Category: Birthdays

Today is the birthday

… of Andre Previn. The composer-conducter and 13-time Oscar nominee — he won for Gigi, Porgy and Bess, Irma la Douce and My Fair Lady — is 79. Previn was married to Mia Farrow for most of the 1970s. They had three children and adopted three more.

… of Merle Haggard. The Country Music Hall of Fame inductee is 71.

Haggard has recorded more than 600 songs, about 250 of them his own compositions. (He often shares writing credits as gestures of financial and personal largess.) He has had thirty-eight #1 songs, and his “Today I Started Loving You Again” (Capitol, 1968) has been recorded by nearly 400 other artists.

In addition, Haggard is an accomplished instrumentalist, playing a commendable fiddle and a to-be-reckoned-with lead guitar. He and the Strangers played for Richard Nixon at the White House in 1973, at a barbecue on the Reagan ranch in 1982, at Washington’s Kennedy Center, and 60,000 miles from earth—courtesy of astronaut Charles Duke, who brought a tape aboard Apollo 16 in 1972. Haggard has won numerous CMA and ACM Awards including both organizations’ 1970 Entertainer of the Year awards, been nominated for scores of others, was elected to the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 1977, and won Country Music Hall of Fame membership in 1994. In 1984 he won a Grammy in the Best Country Vocal Performance, Male category for “That’s the Way Love Goes.” (Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)

… of Billy Dee Williams. Lando Calrissian is 71. Williams played Gale Sayers in the classic 1971 TV movie Brian’s Song.

“There’s always been a lot of misunderstanding about Lando’s character. I used to pick up my daughter from elementary school and get into arguments with little children who would accuse me of betraying Han Solo.”

… of Barry Levinson. The six-time Oscar nominee (writing, directing) won for best director for Rain Man. He’s 66.

… of John Ratzenberger. Best known as Cliff Clavin the mailman on Cheers, Ratzenberger is also the voice of Hamm the Piggy Bank in the Toy Story movies and Yeti in Monsters, Inc. Ratzenberger is 61.

… of Jason Hervey. Wayne Arnold of “The Wonder Years” is 36.

… of Zach Braff. He’s 33 today.

Today is the birthday

. . . of Gale Storm. My Little Margie is 86. That TV series ran 1952-1955. Storm’s real name was neither Gale, nor Margie (nor Susanna Pomeroy). It was Josephine Cottle.

. . . of Colin Powell. He’s 71. As NewMexiKen exited my office in 2001, I nearly ran into Secretary Powell and Condoleezza Rice walking down the hall after leaving one of Vice President Cheney’s Energy Task Force meetings. Powell is one of eight Secretaries of State that I’ve met or seen, but the only one I almost knocked down.

. . . of Michael Moriarty. He’s 67. Moriarty has won three Emmy awards, but none for playing Ben Stone in Law and Order despite five nominations. NewMexiKen liked Moriarty best as Henry “Author” Wiggen in Bang the Drum Slowly (with Robert De Niro). The IMDB mini biography for Moriarty says he’s 6-feet-4. Interestingly, the mini biography was written by Michael Moriarty.

Booker T. Washington was born on this date in 1856.

An incident of Dr. Washington’s life that stirred up a controversy throughout the country was the occasion of his dining at the White House with President Roosevelt on Oct. 16, 1901. Dr. Washington went to the White House at the invitation of the President, and, when the news was spread abroad, thousands, both North and South, who were moved by race prejudice or by a belief that social equality between blacks and whites had been encouraged, became angry. Most of the criticism fell upon Colonel Roosevelt, but the incident served also to injure Dr. Washington’s work in some parts of the South.

The New York Times

Spencer Tracy was born on this date in 1900. Tracy was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar nine times and won twice, for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. Tracy died in 1967.

Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born on this date in 1908. As Bette Davis she was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar 11 times, winning for Dangerous and Jezebel. Davis died in 1989.

Conductor Herbert von Karajan was also born on this date in 1908 and he, too, died in 1989.

Gregory Peck was born on this date in 1916. Peck was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar five times, winning for To Kill a Mockingbird. Mr. Peck also won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Peck died in 2003.

Joseph Lister was born on this date in 1827. His principle that bacteria must never enter a surgical incision was a breakthrough for modern surgery. Lister died in 1912.

