June Twooth

Sally Kellerman is 72. Kellerman was Hot Lips in the movie M*A*S*H. She got an Oscar supporting actress nomination for the portrayal.

Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones’ drummer, is 68.

That fine actor Stacy Keach is also 68.

Composer Martin Hamlisch is 65.

Jerry “The Beaver” Mathers is 61 today.

Comedian Dana Carvey is 54.

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade was born on June 2nd in 1740. We know him as the Marquis de Sade.

Elizabeth was crowned Queen on June 2nd, 56 years ago today.

May 31

For one reason or another I haven’t posted anything on May 31st since Sweetie Number 5 was born four years ago today. I see no reason to break the chain except to say Happy Birthday Alex.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Clint Eastwood, 79 today.

Mel Blanc

… the voice of Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Private Snafu, Sylvester, Tweety, Yosemite Sam, Pepe Le Pew, Foghorn Leghorn, Speedy Gonzalez, Marvin Martian, Wile E. Coyote, Tasmanian Devil, Barney Rubble, Tom, Jerry, Woody Woodpecker’s laugh and Jack Benny’s Maxwell automobile was born in San Francisco 101 years ago today. His full name was Melvin Jerome Blank.

Blanc was in a serious automobile accident in 1961 that left him comatose. Unable to bring him out of the coma for weeks, in desperation the doctor finally said to him, “How are you today, Bugs Bunny?” Blanc reportedly answered, “Eh…just fine, Doc,” in his Bugs voice and began to recover.

Mel Blanc died in 1989. His epitaph reads: “That’s All Folks!”

Benjamin David Goodman

… was born 100 years ago today.

Goodman was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants who thought that music might be a way out of poverty. His older brothers were given a tuba and a trombone but — just 10 — Benjamin was given a clarinet. He learned to play at a synagogue and then with a Jane Hull House band. By 16, he was in the Ben Pollack Orchestra; by 19, Goodman was making solo recordings.

In 1934, Goodman put together his own band and they played on a live NBC radio program “Let’s Dance” during the late hours in New York. It was not until the band played before a live audience at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles that it found its fans — because of the time difference, the Goodman band that was on so late in the east was heard during prime dancing time on the west coast. (It’s a good scene in the 1955 film The Benny Goodman Story.) Some date the beginning of the Swing Era to that August 21, 1935, appearance in Los Angeles.

On January 16, 1938, Goodman brought jazz to Carnegie Hall. This great concert was recorded (with one microphone), but the original disk was lost. In 1950, Goodman discovered a copy in a closet. It quickly became a best-selling record and the CD is an absolute essential.

But NewMexiKen’s favorite Benny Goodman appearance was on December 30, 1966, at the Tropicana in Las Vegas. That’s because I was there.

JFK

Were he still alive, John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, would be 92 today.

28th Day of May

Jerry West is 71 today.

Jerry West was on the fast track to stardom from the day he touched a basketball. Throughout the NBA’s history, it would be hard to find a better pure shooter. At West Virginia University, West led the Mountaineers to the NCAA Finals and captured the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award in 1959. In a superlative senior season, West was a consensus All-America and led West Virginia to its third consecutive conference championship. In Los Angeles, West played virtually his entire career with Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor, and five years with Wilt Chamberlain. When the game was on the line, West’s Los Angeles Laker teammates always found a way to get the ball to “Mr. Clutch.” His cool, calm, and collected personality and his leadership on the court was a coach’s dream. When he retired, West’s name was on nearly every page of the record books. He scored 25,192 points (third), averaged 27.0 ppg (fourth), made 7,160 free throws (second), dished out 6,238 assists (fifth). West was equally adept on the defensive end, named to the NBA All-Defensive First-Team four times.

Official Website of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

Gladys Knight is 65. The Pips are various ages.

