the Miss Universe 1951 title despite speaking little English. Although she did not win the Miss Universe pageant, as one of six finalists she did earn a starlet's contract with Universal Studios, as was the practice at the time.
As a starlet at Universal, she received lessons in drama, elocution, dancing, horseriding and fencing. She appeared briefly in the 1953 Universal films, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, and The Golden Blade.
Ekberg skipped many of her drama lessons, restricting herself to riding horses in the Hollywood Hills. The combination of her voluptuous physique and colorful private life (such as her well-publicized romances with Hollywood's leading men, such as Frank Sinatra, Tyrone Power, Yul Brynner, Rod Taylor and Errol Flynn) appealed to the gossip magazines.
She soon became a major 1950s pin-up, appearing in men's magazines like Playboy. Additionally, she participated in publicity stunts and once admitted that an incident where her dress burst open in the lobby of London's Berkeley Hotel was prearranged with a photographer.
Federico Fellini gave Ekberg her best known role in La Dolce Vita (1960), performing as Sylvia Rank, the unattainable "dream woman" of the character played by Marcello Mastroianni. The film features a scene of her cavorting in Rome's Trevi Fountain alongside Mastroianni, which has been called "one of cinema's most iconic scenes.”
Ekberg died on January 11, 2015 at the age of 83 in Italy.
Mexico and the United States began the first telephone service between the two countries on this day in 1927 — 95 years ago
Mexico and the United States began the first telephone service between the two countries on this day in 1927 — 95 years ago.
President Calvin Coolidge and his Mexican counterpart, Plutarco Elías Calles, exchanged pleasantries via telephone to celebrate the start of new telephone service between the two countries. Previously, a dispute over land rights in Mexico had soured relations.
Both leaders needed interpreters, but they each saw promise in the communications advancement. Calles hoped it would aid “an era of good will and mutual understanding, which cannot fail to put an end to all those needless misunderstandings.”
The American president praised the engineers who completed the critical piece of infrastructure that made the call possible — a telephone line system more than 780 miles long linking Mexico City with Laredo, Texas.
The music at the festivities celebrating the telephone connection was also notable. Mexico’s national anthem was played for Coolidge in Washington. In Mexico City, “The Star Spangled Banner” was performed at the National Palace for the first time since 1846.
The same year commercial transatlantic telephone service also began. And, the first AT&T videophone call was also made that year between Washington, D.C and New York City by then-Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover.
Thanks New York Times!
Suzzy Roche is 66 years old today
Terre and Suzzy Roche, Gerde's Folk City 50th anniversary reunion, 2009
Photo by Frank Beacham
Suzzy Roche is 66 years old today.
Originally from Park Ridge, New Jersey, Roche is best known for her work with the female vocal group, The Roches, alongside sisters Maggie, who died in January, 2017, and Terre.
Suzzy is the youngest of the three, and joined the act in 1977. She has written a book, Wayward Saints, published in 2012.
Roche is also an active associate member of The Wooster Group and has appeared in a number of the group's productions as well as composing original music for the group's performances.
She was briefly a member of Four Bitchin' Babes, appearing on their album, Some Assembly Required.
In 2004, Roche appeared on Crash Test Dummies album, "Songs of the Unforgiven.” In addition to singing, she is an actress, having appeared in the 1988 romantic comedy, Crossing Delancey, as well as a 1982 film, Soup for One.
Roche also appeared with her siblings (playing themselves) in the 1996 comedy, A Weekend in the Country.
With musician, Loudon Wainwright III, Roche has a daughter, Lucy Wainwright Roche. Lucy's half-siblings, Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright, are also singer-songwriters.
Here, the Roches in full concert at the Capital Theatre, 1978
On this day in 1975 — 47 years ago — Jackie Wilson had a heart attack while performing live in Dick Clark's Good Ol' Rock and Roll Revue on stage at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey
On this day in 1975 — 47 years ago — Jackie Wilson had a heart attack while performing live in Dick Clark's Good Ol' Rock and Roll Revue on stage at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Wilson collapsed into a coma suffering severe brain damage. Ironically, he was in the middle of singing one of his biggest hits, “Lonely Teardrops” and was two words into the line, "....my heart is crying" when he collapsed to the stage, striking his head heavily.
At first, audience members initially thought it was part of the act. Clark, however, sensed something was wrong and then ordered the musicians to stop the music.
