It’s the birthday
… of Janet Reno, the only woman attorney general of the United States. She is 73.
… of actor Edward Herrmann, either FDR or a Gilmore. He is 68.
… of Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau. He’s 63.
… of Yusuf Islam, also 63. He was born Steven Demetre Georgiou. Much of his life he was known as Cat Stevens and he sold 60 million albums. Stevens wrote “The First Cut is the Deepest,” a hit for four artists, most recently Sheryl Crow. In 2006, he returned to music after nearly 30 years; his new stage name is Yusuf.
… of Mork. Robin Williams is 60. Williams has been nominated for the best actor Oscar three times without winning. He did win the best supporting actor Oscar for Good Will Hunting.
… of Jon Lovitz. He’s 54. Fresh!
… of Brandi Chastain. She’s 43.
… and of C.C. Sabathia, 31.
Sara Elizabeth Dougherty was born in Copper Creek, Virginia, on July 21st 1898. She married A.P. Carter in 1915, and with his brother’s wife Maybelle Addington Carter formed the Carter Family. They made their first recordings on August 2, 1927, at the famous Bristol Sessions.
In August 1927 three musicians arrived at a makeshift recording studio in Bristol, Tennessee, to audition for a talent scout from the Victor Talking Machine Company. The songs A.P. Carter, his wife Sara and her cousin Maybelle recorded that day drew upon the rich musical traditions of their native rural Appalachia. The Carter Family sang of love and loss, desperation and joy, and their music captured the attention of a nation entering the darkest days of the depression. In the coming years, with the release of songs such as Keep on the Sunnyside, Will the Circle Be Unbroken and Wildwood Flower, Carter Family record sales exploded. Success, however, brought sorrow to the Carter’s personal lives. As the demand for their music grew, A.P. Carter traveled across the Blue Ridge mountains seeking inspiration for new songs. During his long absences Sara fell in love with A.P.’s first cousin [Coy Bays]. Sara divorced A.P. in 1936, but the trio continued performing together until their eventual disbanding in 1943.
American Experience | The Carter Family: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
The timeline at the above site tells a little more of the story.
[in 1938-1939] Consolidated Royal Chemical Corporation pays the Carter Family the unheard-of sum of $75 per week, each, to do two shows a day on the border radio station XERA. The Carters move to Del Rio, Texas. Their music is broadcast by XERA’s 500 kilowatt transmitter to most of North America.
[In February 1939] Sara dedicates a song to Coy on XERA. Coy, living in California with his parents, hears the song and goes to Texas to find Sara. Coy and Sara are reunited, and marry on February 20 in Brackettsville, near Del Rio.
Ernest Hemingway was born on this date in 1899. He died a few weeks before his 62nd birthday in 1961. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 “for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.”
When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write. You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there. You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again. You have started at six in the morning, say, and may go on until noon or be through before that. When you stop you are as empty, and at the same time never empty but filling, as when you have made love to someone you love. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can happen, nothing means anything until the next day when you do it again. It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through.
Paris Review – The Art of Fiction No. 21, Ernest Hemingway [Interviewed by George Plimpton 1954]
Marshall McLuhan was born 100 years ago today.
Don Knotts was born on this date in 1924.