Gladys Knight and the Pips – brother Merald “Bubba” Knight and cousins Edward Patten and William Guest – are one of the most respected and longest-lived soul groups, with hits spanning four decades. Knight was born in Atlanta, Georgia, where she began singing at age four with her brother and cousins at Baptist church functions. The group first recorded for the Brunswick label in 1958 and dented the charts with “Every Beat of My Heart” (1961) and “Letter Full of Tears” (1962), both on Fury Records. After a few more singles and personnel changes, which cemented Gladys Knight and the Pips in their most enduring and best-known lineup, the group signed with Motown’s Soul label in 1966. Motown founder Berry Gordy, who saw them perform at Harlem’s Apollo Theater in 1966, made note of Knight’s “class, artistry and stage presence….She could talk to an audience and articulate what she wanted to say with just the right words.”

At Motown, Gladys Knight and the Pips quickly rose to prominence with their version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (#1 R&B, #2 pop), which boasted more of an uptempo, gospel-style arrangement than Gaye’s own recording of it.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

John Fogerty is 64 today. Fogerty was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 with Creedence Clearwater Revival.

John Fogerty now firmly at the helm as guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer, Creedence took off with their neo-psychedelic reworking of Dale Hawkins’ rockabilly classic “Suzie Q.” From then on, the hits kept coming as the band churned out six albums of powerful, roots-oriented rock and roll between 1968 and 1970: Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bayou Country, Green River, Willie and the Poorboys, Cosmo’s Factory and Pendulum. Ten of Creedence’s singles cracked the Top Ten during the period 1968-71. Although the group was not overtly political, several of their songs – particularly “Fortunate Son” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain” – eloquently expressed the counterculture’s resistance to the Vietnam War and sympathy for those who were fighting in what now stand as anthems of those troubled times.

Oh, put me in, coach – I’m ready to play today;
Put me in, coach – I’m ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be centerfield.

Sondra Locke is 62 today. Though never married, she and Clint Eastwood were a couple from 1975-1990.

Brandon Cruz, Eddie in The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, is 47.

The Dionne Quintuplets were born in Corbeil, Ontario, Canada, 75 years ago today.

Annette Lillianne Marie Dionne
Cécile Marie Emilda Dionne
Emilie Marie Jeanne Dionne (died 1954)
Marie Reina Alma Dionne (died 1970)
Yvonne Edouilda Marie Dionne (died 2001)

Together, the five girls, at least two months premature, weighed about 14 pounds. They were put by an open stove to keep warm, and mothers from surrounding villages brought breast milk for them. Against all expectations, they survived their first weeks. Watch video.

According to the CBC Archives:

When the quints are still babies, the Ontario government takes the sisters from their parents, apparently to protect their fragile health, and makes the girls wards of the state. For the first nine years of their lives, they live at a hospital in their hometown that becomes a tourist mecca called “Quintland.” The Ministry of Public Welfare sets up a trust fund in their behalf with assurances that the financial well-being of the entire Dionne family would be taken care of “for all their normal needs for the rest of their lives.”

Between 1934 and 1943, about 3 million people visit Quintland. The government and nearby businesses make an estimated half-billion dollars off the tourists, much of which the Dionne family never sees. The sisters are the nation’s biggest tourist attraction — bigger than Niagara Falls.

After nine years and a bitter custody fight, the girls rejoined their family.

There is still a mystery surrounding what happened to the money the Ontario government placed in a trust fund for the quints, though it’s believed that most of the funds went to pay for the many employees of “Quintland.”

In 1998 the surviving quints were awarded $4 million by Ontario.

And the greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th century was born near Prague, Oklahoma, on this date in 1888. His Sac and Fox given name was Wa-Tho-Huk (Bright Path). We know him as Jim Thorpe.

Thorpe was named by ESPN as the 7th greatest athlete of the 20th century (after Jordan, Ruth, Ali, Brown, Gretsky and Owens). Read the biographical essay, Thorpe preceded Deion, Bo. A couple of items from the biography:

• Thorpe won both the decathlon and the pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. Swedish King Gustav V told him, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.” Thorpe reputedly replied, “Thanks, king.”
• Jim Thorpe was a twin. His brother Charles died of pneumonia at age 8.