Cornell Gunter of the Coasters, who was backstage, noticed Wilson was not breathing. Gunter was able to resuscitate him and Wilson was then rushed to a nearby hospital.
Medical personnel worked nearly 30 minutes to stabilize his vitals, but the lack of oxygen to his brain caused him to slip into a coma. He briefly recovered in early 1976, and was even able to take a few wobbly steps but slipped back into a semi-comatose state.
Wilson was a resident of the Medford Leas Retirement Center in Medford, New Jersey when he was admitted into Memorial Hospital of Burlington County in Mount Holly, New Jersey due to having trouble taking nourishment.
Wilson died at age 49 on January 21, 1984 from complications of pneumonia.
He initially was buried in an unmarked grave at Westlawn Cemetery near Detroit. In 1987, a fundraiser collected enough money to purchase a headstone.
September 28, 2022
Brigitte Bardot is 88 years old today
Brigitte Bardot is 88 years old today.
Bardot is a former French actress, singer and fashion model, who later became an animal rights activist. She was one of the best known sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s, and was widely referred to simply by her initials.
Starting in 1969, Bardot became the official face of Marianne (who had previously been anonymous) to represent the liberty of France.
Bardot was an aspiring ballerina in early life. She started her acting career in 1952 and, after appearing in 16 routine comedy films with limited international release, became world-famous in 1957 with the controversial film, And God Created Woman.
She later starred in Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film, Le Mépris.
Bardot was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress for her role in Louis Malle's 1965 film, Viva Maria!
Bardot caught the attention of French intellectuals. She was the subject of Simone de Beauvoir's 1959 essay, The Lolita Syndrome, which described Bardot as a "locomotive of women's history" and built upon existentialist themes to declare her the first and most liberated woman of post-war France.
Bardot retired from the entertainment industry in 1973. During her career in show business, she starred in 47 films, performed in several musical shows and recorded over 60 songs. She was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1985, but refused to receive it.
After her retirement, she established herself as an animal rights activist. During the 1990s, she generated controversy by criticizing immigration and Islam in France, and has been fined five times for inciting racial hatred.
Bardot adopted a Bohemian lifestyle that was to include four husbands, assorted lovers and a dress code far from the sophistication of Hollywood stars of the time.
"She goes barefoot, and turns her back on elegant grooming, jewels, perfumes, make-up, on all these tricks," the French feminist icon Simone de Beauvoir noted with approval. "She does what she wants and that is what is so troubling."
Bob Dylan is said to have written his very first song about Bardot as a teen, and John Lennon is said to have suffered so badly from nerves that he took LSD before meeting her.
Ben E. King, soul singer and former lead singer of the Drifters, was born 84 years ago today
Ben E. King, Russian Tea Room, New York City, 2008
Photo by Joe Kohen
Ben E. King, soul singer and former lead singer of the Drifters, was born 84 years ago today.
King is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me," a U.S. Top 10 hit in both 1961 and 1986. He was one of the principal lead singers of the R&B vocal group, The Drifters.
Born in Henderson, North Carolina, King moved to Harlem at age nine. In 1958, King joined a doo wop group called The Five Crowns. Later in 1958, The Drifters' manager, George Treadwell, fired the members of the original Drifters and replaced them with The Five Crowns.
King had a string of R&B hits with the group on Atlantic Records. He co-wrote and sang lead on the first Atlantic hit by the new version of the Drifters, "There Goes My Baby" (1959).
He also sang lead on a succession of hits by the team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, including "Save the Last Dance for Me," "This Magic Moment" and "I Count the Tears."
King only recorded thirteen songs with The Drifters — eleven lead vocal performances and three backing other lead singers — including a non-single called "Temptation" (later redone by Drifters vocalist, Johnny Moore).
Due to a dispute over his contract, including a salary increase and a fair share of royalties, King was never again given a chance by Drifters manager, George Treadwell, to perform with the group on tour or on television. After the dispute settled, King was hired only to sing until a replacement for him was found.
On television, fellow Drifters member, Charlie Thomas, usually lip synched the songs that King had recorded with the Drifters. This end gave rise to a new beginning.
In May, 1960, King left the Drifters, assuming the more memorable stage name Ben E. King in preparation for a successful solo career. Remaining on Atlantic Records’ Atco imprint, King scored his first solo hit in 1961 with the ballad, "Spanish Harlem."
His next single, "Stand by Me," written with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, would become a classic hit.
