Category: Birthdays

Today is the birthday

… of Harmon Killebrew, 74. Not only is Killebrew in the Hall of Fame, but his is the profile on the Major League Baseball logo.

… of best actor Oscar nominee Gary Busey. He’s 66. The nomination was for The Buddy Holly Story.

… of Football Hall of Famer Dan Dierdorf, 61.

… of Maria Conchita Alonso, 53.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born on June 29 in 1900. In January 2003, Outside Magazine listed its 25 essential books for the well-read explorer. At the top was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:

Like his most famous creation, The Little Prince, that visitor from Asteroid B-612 who once saw 44 sunsets in a single day, Saint-Exupéry disappeared into the sky. Killed in World War II at age 44, “Saint Ex” was a pioneering pilot for Aéropostale in the 1920s, carrying mail over the deadly Sahara on the Toulouse-Dakar route, encountering cyclones, marauding Moors, and lonely nights: “So in the heart of the desert, on the naked rind of the planet, in an isolation like that of the beginnings of the world, we built a village of men. Sitting in the flickering light of the candles on this kerchief of sand, on this village square, we waited out the night.” Whatever his skills as a pilot—said to be extraordinary—as a writer he is effortlessly sublime. Wind, Sand and Stars is so humane, so poetic, you underline sentences: “It is another of the miraculous things about mankind that there is no pain nor passion that does not radiate to the ends of the earth. Let a man in a garret but burn with enough intensity and he will set fire to the world.” Saint-Exupéry did just that. No writer before or since has distilled the sheer spirit of adventure so beautifully. True, in his excitement he can be righteous, almost irksome—like someone who’s just gotten religion. But that youthful excess is part of his charm. Philosophical yet gritty, sincere yet never earnest, utterly devoid of the postmodern cop-outs of cynicism, sarcasm, and spite, Saint-Exupéry’s prose is a lot like the bracing gusts of fresh air that greet him in his open cockpit. He shows us what it’s like to be subject—and king—of infinite space.

Actress Jayne Mansfield, just 34, was killed 43 years ago today when her car struck a trailer truck near Slidell, Louisiana. The driver and Ms. Mansfield’s companion, Sam Brody, were also killed. Three of her children asleep in the backseat survived.

Those who have seen Field of Dreams or read the book on which it was based, Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella, will remember the character “Moonlight” Graham, played by Burt Lancaster in the film. Archibald Wright Graham (1876-1965) was an actual player, and a doctor. Graham played in one game for the New York Giants on June 29, 1905 (in the movie it was the last game of the season in 1929). Graham played two innings in the field but never batted in the major leagues; he was on deck when his one game ended.

Mel Brooks is 84, Kathy Bates 62, John Elway 50, and John Cusack and Mary Stuart Masterson 44.

Richard Rodgers was born on June 28th in 1902. This from his New York Times obituary in 1979.

“The Garrick Gaieties,” “A Connecticut Yankee,” “Babes in Arms,” “The Boys From Syracuse,” “Pal Joey,” “Oklahoma!” “Carousel,” “South Pacific,” “Flower Drum Song,” “The King and I,” “The Sound of Music.” What binds together these disparate musical comedies is a single phrase spanning 55 years of Broadway: “Music by Richard Rodgers.”

The phrase connoted the seemingly endless flow of wonderfully singable, danceable melodies that poured out of Mr. Rodgers. And coupled with the names of his two principal lyricists, Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein 2d, the phrase also symbolized the evolution of American musical comedy into an art form of stature, in which plot, music and dancing were closely integrated and frequently employed to explore serious, even tragic, themes.

Today is the birthday

… of Ross Perot. He’s 80.

… of Bruce Babbitt. The former Governor of Arizona and Secretary of the Interior is 72.

… of Vera Wang. The designer is 61.

… of Tobey Maguire. Peter Parker is 35.

Helen Keller was born on June 27 in 1880. The following is from her obituary in The New York Times when she died in 1968.

