Lawrence Peter Berra is 83 today.
Perhaps one of the most popular players in major league history, Yogi Berra was also a brilliant catcher and dominant hitter during his 19-year career with the New York Yankees. Berra was named to the American League All-Star team every year from 1948 to 1962. He topped the 100-RBI mark four years in a row and became a three-time American League MVP in a career that featured 14 league pennants and 10 World Series championships. Known for his “Yogi-isms,” Berra has always been a fan favorite. Following his playing career, Yogi continued in baseball as a manager and coach for several teams.
Burt Bacharach is 80.
Soon established as a major songwriting duo with Hal David, Bacharach and his partner became long term contributors to the career of Dionne Warwick. Over a period of 10 years, the pair enjoyed a string of 39 consecutive chart hits with Ms. Warwick, including such memorable songs as “Walk On By,” “Don’t Make Me Over,” “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again,” “Promises, Promises,” and “Message To Michael.” The song, “That’s What Friends Are For,” recorded by Warwick with Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Gladys Knight, and co-written with Carole Bayer Sager, became number one on the hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts, received a Grammy for “Song of the Year,” and with songwriters and artists all contributing their services without charge, the recording raised over $1,500,000 for The American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR).
Burt Bacharach’s motion picture scores have also achieved classic status. With Hal David a co-writer, the output includes a series of memorable themes, such as “What’s New Pussycat,” (the title song was a million-seller for Britain’s Tom Jones); “Casino Royale,” from which the song “The Look Of Love” was a gold record for both Dusty Springfield and Sergio Mendez and Brazil 66. The title song became a major hit for Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Others in the movie genre include “Alfie,” “Together?” with vocals by Michael McDonald, Jackie DeShannon and Libby Titus; “Arthur,” “Night Shift,” “Making Love,” “Baby Boom” and the memorable “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” for which he received a pair of Oscars.
George Carlin is 71. The following is NSFW.
Millie Perkins is 70. It’s been 49 years since she portrayed Anne Frank.
Marsellus Wallace is 49. That’s Ving Rhames.
Tony Hawk is 40.
Katharine Hepburn was born 101 years ago today. Miss Hepburn won four best actress Oscars and had eight other nominations.
She became a Hollywood star by not doing anything that Hollywood stars were supposed to do. Her looks were unconventional: she had red hair and freckles and sharp cheekbones. She didn’t wear make-up or dresses, she didn’t cooperate with the media, and she had a habit of insulting other people in the business. She played smart, sexy, independent women who were always able to get the guy in the end.
She won her first Oscar for her role in Morning Glory (1933). After that she hand-picked each of her movies, and she often had a say in who the other actors in the movie would be. Sometimes she rewrote her own lines, something almost no other actress would have dared to do at the time.
In 1991, Hepburn published her autobiography, titled Me, and it was a best-seller. She wrote about her twenty-seven-year affair with Spencer Tracy, her career, and life in her brownstone in the middle of Manhattan, where she lived for more than sixty years.
Katharine Hepburn said, “If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.”
Florence Nightingale was born on this date in 1820.
There are, of course, very few veterans of the war of the Crimea still alive, yet there have been in late years some who remembered the sweet and sympathetic face of Florence Nightingale, and who were never tired of telling about her noble work in the hospitals. It was not only in the details of nursing, but in the gentle and watchful care for his comfort that Miss Nightingale made herself a beautiful memory to the soldier. She lent her aid to the surgeons when strong men turned away in horror, and sustained the courage of the wounded by her appeals to the ties which bound them to home.
Nor was it in the hospitals alone that her unselfish energy and untiring devotion were felt. There was an invalids’ kitchen, where appetizing food for the sick who could not eat ordinary fare was provided under Miss Nightingale’s eye. She provided also laundries, where clean linen could be obtained. In company with the army Chaplains she established a library and a school room, where she had evening lectures to amuse the convalescents. She personally attended to the correspondence of the wounded, and in many ways fully earned the title conferred upon her by the soldiers–“The Angels of the Crimea.”
The New York Times (1910)