King died of coronary problems on April 30, 2015 at the age of 76.
Al Capp, cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip, Li'l Abner, was born 113 years ago today
Al Capp, 1946
Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt
Al Capp, cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip, Li'l Abner, was born 113 years ago today.
Capp created the strip in 1934 and continued writing and (with help from assistants) drawing until 1977. He also wrote the comic strips, Abbie an' Slats (in the years 1937-45) and Long Sam (1954).
He won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award in 1947 for Cartoonist of the Year, and their 1979 Elzie Segar Award (posthumously) for his "unique and outstanding contribution to the profession of cartooning."
Comic strips dealt with northern urban experiences until the year Capp introduced "L'il Abner," the first strip based in the South.
Although Capp was from Connecticut, he spent 43 years teaching the world about Dogpatch, reaching an estimated 60 million readers in over 900 American newspapers and 100 foreign papers in 28 countries.
M. Thomas Inge says Capp made a large personal fortune on the strip and "had a profound influence on the way the world viewed the American South.”
Ed Sullivan was born 121 years ago today
Ed Sullivan and his wife, Sylvia, in the water on Cote d'Azur during vacation, 1965
Photo by Hecht
Ed Sullivan was born 121 years ago today.
An entertainment writer and television host, Sullivan was best known as the presenter of the television variety program, The Toast of the Town, now usually remembered under its second name, The Ed Sullivan Show.
Broadcast for 23 years from 1948 to 1971, it set a record for long-running variety show in U.S. broadcast history. In 1996, Ed Sullivan was ranked #50 on TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.”
Sullivan, of Irish decent, was born in Harlem. A former boxer, Sullivan began his media work as a newspaper sportswriter for The New York Evening Graphic.
When Walter Winchell, one of the original gossip columnists and the most powerful entertainment reporter of his day, left the newspaper for the Hearst syndicate, Sullivan took over as theater columnist. His theater column was later carried in The New York Daily News.
Sullivan’s column, “Little Old New York,” concentrated on Broadway shows and gossip, as Winchell's had. Like Winchell, he also did show business news broadcasts on radio.
Again echoing Winchell, Sullivan took on yet another medium in 1933 by writing and starring in the film, Mr. Broadway, which has him guiding the audience around New York nightspots to meet entertainers and celebrities.
Sullivan soon became a powerful starmaker in the entertainment world himself, becoming one of Winchell's main rivals, setting the El Morocco nightclub in New York as his unofficial headquarters against Winchell's seat of power at the nearby Stork Club. Sullivan continued writing for The News throughout his broadcasting career and his popularity long outlived that of Winchell.
In 1948, the CBS network hired Sullivan to do a weekly Sunday night TV variety show. Debuting in June, 1948, the show was broadcast from CBS Studio 50 at 1697 Broadway (at 53rd Street) in New York City.
In 1967, the theatre was renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater. It was home of the Late Show with David Letterman and now Stephen Colbert.
Television critics gave the new show and its host poor reviews. Harriet Van Horne alleged that "he got where he is not by having a personality, but by having no personality." The host wrote to the critic, "Dear Miss Van Horne: You bitch. Sincerely, Ed Sullivan."
Sullivan had little acting ability. In 1967, 20 years after his show's debut, Time magazine asked, "What exactly is Ed Sullivan's talent?" His mannerisms on camera were so awkward that some viewers believed the host suffered from Bell's palsy.
Time in 1955 stated that Sullivan resembled “a cigar-store Indian, the Cardiff Giant and a stone-faced monument just off the boat from Easter Island. He moves like a sleepwalker; his smile is that of a man sucking a lemon; his speech is frequently lost in a thicket of syntax; his eyes pop from their sockets or sink so deep in their bags that they seem to be peering up at the camera from the bottom of twin wells.”
The magazine concluded, however, that "Yet, instead of frightening children, Ed Sullivan charms the whole family." Sullivan appeared to the audience as an average guy who brought the great acts of show business to their home televisions.
"Ed Sullivan will last," comedian Fred Allen said, "as long as someone else has talent." Frequent guest, Alan King. said "Ed does nothing, but he does it better than anyone else in television."
He had a newspaperman's instinct for what the public wanted, and programmed his variety hours with remarkable balance. There was something for everyone. A typical show would feature a vaudeville act (acrobats, jugglers, magicians, etc.), one or two popular comedians, a singing star, a hot jukebox favorite, a figure from the legitimate theater and for the kids, a visit with puppet "Topo Gigio, the little Italian mouse," or a popular athlete.