For the first 18 months of her life Helen Keller was a normal infant who cooed and cried, learned to recognize the voices of her father and mother and took joy in looking at their faces and at objects about her home. “Then” as she recalled later, “came the illness which closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a newborn baby.”

The illness, perhaps scarlet fever, vanished as quickly as it struck, but it erased not only the child’s vision and hearing but also, as a result, her powers of articulate speech.

Her life thereafter, as a girl and as a woman, became a triumph over crushing adversity and shattering affliction. In time, Miss Keller learned to circumvent her blindness, deafness and muteness; she could “see” and “hear” with exceptional acuity; she even learned to talk passably and to dance in time to a fox trot or a waltz. Her remarkable mind unfolded, and she was in and of the world, a full and happy participant in life.

What set Miss Keller apart was that no similarly afflicted person before had done more than acquire the simplest skills.

But she was graduated from Radcliffe; she became an artful and subtle writer; she led a vigorous life; she developed into a crusading humanitarian who espoused Socialism; and she energized movements that revolutionized help for the blind and the deaf.

Photo of Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan, 1888.

Carly Simon is 65 today.

Al Molinaro of “Happy Days” is 91 today.

Mick Fleetwood is 63. “Rumours” has sold more than 19 million copies, the 9th best-selling album of all time*.

Minka Kelly of “Friday Night Lights” is 30 today. Old for high school wouldn’t you say?

Jack Dempsey was born on this date in 1895 in Manassa, Colorado, which makes him about the most famous native-son of the San Luis Valley.

*

1. Thriller, Michael Jackson, 29 million
2. Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, The Eagles, 29 million
3. The Wall, Pink Floyd, 23 million
4. Led Zeppelin IV, Led Zeppelin, 23 million
5. Back in Black, AC/DC, 22 million
6. Double Live, Garth Brooks, 21 million
7. Greatest Hits Volume I & II, Billy Joel, 21 million
8. Come On Over, Shania Twain, 20 million
9. Rumours, Fleetwood Mac, 19 million
10. The Beatles, The Beatles, 19 million

Today is the birthday

… of Justice Clarence Thomas. He’s 62.

… of American Idol’s Randy Jackson. He’s 54.

… of Oscar-winner Frances McDormand. She’s 53. Miss McDormand has had three Oscar nominations for best supporting actress in addition to her winning best actress performance in Fargo.

… of K.T. Tunstall. Kate is 35.

… of LaDainian Tomlinson. He’s 31 and done.

Choreographer Bob Fosse was born on this date in 1927.

According to many sources, Killer Angels author Michael Shaara was born on this date in 1929. According to his biography at son Jeff Shaara’s web site, the father was born in 1928. The Killer Angels, which won the Pulitzer Prize and is regarded by many as the best Civil War novel, “was rejected by the first fifteen publishers who saw the manuscript.”

Alfred Charles Kinsey was born on this date in 1894. And so was Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who, at age 42, gave up his throne for the woman he loved. After just 10 months as king, Edward VIII defied the British establishment to marry Mrs. Bessie Wallis Warfield Simpson, a twice-divorced American. One wonders what Henry VIII would have thought of the fuss. (The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was renamed the House of Windsor in 1917.)

Today is the birthday

… of Ralph Waite. Papa Walton is 82.

… of Kris Kristofferson, 74. “Me and Bobby McGee”, “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, and “Help Me Make It Through the Night” Good stuff, thanks, Kris.

… of Meryl Streep. The 16-time Oscar nominee is 61. She has been nominated 13 times for leading actress, winning for Sophie’s Choice, and three times for supporting actress, winning for Kramer vs. Kramer. Ms. Streep has been married for 32 years and has four children.

… of Lindsay Wagner. The Bionic Woman is 61.

… of Graham Greene. He’s 58. Greene was nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar for Dances with Wolves.

… of Cyndi Lauper. A girl of 57, just wanting to have fun.

… of Tracy Pollan. Mrs. Michael J. Fox is 50. They’ve been married since 1988.

… of Dan Brown. The author of The Da Vinci Code is 46. His novels have sold an estimated 80 million copies.