Today is the birthday

… of Maya Angelou. The poet is 80.

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Read more Maya Angelou poetry (including the rest of “Phenomenal Woman”).

… of Craig T. Nelson. The voice of Mr. Incredible is 64. Nelson won an Emmy for Coach.

… of Steve Gatlin of The Gatlin Brothers. He’s 57.

Led by Larry Gatlin, the Gatlin Brothers are one of the most popular country groups in the music’s history. Adopting the close harmony vocal techniques of the Louvins and the Everlys to the highly polished country-pop era, Larry and the Gatlin Brothers scored a number of hits during the ’70s and ’80s. Often, the group walked the line between intricate, inventive country and pure commercial material, which resulted in strong sales but occasionally poor reviews. (allmusic)

All the gold in California
Is in a bank in the middle of Beverly Hills
In somebody else’s name

… of Robert Downey Jr. The Oscar-nominee (for Chaplin) is 43.

Jamie Lynn Spears is 17.

Heath Ledger should have been 29 today.

Anthony Perkins was born on this date in 1932. Tony Perkins is best known for his portrayal of Norman Bates in Psycho but he was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Friendly Persuasion. Perkins died in 1992 as a result of pnuemonia brought on by AIDS.

Today is the birthday

… of Russell Banks, 68.

He was an exceptionally bright student and won a scholarship to Colgate, the first in his family to go to college. But he dropped out after only eight weeks, feeling that he, a poor boy, didn’t fit in among the privileged preppies, “the sons of the captains of American industry,” as he called them. He left the North for Mexico and Florida and intended to join Castro’s rebellious army, but he ended up in Florida fishing, writing, and working as a gas station attendant. By his early 20s, he was married and had a daughter, but the relationship ended in divorce when he was 22. He later called this period “the terrible years.”

When he was 24, he went back to college, entering the University of North Carolina, and this time around he felt well adjusted was a good student.

He wrote a novel, Hamilton Stark (1978), in which he experimented with narration techniques and perspective, using shifting points of view to frame the novel. His novel Continental Drift (1985) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and called by Atlantic reviewer James Atlas “the most convincing portrait I know of contemporary America: its greed, its uprootedness, its indifference to the past. This is a novel about the way we live now.”

Since then, Banks has written several more novels, including Affliction (1989), The Sweet Hereafter (1991), Cloudsplitter (1998), and most recently, The Reserve (2008).

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

… of two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest. She’s 60. Ms. Wiest won supporting actress Oscars for Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway. She was nominated for the same award for Parenthood.

… of Reba McEntire, 53.

McEntire was the single most successful female country vocalist of the ’80s and ’90s, scoring a consistent stream of Top Ten singles and a grand total of 18 number one singles. (allmusic)

… of Vince Vaughn. He’s 38.

… of Julia Stiles. Bourne’s Nicky is 27.

August Anheuser Busch Jr., “the master showman and irrepressible salesman who turned a small family operation into the world’s largest brewing company” was born on this date in 1899. Quotation is from his Times obituary.

Bandleader Paul Whiteman was born on this date in 1890.

. . . There he soon became the best-known American bandleader, particularly with his recording of Whispering and Japanese Sandman (1920), which sold more than a million copies. By the early 1920s his lush orchestral style was widely copied on countless bandstands at home and abroad.
. . .

Whiteman was a key figure in American popular music. While jazz purists accused him of diluting the character of early jazz for commercial purposes, less biased observers applauded the high polish and versatility of his orchestras, which had to be as comfortable in the concert hall as at a college dance. He employed a number of talented musicians: in the original arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue three of his reed players were required to play a total of 17 instruments. Although his dance music tended to be sedate, there were occasional jazz solos from musicians such as Bix Beiderbecke, Frankie Trumbauer, Eddie Lang, Bunny Berigan, and Jack Teagarden.

JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns

And, of course, it’s the birthday of Jason, official youngest child of NewMexiKen. Happy Birthday Jason!

Today is the birthday

… of Sandra Day O’Connor. She’s 78.

… of Leonard Nimoy. Mr. Spock is 77.

… of Oscar-winner Alan Arkin. He’s 74. Arkin was twice nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role — for The Russians are Coming, the Russians Are Coming and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. He won the supporting actor Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine.