No holiday on May 28th ever

Rudolph Giuliani is 65 today. Alone this disqualifies May 28th from any consideration as a holiday.

May 26th ought to be a national holiday

John Wayne was born Marion Michael Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, 102 years ago today.

May 25th

Today is the birthday

… of Ian McKellen. Gandalf and Sir Leigh Teabing is 70 today. McKellen has been nominated for two Oscars, one each for best actor and best supporting actor.

… of Frank Oz. The voice of Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Cookie Monster, Bert, Grover, Yoda and so many more, is 65 today.

… of Mike Myers. Austin Powers and Shrek is 46.

… of Brian Urlacher, 31.

Miles Davis was born on this date in 1926. The web site for JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns has a brief introduction to Miles Davis.

Babe Ruth hit the 714th (and last) home run of his career on this date in 1935. He also hit 713 and 712 that day.

May 22nd

Today is the birthday of two important and influential American writers, Peter Matthiessen (82) and Garry Wills (75).

[Matthiessen's] father was a successful architect, and Matthiessen grew up in an affluent area of southwest Connecticut. He served in the Navy during World War II, studied at Yale, and then traveled to Paris, where he and two other young writers, Harold Humes and George Plimpton, decided to start a literary journal called The Paris Review.

After publishing two novels that weren’t very successful, Matthiessen took off on a trip across the United States in his Ford convertible, with a shotgun and a sleeping bag, looking for places where certain American animals were dying out: the bear, the wolf, the crane. His journey became the subject of his book Wildlife In America (1959), which was one of the books that helped launch the modern environmentalist movement in the United States. Matthiessen has continued to write books about nature, such as The Snow Leopard (1978).

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor (2007)

[Wills] grew up in a conservative Roman Catholic family. He said, “[I was raised as] a Catholic cold warrior, praying after Mass every day for the conversion of Russia.” His father was an appliance salesman who believed that reading was a waste of time, and he used to pay Wills not to read.

Wills couldn’t stop reading, though. He got a job writing for the conservative National Review, but during the 1960s, he started traveling around the country, writing about protests and race riots. He began to argue against the Vietnam War and for federal support of civil rights. He continued to call himself a conservative, but other conservatives didn’t think so.

His first important book was Nixon Agonistes (1970), about Nixon’s 1968 campaign for the presidency. Since then he has written dozens of books, about religion, Shakespeare, the Kennedys, the Declaration of Independence, Ronald Reagan, John Wayne, The Gettysburg Address, and the papacy.

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor (2008)

Arthur Conan Doyle was born 150 years ago today. A physician, Doyle modeled Shelock Holmes after a professor he knew in medical school. There are 56 stories and four novels featuring the famous detective.

Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt was born on May 22nd in 1844.

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was a unique artist because she was a woman who succeeded in what was in the nineteenth century a predominantly male profession, because she was the only American invited to exhibit with a group of independent artists later known as the Impressionists, and because she responded in a very distinctive way to their mandate to portray modern life.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Click images for larger version and to learn more.

May 21st

Al Franken is 58. Mr. T is 57. Judge Reinhold is 52.

Leo Sayer is 61. I wonder if he feels like dancing.

Thomas “Fats” Waller was born on this date in 1904. His most famous composition was “Ain’t Misbehavin’”

May 20

James Stewart was born 101 years ago today. Stewart received five best actor Oscar nominations in his long career, but won only for The Philadelphia Story in 1941.

Joe Cocker is 65. Timothy Olyphant is scowling at being 41.

Cher is 63.

Dolley Madison was born on May 20th in 1768.

Charles Lindbergh departed Long Island for Paris 82 years ago today.

Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland on May 20th in 1932, the first woman to solo the Atlantic.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862. The act provided settlers with 160 acres of surveyed public land after payment of a filing fee and five years of continuous residence. Designed to spur Western migration, the Homestead Act culminated a twenty-year battle to distribute public lands to citizens willing to farm. Concerned that free land would lower property values and reduce the cheap labor supply, Northern businessmen opposed the act. Unlikely allies, Southerners feared homesteaders would add their voices to the call for abolition of slavery. With Southerners out of the picture in 1862, the legislation finally passed.