Jane Russell is 89 today. She was 36D when she made The Outlaw for Howard Hughes. He discovered her at his dentist, where she was a receptionist.

Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross, the wife and husband on the TV sitcom Family Ties, are both 63 today. Alex, their son on the show, was played by Michael J. Fox, who was 49 on June 9th.

Novelist Ian McEwan is 62.

Kathy Mattea is 51.

Juliette Lewis is 37 today. She was 18 when she played the daughter in Cape Fear, and received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination.

Prince William is 28.

It doesn’t really matter but existentialist philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre was born on this date in 1905.

Sartre became a teacher. At a time when the European teaching style was lecturing from a distance, he drank with his students at local bars, played cards and ping-pong with them, and joined them for picnics on the beach. In his spare time he began to write a novel called Nausea (1938). The book was his first major success, and it made him famous. People called him the French Kafka. He went on to write Being and Nothingness (1943), about the meaning of freedom. He wrote, “Hell is other people.” And, “If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company.”

The Writer’s Almanac (2008)

Happy Father’s Day.

Today is the birthday

… of Olympia Dukakis. She’s 79. Miss Dukakis won the Oscar for best supporting actress for Moonstruck.

… of Martin Landau. He’s 79. Mr. Landau has been nominated for three best supporting actor Oscars, winning of course for Ed Wood.

… of Danny Aiello. He’s 77. Mr. Aiello was nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar for Do The Right Thing.

… of John Mahoney. This retired Seattle cop, the father of two psychiatrists, is 70. You know, Frasier’s dad, Martin Crane.

… of Brian Wilson; he’s 68. Perhaps the greatest American composer of popular music of the past 40+ years,

One of the undisputed geniuses in popular music, Brian demonstrated an uncanny gift for harmonic invention and complex vocal and instrumental arrangements. Initially, the magnitude of that genius was overlooked owing to the subject matter of the band’s early hits: i.e., surfing, hot rods and teen romance. But today even the lyrics to those songs – generally written by Mike Love or such outside collaborators as deejay Roger Christian and producer Gary Usher – are celebrated for their deft use of technical lingo and youthful joie de vivre. “A lot of love went into our singing, our harmonies, the making of those records,” Brian Wilson said in 2003.

Music had always been a family affair in the Wilson household, as father Murry was himself an aspiring musician and songwriter. The Beach Boys’ odyssey began in 1951, when young Brian sang a song (“The Old Soldier”) written by his ten-year-old cousin Mike at a family gathering. By 1961, a teenaged Brian – joined by Mike, brothers Carl and Dennis, and friend Al Jardine – were reguarly harmonizing around the family piano. When their parents left town on a weekend vacation, the Wilson brothers used the emergency money they’d been given to rent musical instruments. They worked up an arrangement for their first original song, “Surfin’.” Dennis Wilson, the only member who actually surfed, suggested the subject matter, while Brian and Mike wrote the song.

The Beach Boys Biography | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

… of Anne Murray, 65.

… of Bob Vila. He’s 64, so it’s not just “This Old House” that’s old anymore.

… of Lionel Richie, 61. Richie, alone or in groups, has sold more than 100 million records.

… of John Goodman. He’s 58. Goodman has been nominated for eight Emmys without a victory. He did win a Golden Globe for playing Roseanne’s husband Dan. Goodman has lost an incredible amount of weight recently — he admits to topping out at near 400 pounds.

… of Nicole Kidman. She’s 43. Nominated for best actress twice, Miss Kidman won the Oscar for The Hours.

Chet Atkins was born on June 20th in 1924. He died of lung cancer in 2001.

Few guitarists have had more influence on the instrument than Chet Atkins. In Atkins’ case, his influence extends from the country-music realm into rock and roll, as well. As a studio musician, he appeared on records by Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, and countless country musicians. Atkins’ thumb-and-fingerpicking style influenced George Harrison, Duane Eddy, the Ventures, Eddie Cochran, Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler, as well as innumerable country pickers. Even the likes of Ted Nugent has credited Atkins with inspiring him to take up the instrument. ”I think he influenced everybody who picked up a guitar,” said Duane Eddy.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Errol Flynn was born on June 20th in 1909. Flynn was from Tasmania, Australia — his mother was descended from one of the Bounty mutineers. The role that made him a sensation was Captain Blood in 1935. Most of his movie portrayals were of the swashbuckle type. Drugs and alcohol took their toll, and Flynn died at age 50.

