January 7th

Cartoonist Charles Addams, from whom the Addams family emerged, was born 100 years ago today. Addams’s cartoons appeared in The New Yorker from 1932 until his death in 1988. The Google Doodle today salutes Addams.

January 7th is the birthday

… of William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist and winner of an Oscar for the screenplay. He’s 84.

… of Paul Revere Dick, 74. He and Mark Lindsay formed Paul Revere & The Raiders in 1960. They recorded “Louie Louie” in the same studio as The Kingsmen in Portland, Oregon in 1963. (The song was written in 1955.) The Kingsmen won that battle, but The Raiders went on to record five top 10 hits, including the number one, “Indian Reservation,” which sold six million copies.

… of Jann Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone. He’s 66.

… of Kenneth Clark Loggins. He’s 64.

… of David Stephen Caruso, 56.

… of Katherine Anne Couric. University of Virginia grad (1979), head resident of the Lawn and Tri-Delt, Katie Couric is 55.

… of Donna Rice, 54 today. That’s her in 1988 on Senator Gary Hart’s lap near the boat Monkey Business. That particular monkey business removed the married senator from the presidential race where he had been considered the front-runner.

… of Nicholas Kim Coppola. The Oscar-winner, known better as Nicolas Cage, is 48.

Jeremy Renner is 41.

Prissy, actress Butterfly McQueen, was born Thelma McQueen on this date in 1911. Prissy was her first movie role. Ms. McQueen, who never married, earned a college degree at age 64. She died in 1995.

Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7th in 1891. She was an author and part of the Harlem Renaissance.

Millard Fillmore, the 13th President of the United States, was born January 7, 1800. Fillmore succeeded Zachary Taylor when Taylor died of gastroenteritis 16 months into his term (July 9, 1850). Though from New York, Fillmore was neutral or pro-slavery. He signed the the various acts of the fateful Compromise of 1850 including the Fugitive Slave Act.