Library of Congress

The National Park Service provides some additional background.

People interested in Homesteading first had to file their intentions at the nearest Land Office. A brief check for previous ownership claims was made for the plot of land in question, usually described by its survey coordinates. The prospective homesteader paid a filing fee of $10 to claim the land temporarily, as well as a $2 commission to the land agent.

With application and receipt in hand, the homesteader then returned to the land to begin the process of building a home and farming the land, both requirements for “proving” up at the end of five years. When all requirements had been completed and the homesteader was ready the take legal possession, the homesteader found two neighbors or friends willing to vouch for the truth of his or her statements about the land’s improvements and sign the “proof” document.

After successful completion of this final form and payment of a $6 fee, the homesteader received the patent for the land, signed with the name of the current President of the United States. This paper was often proudly displayed on a cabin wall and represented the culmination of hard work and determination.

Best of all, Avelino Maestas was born on May 20. The possibility of a future national holiday is up to you, Ave.

Get to work. No holiday today.

Former U.S. Senator Pete Domenici is 77 today.

Tim Russert would have been 59.

Johannes Brahms and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky were born on May 7th in 1833 and 1840 respectively.

Poet, playwright and Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish was born on May 7th in 1892.

Gary Cooper was born on May 7th in 1901. Copper twice won the best actor Oscar and had three more nominations in the category. His wins were for Sergeant York and High Noon.

Edwin Herbert Land was born on May 7th in 1909. Land invented the Polaroid Land Camera.

And Eva Peron was born on May 7th in 1919.

Why-oh-why isn’t this a national holiday?

In addition to A.P. Giannini, mentioned in the previous post, today is the birthday of Willie Mays (78), Bob Seger (64) and George Clooney (48). Orson Welles was born on May 6th (1915). So was Rudolph Valentino (1895), Sigmund Freud (1856), Robert Peary (1856) and Maximilien Robespierre (1758).

And so was my eponymous oldest son.

Greatness abounds.

A shadow of its founder’s greatness

You know that the Bank of America is in the news today for being in need of $34 billion in shoring up.

Today also is the birthday of the Bank’s founder, Amadeo Pietro Giannini (1870-1949), a hero of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Like a lot of folks in the San Francisco area, Amadeo Peter Giannini was thrown from his bed in the wee hours of April 18, 1906, when the Great Quake shook parts of the city to rubble. He hurriedly dressed and hitched a team of horses to a borrowed produce wagon and headed into town — to the Bank of Italy, which he had founded two years earlier. Sifting through the ruins, he discreetly loaded $2 million in gold, coins and securities onto the wagon bed, covered the bank’s resources with a layer of vegetables and headed home.

In the days after the disaster, the man known as A.P. broke ranks with his fellow bankers, many of whom wanted area banks to remain shut to sort out the damage. Giannini quickly set up shop on the docks near San Francisco’s North Beach. With a wooden plank straddling two barrels for a desk, he began to extend credit “on a face and a signature” to small businesses and individuals in need of money to rebuild their lives. His actions spurred the city’s redevelopment.

That would have been legacy enough for most people. But Giannini’s mark extends far beyond San Francisco, where his dogged determination and unusual focus on “the little people” helped build what was at his death the largest bank in the country, Bank of America . . .

Most bank customers today take for granted the things Giannini pioneered, including home mortgages, auto loans and other installment credit. Heck, most of us take banks for granted. But they didn’t exist, at least not for working stiffs, until Giannini came along.

Time 100

May 4th ought to be national surfing day

Dick Dale, The King of the Surf Guitar, is 72 today. Let’s go trippin’.