Flynn’s yacht registration was among the records NewMexiKen once managed. The purpose for the vessel he wrote on the government form was: “Pleasure! Pleasure! Pleasure!”

Lillian Hellman was born on June 20th in 1905.

Her first big success was The Children’s Hour — which premiered on Broadway in 1934 — about a pompous boarding school child who damaged the reputations of the two school directors by accusing them of being lesbians. The play was banned in many places, including Boston and Chicago. Hellman later adapted the play for film, changing the scandalous relationship into a love triangle, and it came out as These Three in 1936.

She wrote several volumes of memoirs, including An Unfinished Woman (1969), about her New Orleans childhood; Pentimento (1973), which inspired a film; and Scoundrel Time (1976), which included an account of her testimony before the Un-American Activities House Committee.

Hellman said, “People change and forget to tell each other.”

The Writer’s Almanac (2008)

Among the millions celebrating their birthday today are …

Lou Brock, who’s 71.

Recognized as one of the most gifted base runners in baseball, Lou Brock helped to revolutionize the art and science of this element of the game as he totaled 938 stolen bases during his 19-year career. A six-time All-Star selection, Brock also accumulated more than 3,000 hits to help lead the St. Louis Cardinals to three National League pennants and two World Series championships. Although his stolen base records have been eclipsed, the National League honors each year’s stolen base leader with the Lou Brock Award.

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Sir Paul McCartney. He’s 68.

Between his work with the Beatles and as a solo artist and leader of Wings, McCartney has written or cowritten more than 50 Top Ten singles. With and without Wings, McCartney has been extremely prolific, averaging an album a year since the appearance of McCartney. Moreover, he’s been eclectic as well, not only recording pop and rock but also dabbling in various classical forms and ambient dance music. In the post-Beatles era McCartney has cracked the Top Forty 35 times. When combined with the Beatles’ 49 Top Forty U.S. singles, it is a matter of statistical fact that Paul McCartney is the most successful pop-music composer ever and the second greatest hitmaker, behind Elvis Presley. Without question he is one of the most important musicians of the 20th century.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The first film critic to win the Pulitizer Prize for distinguished criticism, Roger Ebert is 68 today.

Best actress Oscar nominee Carol Kane is 58.

So is Isabella Rossellini, the daughter of the two legends, Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman.

Bruce Smith is 47 today. Smith was Virginia Tech’s first great football player.

George Mikan was born on June 18 in 1924. At 6-10 Mikan was the first “big man” in basketball leading the Minneapolis Lakers to five NBA titles in six years. The widening of the lane, the NBA shot clock and the rule against defensive goaltending were brought about by Mikan’s dominance. He was named one of the 50 best ever in the NBA in 1996. George Mikan died in 2005.

That’s Mikan with Abdul-Jabbar and Shaq.

Emmy-award winning actor E.G. Marshall was born on June 18 in 1914. Marshall appeared in more than 100 television programs, most famously for The Defenders.

The famed oil firefighter Red Adair was born on June 18 in 1915. A generation ago Adair’s feats were well-known enough to inspire a John Wayne movie, Hellfighters.

Bud Collyer was born on June 18 in 1908. Collyer was the voice of Superman on the radio 1940-1951, but known better now as one of the first TV game show hosts, in particular for Beat the Clock.

Anastasia, the daughter of Nicholas II, would be 109 if she were alive today — as I’m sure somebody is claiming.

Diablo Cody is 32 today. Donald Trump is 64. Kevin McHale of Glee is 22.