Sullivan had a healthy sense of humor about himself and permitted — even encouraged — impersonators such as John Byner, Frank Gorshin, Rich Little and especially Will Jordan to imitate him on his show. Johnny Carson also did a fair impression, and even Joan Rivers imitated Sullivan's unique posture.
The impressionists exaggerated his stiffness, raised shoulders and nasal tenor phrasing, along with some of his commonly used introductions, such as "And now, right here on our stage…," "For all you youngsters out there…," and "a really big shew" (his pronunciation of the word "show"). He had a knack for identifying and promoting top talent and paid a great deal of money to secure that talent for his show.
When Elvis Presley became popular, Sullivan was wary of the singer's bad-boy style and said that he would never invite Presley on his program. However, Presley became too big a name to ignore, and Sullivan scheduled him to appear on September 9, 1956.
In August, however, Sullivan was injured in an automobile accident that occurred near his country home in Southbury, Connecticut. Sullivan had to take a medical leave from the series and missed Presley's appearance.
Charles Laughton wound up introducing Presley on the Sullivan hour. After Sullivan got to know Presley personally, he made amends by telling his audience, "This is a real decent, fine boy."
Sullivan's failure to scoop the TV industry with Presley made him determined to get the next big sensation first. In Feb. 9, 1964, he achieved that with the first live American appearance of The Beatles, the most-watched program in TV history to that point and still one of the most-watched programs of all time.
The Beatles appeared three more times on the Sullivan show in person, and submitted filmed performances later. Sullivan struck up such a rapport with the Beatles that he agreed to introduce them at their momentous Shea Stadium concert on August 15, 1965.
The Dave Clark Five, heavily promoted as having a "cleaner" image than the Beatles, made 13 appearances on the Sullivan show — more than any other UK group.
There was another side to Sullivan. He could be very quick to take offense if he felt he had been crossed, and could hold a grudge for a long time. This could sometimes be seen as a part of his TV personality. Jackie Mason, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly and The Doors became intimately familiar with Sullivan's negative side.
On November 20, 1955, Bo Diddley was asked by Sullivan to sing Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit "Sixteen Tons." Diddley sensed the choice of song would end his career then and there, and instead sang his #1 hit, "Bo Diddley." He was banned from the show.
In 1963, Bob Dylan was set to appear on the show, but network censors rejected the song he wanted to perform, "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues," as potentially libelous to the John Birch Society.
Refusing to perform a different song, Dylan walked off the set at dress rehearsal. Sullivan, who had approved the song at a previous rehearsal, backed Dylan's decision. The incident resulted in accusations against the network of engaging in censorship.
In early September, 1974, X-rays revealed that Sullivan had advanced esophageal cancer. Only his family was told, however, and as the doctors gave Sullivan very little time, the family chose to keep the diagnosis from him.
Sullivan, still believing his ailment to be yet another complication from a long-standing battle with ulcers, died five weeks later, on October 13, 1974.
His funeral was attended by 3,000 at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York on a cold, rainy day.
Peter Finch, British-born Australian actor, was born 106 years ago today
Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network, 1976
Peter Finch, British-born Australian actor, was born 106 years ago today.
Finch is best remembered for his role as "crazed" television anchorman, Howard Beale, in the film 1976 film, Network.
The film earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor, his fifth Best Actor award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and a Best Actor award from the Golden Globes.
He was the first of two people to win a posthumous Academy Award in an acting category. The other was Heath Ledger, also Australian.
After suffering a heart attack in the lobby of The Beverly Hills Hotel, Finch died on January 14, 1977 at the age of 60.
Here, Finch does his infamous “Mad as Hell” speech from Network
Charlie's Place: Photo Essay
- The true story of the Ku Klux Klan’s violent attempt in South Carolina in the post World War II years to stop dirty dancing and kill the emerging black music behind it—rhythm & blues. E-book in all platforms.
Mill Town Murder: Photo Essay
- On the morning of Sept. 6, 1934, in the tiny town of Honea Path, S.C., friends and neighbors came to blows in a labor dispute. When it was over, seven people were dead and 30 others wounded. The bloody riot at the town’s cotton mill shaped the lives of two generations to follow—not because of the shock of what was known, but by what was unknown. E-book available on all platforms.
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