Dick Dale wasn’t nicknamed “King of the Surf Guitar” for nothing: he pretty much invented the style single-handedly, and no matter who copied or expanded upon his blueprint, he remained the fieriest, most technically gifted musician the genre ever produced. Dale’s pioneering use of Middle Eastern and Eastern European melodies (learned organically through his familial heritage) was among the first in any genre of American popular music, and predated the teaching of such “exotic” scales in guitar-shredder academies by two decades. The breakneck speed of his single-note staccato picking technique was unrivalled until it entered the repertoires of metal virtuosos like Eddie Van Halen, and his wild showmanship made an enormous impression on the young Jimi Hendrix. But those aren’t the only reasons Dale was once called the father of heavy metal. Working closely with the Fender company, Dale continually pushed the limits of electric amplification technology, helping to develop new equipment that was capable of producing the thick, clearly defined tones he heard in his head, at the previously undreamed-of volumes he demanded. He also pioneered the use of portable reverb effects, creating a signature sonic texture for surf instrumentals. And, if all that weren’t enough, Dale managed to redefine his instrument while essentially playing it upside-down and backwards — he switched sides in order to play left-handed, but without re-stringing it (as Hendrix later did).

allmusic

It’s Dale and “Misirlou” behind the credits at the beginning of Pulp Fiction.

Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins is 62. The Visitor, if you haven’t seen it, do so.

Randy Travis is 50, forever and ever, amen.

George Will is 68 today, so come to think of it, having a holiday today would be too much like being a teenager and going to the beach with your parents.

Audrey Hepburn would have been 80 today. (She died in 1993.) Ms. Hepburn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role five times, winning the first time for Roman Holiday in 1954. (The other nominations were for Sabrina, The Nun’s Story, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Wait Until Dark.) She also received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, posthumously in 1993. Hersholt had presented the Oscar to Hepburn in 1954.

Audrey Kathleen Hepburn-Ruston was born in Brussels, Belgium, daughter of John Victor Hepburn-Ruston, an English banker, and Ella van Heemstra, a Dutch baroness. In 1963, it was Audrey Hepburn who sang “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy. Marilyn Monroe sang to him the year before.

May 1st

Today is the birthday

… of Chuck Bednarik, 84. The hall-of-famer played for the Eagles. Bednarik is the last NFL player who routinely played both offense (center) and defense (linebacker). Bednarik’s most famous play was a tackle of Frank Gifford that put Gifford out of action for a year-and-a-half (and ultimately shortened his career).

… of singer Sonny James, 80. James’s big hit was “Young Love” in 1956.

… of the amazingly graceful Judy Collins. She is 70 today.

… of Rita Coolidge, 64. Some say Coolidge is the reason for the 1970 dissolution of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, when she left Stills for Nash, but it was Kris Kristofferson she married in 1973. Miss Coolidge is part Cherokee.

… of Dann Florek of “Law and Order.” Florek is 58.

… of Tim McGraw. Tug McGraw’s boy is 42.

Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22, was born on May 1st in 1923. Heller died in 1999.

And God Bless Kate Smith, born 102 years ago today.

Another day, another national holiday gone missing

It’s Willie Nelson’s birthday. He’s 76.

He is an American icon; his voice as comforting as the American landscape, his songs as familiar as the color of the sky, his face as worn as the Rocky Mountains. Perhaps that’s why Dan Rather suggested, “We should add his face to the cliffs of Mt. Rushmore and be done with it.”

He’s recorded 250 albums, written 2,500 songs, and for half a century played countless concerts across America and around the world. He’s been instrumental in shaping both country and pop music, yet his appeal crosses all social and economic lines. Sometimes he’s called an outlaw, though from Farm Aid to the aftermath of September 11, from the resurrection of a burned-out courthouse in his own hometown to fanning the flame of the Olympics, it is Willie Nelson who brings us together.

Perhaps Emmylou Harris said it best: “If America could sing with one voice, it would be Willie’s.”

American Masters

Not only that, but Cloris Leachman is 83 and Kirsten Dunst is 27.

All that and you are at work, why?

Furthermore . . .

Casey Jones wrecked his train on April 30th in 1900.

John Luther Jones from Cayce (pronounced Cay-see), Kentucky, famous to us through song as a brave engineer who romantically died trying to make up time. In truth, he crashed his locomotive at high speed into a freight train that was attempting to get out of the way on a siding. According to reports he failed to heed warning signals that were out. The accident took place early in the morning of April 30, 1900. Jones was the only fatality.