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born 82 years ago today in Rosario, Argentina. The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor has a profile of the man we know as Che Guevara.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was born on this date in 1811. This from The New York Times obituary in 1896:

It has already been hinted how the book came to be written. Escaping slaves were familiar to her. She heard their stories, she saw their wounds, she helped their flight. Uncle Tom was the husband of a domestic in her family, and his death was the chapter first written. Topsy was a pickaninny named Celeste who lived on Walnut Hills, Cincinnati. Eliza’s escape across the ice floating in the Ohio was an incident recorded in the press of that period by a witness of it, and so the story came to her eyes. Thus she was brimming over with her topic when she was asked to write a story for The National Era. It was begun in the expectation that it would run through a month or so, but it was scarcely finished within a year. Week by week, the installments were produced and read aloud to the family before being dispatched to the narrow circle of readers who saw it first. To say that it was not appreciated in serial form is to state the case mildly. Her publisher was anxious for her to stop. Her brother, Henry Ward, warned her to cut it short, lest its length should prevent printing it as a book. She answered them never a word. Her genius was in travail, and, whatever others might think, she could not stop or turn.

It’s said that when Abraham Lincoln met Ms. Stowe he remarked, “So you’re the little lady who started this great war!” It’s doubtful that actually happened, but her novel (and play) was instrumental in telling the story of slavery better and to more people than it had been told before.

Former U.S. Senator Pete Domenici is 78 today.

Tim Russert would have been 60.

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.

Willie Mays is 79 today, Bob Seger is 65, and five-time Oscar nominee (one win) George Clooney is 49.

Rudolph Valentino was born on May 6 in 1895.

The founder of the Bank of America and hero of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake recovery, Amadeo Peter Giannini was born on May 6 in 1870.

And Ken, official oldest child of NewMexiKen, celebrates his birthday today. Happy Birthday Ken!

Orson Welles was born on this date in 1915. To many who grew up with television, Welles was simply the larger-than-life spokesman for Paul Masson Wines — “We will sell no wine before its time.” But at age 23 Welles had scared thousands of Americans with his realistic radio production of War of the Worlds. At 25 he wrote, produced, directed and starred in what many consider the best film ever made, Citizen Kane. For that film alone, he was nominated for the Oscar for best actor, best director, best original screenplay and best picture (he won, with Herman Mankiewicz, for screenplay). Welles was nominated for the best picture Oscar again the following year — The Magnificent Ambersons.

The New York Times has this to say about Welles when he died in 1985:

Despite the feeling of many that his career – which evoked almost constant controversy over its 50 years – was one of largely unfulfilled promise, Welles eventually won the respect of his colleagues. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Film Institute in 1975, and last year the Directors Guild of America gave him its highest honor, the D. W. Griffith Award.

His unorthodox casting and staging for the theater gave new meaning to the classics and to contemporary works. As the ”Wonder Boy” of Broadway in the 1930’s, he set the stage on its ear with a ”Julius Caesar” set in Fascist Italy, an all-black ”Macbeth” and his presentation of Marc Blitzstein’s ”Cradle Will Rock.” His Mercury Theater of the Air set new standards for radio drama, and in one performance panicked thousands across the nation.

In film, his innovations in deep-focus technology and his use of theater esthetics – long takes without close-ups, making the viewer’s eye search the screen as if it were a stage – created a new vocabulary for the cinema.

And it is. He was born on May 6, 1856.

In the following pages, I shall demonstrate that there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that on the application of this technique, every dream will reveal itself as a psychological structure, full of significance, and one which may be assigned to a specific place in the psychic activities of the waking state. Further, I shall endeavour to elucidate the processes which underlie the strangeness and obscurity of dreams, and to deduce from these processes the nature of the psychic forces whose conflict or co-operation is responsible for our dreams.

Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (1899)

In dreams I walk with you. In dreams I talk to you.
In dreams you’re mine. All of the time we’re together
In dreams, In dreams.

Roy Orbison, “In Dreams” (1963)

Nellie Bly was born on this date in 1864.

Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochrane. In the 1880s and 1890s, as a reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, she became a pioneer in journalism and investigative reporting. Before the muckrakers of the early 20th century publicized corruption and before the investigative reporters of today sought out the story behind the story, Bly paved the way to valuable journalism as one of the first to “go behind the scenes” to expose societyís ills. At some personal danger, she had herself committed to a mental institution for 10 days so she could study firsthand how the mentally ill were being treated. As a result of her expose, the care of the mentally ill was reformed. As the New York Journal recognized, Bly was considered the “best reporter in America.”

National Women’s Hall of Fame

She went down into the sea in a diving bell and up in the air in a balloon and lived in an insane asylum as a patient; but the feat that made her famous was her trip around the world in 1889. She was sent by The World to beat the mark of Phileas Fogg, Jules Verne’s hero of “Around the World in Eighty Days,” and she succeeded, making the tour in 72 days 6 hours 11 minutes. Every one who read newspapers followed her progress and she landed in New York a national character.

The New York Times

Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany, on this date in 1818.

Soren Kierkegaard was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on this date in 1813.

Pat Carroll, whose acting career, primarily in TV sitcoms, goes back nearly 60 years, is 83 today.

Michael Palin of Monty Python is 67. Tina Yothers of Family Ties is 37.

Brian Williams is 51.

Dick Dale, The King of the Surf Guitar, is 73 today. Let’s go trippin’.

George Will is 69 today.

Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins is 63. The Visitor — if you haven’t seen it, do so.

Randy Travis is 51, forever and ever, amen.

Mary McDonough, Erin of the The Waltons, is 49.

Horace Mann was born on May 4th in 1795. He was instrumental in the establishment American public education.

Horace Mann, often called the Father of the Common School, began his career as a lawyer and legislator. When he was elected to act as Secretary of the newly-created Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837, he used his position to enact major educational reform. He spearheaded the Common School Movement, ensuring that every child could receive a basic education funded by local taxes. His influence soon spread beyond Massachusetts as more states took up the idea of universal schooling.

PBS Online: Only A Teacher

… would have been 81 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.

Harry Lillis Crosby was born on May 3rd, 1903. Known as “Bing” from a childhood nickname, he was:

[W]ithout doubt, the most popular and influential media star of the first half of the 20th century. The undisputed best-selling artist until well into the rock era (with over half a billion records in circulation), the most popular radio star of all time, and the biggest box-office draw of the 1940s, Crosby dominated the entertainment world from the Depression until the mid-’50s, and proved just as influential as he was popular. Unlike the many vocal artists before him, Crosby grew up with radio, and his intimate bedside manner was a style perfectly suited to emphasize the strengths of a medium transmitted directly into the home. He was also helped by the emerging microphone technology: scientists had perfected the electrically amplified recording process scant months before Crosby debuted on record, and in contrast to earlier vocalists, who were forced to strain their voices into the upper register to make an impression on mechanically recorded tracks, Crosby’s warm, manly baritone crooned contentedly without a thought of excess. …

John Bush for the All Music Guide

James Brown was born on May 3rd, 1933.

James Brown has had more honorifics attached to his name than any other performer in music history. He has variously been tagged “Soul Brother Number One,” “the Godfather of Soul,” “the Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” “Mr. Dynamite” and even “the Original Disco Man.” This much is certain: what became known as soul music in the Sixties, funk music in the Seventies and rap music in the Eighties is directly attributable to James Brown. His transformation of gospel fervor into the taut, explosive intensity of rhythm & blues, combined with precision choreography and dynamic showmanship, served to define the directions black music would take from the release of his first R&B hit (“Please Please Please”) in 1956 to the present day.
. . .

[H]e is a three-figure hitmaker, with 114 total entries on Billboard’s R&B singles charts and 94 that made the Hot 100 singles chart.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

Today is also the birthday

… of Ann B. Davis. Alice is 84.

… of Frankie Valli, well-seasoned at 76.

… of Greg Gumbel. He’s 64. (Brother Bryant is 61.)

… and of Dulé Hill. That’s Charlie on West Wing. He’s 35.

And, as noted in a separate post, Pete Seeger is 91 today.