Jones was known for his affability and his skill in blowing a train whistle. His engine wiper, Wallace Saunders, reportedly idolized the engineer. Saunders wrote the original song. All you might want to know can be found in this 1928 article.

George Washington took office as the first president of the U.S. on this date in 1789. His term had begun on March 4th, but he’d booked flights on JetBlue and didn’t get from Virginia to New York City—then the capital—until the end of April.

Louisiana entered the union as the 18th state on this date in 1812.

Just another day that should be a national holiday

Edward Kennedy Ellington, that is, Duke Ellington, was born in Washington, D.C., on this date in 1899. The PBS web site for JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns sums up Ellington succinctly.

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was the most prolific composer of the twentieth century in terms of both number of compositions and variety of forms. His development was one of the most spectacular in the history of music, underscored by more than fifty years of sustained achievement as an artist and an entertainer. He is considered by many to be America’s greatest composer, bandleader, and recording artist.

The extent of Ellington’s innovations helped to redefine the various forms in which he worked. He synthesized many of the elements of American music — the minstrel song, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley tunes, the blues, and American appropriations of the European music tradition — into a consistent style with which, though technically complex, has a directness and a simplicity of expression largely absent from the purported art music of the twentieth century. Ellington’s first great achievements came in the three-minute song form, and he later wrote music for all kinds of settings: the ballroom, the comedy stage, the nightclub, the movie house, the theater, the concert hall, and the cathedral. His blues writing resulted in new conceptions of form, harmony, and melody, and he became the master of the romantic ballad and created numerous works that featured the great soloists in his jazz orchestra.

The Today in History page from the Library of Congress has much about Ellington. The Red Hot Jazz Archive has a number of Ellington recordings on line [RealAudio files].

Today is also the birthday

… of Jerry Seinfeld. He’s 55.

… of four-time Oscar nominee, two-time winner Daniel Day-Lewis. He’s 52. Lewis won for My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown and for There Will Be Blood.

… of three-time Oscar nominee Michelle Pfeiffer. She’s 51. Once upon a time, before she gave it all up to go to Hollywood, Michelle was a checker at our local Von’s supermarket.

… of Jan Brady. Eve Plumb is 51.

… of one-time Oscar nominee (Pulp Fiction) Uma Thurman. She’s 39.

… of Andre Agassi, 39.

William Randolph Hearst was born on this date in 1863. His father, George Hearst, was 42, his mother Phoebe Apperson Hearst was 20. Was Hearst the model for Charles Foster Kane? Here is what Orson Welles had to say in 1975.

If we can’t make Harper Lee’s birthday a national holiday

… then what’s the point of even having holidays?

Harper Lee. The author of one the great classics of American literature, To Kill A Mockingbird, is 83 today. Mockingbird, published in 1960, has sold more than 30 million copies.

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

The Writer’s Almanac had a nice essay about Lee three years ago (it includes the quotation above). There was another slightly longer variation of it four years ago that NewMexiKen replicated.

And, absolutely, you must read Garrison Keillor’s essay (ostensibly a book review).

Today is also the birthday

… of James A. Baker III. The former Secretary of State is 79. NewMexiKen met Baker in 1993 during the last week of the first Bush Administration. He was the President’s chief of staff, so the meeting took place in the West Wing (one of two times I’ve been there on business). Never have I met an individual more impressive in a small meeting than Baker. When you spoke, Baker gave you his apparent undivided attention. Baker’s place in history will be enhanced I believe by his diplomatic work in forming the international coalition before the 1991 invasion of Iraq. His place in history will be diminished I believe by his work for the second Bush in the 2000 Florida election litigation.

… of Ann-Margret, 68.

… of Jay Leno. He’s 59.

… of golfer John Daly. He’s 43.

… of Penélope Cruz Sánchez. Winner of several best actress awards in Europe for Non ti muovere, the Oscar-nominee for best actress last year is 35.

… of Jessica Alba. She’s 28.

Carolyn Jones was born on this date in 1929. The one-time Oscar nominee has nearly 100 credits to her name despite dying of colon cancer at age 54. She was, of course, Morticia Addams in the classic TV show.

Lionel Herbert Blythe was born on this date in 1878. We know him as Lionel Barrymore — and we know him even better as Mr. Potter in It’s A Wonderful Life — “I’d say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider.” Barrymore won the Oscar for best actor in 1931 for A Free Soul. The previous year he was nominated for best director. Both of Barrymore’s parents were actors, as were his sister Ethel (an Oscar winner) and brother John.

And James Monroe, the fifth U.S. President, was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on this date in 1758. He is one of three presidents (and two NewMexiKen daughters) to attend the College of William and Mary.

Grant’s Nicknames

Hiram Ulysses Grant was born on this date in 1822.

In 1839, his Ohio congressman nominated him for the U.S. Military Academy, but mistakenly as Ulysses S. Grant. The cadet simply adopted the name. Because his new initials were U.S., the same as those of Uncle Sam, Grant was nicknamed Sam in the Army.

The name U.S. Grant took on a whole new meaning in 1862 however.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY IN THE FIELD
Camp near Fort Donelson
February 16, 1862.
 
General S. B. BUCKNER,
Confederate Army.

     SIR: Yours of this date, proposing armistice and appointment of commissioners to settle terms of capitulation, is just received. No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
U.S. GRANT,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.
 

From then the U.S. in U.S. Grant stood for Unconditional Surrender.

The other Walter

Walter Lantz was born 110 years ago today (1899). Lantz was the creator of such animated characters as Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, Wally Walrus and the greatest cartoon character of them all, Woody Woodpecker. Lantz was nominated for the Academy Award 10 times. He received the Academy’s Life-Time Achievement Award in 1979.

Click on the image above to visit The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia for audio and video clips and lots of other goodies.

Gertrude Pridgett

… was born on this date in 1886. Gertrude Pridgett began performing in 1900, singing and dancing in minstrel shows. In 1902, she married performer William “Pa” Rainey and became known as Ma Rainey.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum has this to say about inductee Ma Rainey.

If Bessie Smith is the acknowledged “Queen of the Blues,” then Gertrude “Ma” Rainey is the undisputed “Mother of the Blues.” As music historian Chris Albertson has written, “If there was another woman who sang the blues before Rainey, nobody remembered hearing her.” Rainey fostered the blues idiom, and she did so by linking the earthy spirit of country blues with the classic style and delivery of Bessie Smith. She often played with such outstanding jazz accompanists as Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson, but she was more at home fronting a jugband or washboard band.

Jealous Hearted Blues

Duane Eddy

… was born on this date in 1938, which would make him 71 today. Eddy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

One of the earliest guitar heroes, Duane Eddy put the twang in rock and roll. “Twang” is a reverberating, bass-heavy guitar sound boasted by primitive studio wizardry. Concocted by Eddy and producer Lee Hazlewood in 1957, twang came to represent the sound of revved-up hot rods and an echo of the Wild West on the frontier of rock and roll. Eddy obtained his trademark sound by picking on the low strings of a Chet Atkins-model Gretsch 6120 hollowbody guitar, turning up the tremolo and running the signal through an echo chamber. Behind the mighty sound of twang, Eddy became the most successful instrumentalist in rock history, charting fifteen Top Forty singles in the late Fifties and early Sixties. He has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. No less an authority than John Fogerty has declared, “Duane Eddy was the front guy, the first rock and roll guitar god.” Eddy’s influence is widespread in rock and roll. A twangy guitar drove Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” and twang echoes in the work of the Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Dave Edmunds, Chris Isaak and many more.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

“Cannonball,” “Rebel Rouser,” “Forty Miles of Bad Road” and I’m cruising Speedway Boulevard in Tucson all over again. Someone else is driving — I’m not that old — but nevertheless, little rock and roll is as evocative as Duane Eddy, dated as it seems now.