… of James Caan and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. They’re 68 today.

… of Erica Jong, 66.

… of former journalist Bob Woodward, 65.

… of Diana Ross, once Supreme. She’s 64.

… of Johnny Crawford. He was the kid on The Rifleman and he’s now 62.

… of Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, 60.

Aerosmith were America’s feisty retort to hard-rocking British groups like the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, the Who, Cream, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Almost alone among American bands, Aerosmith matched those British legends in power, intensity, and notoriety. Moreover, they’ve long since surpassed many of their influences in terms of longevity and popularity. In the words of vocalist Steven Tyler, “We weren’t too ambitious when we started out. We just wanted to be the biggest thing that ever walked the planet, the greatest rock band that ever was.”

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

… of Martin Short, 58.

… of Marcus Allen and the person who used to look like Jennifer Grey. They’re 48.

… of Michael Imperioli. Tony’s nephew Christopher is 42.

… of Kenny Chesney. He’s 40.

… of Keira Knightley, 23.

Condé Montrose Nast was born on this date in 1873. His earliest magazines were Vogue, Vanity Fair and House and Garden. Nast died in 1942, but the company that bears his name now publishes more than two dozen magazines.

Robert Frost, long thought of as the New England poet, was born in San Francisco on this date in 1874.

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”

Quote found at The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media, which has more about Frost.

Tennessee Williams was born on this date in 1911.

He was brilliant and prolific, breathing life and passion into such memorable characters as Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski in his critically acclaimed A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. And like them, he was troubled and self-destructive, an abuser of alcohol and drugs. He was awarded four Drama Critic Circle Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was derided by critics and blacklisted by Roman Catholic Cardinal Spellman, who condemned one of his scripts as “revolting, deplorable, morally repellent, offensive to Christian standards of decency.” He was Tennessee Williams, one of the greatest playwrights in American history.

American Masters

Beethoven died on this date in 1827. He was 56.

… was born in New York City on this date in 1900. On her father’s side Edith was descended from John Wheeler and Agnes Yeoman who emigrated from England in 1634 on the ship Mary & John and settled in Massachusetts. Edith’s mother’s father, Andrew Jackson Hutchinson, served with the Union Army during the War of the Rebellion.

Edith Wheeler had four children and sixteen grandchildren of whom NewMexiKen is the oldest.

Today is the birthday

… of Annabella Sciorra. The actress is 44.

… of Peyton Manning. Number 18 is 32.

… of Keisha Castle-Hughes. The Oscar-nominated actress (Whale Rider) is 18.

Clyde Barrow was born 99 years ago today. He lived until 1934.

Two-time presidential candidate and loser (1944, 1948) Thomas E. Dewey was born on this date in 1902.

One of the most successful silent film actors, Roscoe Arbuckle was born on this date in 1887. In fact, Fatty Arbuckle had the first million dollar deal in Hollywood. Arbuckle died of a heart attack at age 46 just as his career was recovering from a scandal and trial in 1921 that had echoes in the recent Duke case. Charged with rape that lead to a woman’s death, he was acquitted in a third trial after two hung juries, but he had been convicted by the press and his career was slow to resume.

Eric Weiss was born on this date in 1874.

Whatever the methods by which Harry Houdini deceived a large part of the world for nearly four decades, his career stamped him as one of the greatest showmen of modern times. In his special field of entertainment he stood alone. With a few minor exceptions, he invented all his tricks and illusions, and in certain instances only his four intimate helpers knew the solution. In one or two very important cases Houdini, himself, alone knew the whole secret.

Houdini was born on March 24, 1874. His name originally was Eric Weiss and he was the son of a rabbi. He did not take the name Harry Houdini until he had been a performer for many years. Legend has it that he opened his first lock when he wanted a piece of pie in the kitchen closet. It is certain that when scarcely more than a baby he showed skill as an acrobat and contortionist, and both these talents helped his start in the show business and his later development as an “escape king.”

The New York Times

The Times’ obituary is really quite interesting.

Ferris and Rosie each turn 46 today.

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, on this date in 1685. “Music…should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the recreation of the soul; where this is not kept in mind there is no true music, but only an infernal clamor and ranting.”

Today is the birthday

… of Carl Reiner. He’s 86. From the Encyclopedia of Television:

Carl Reiner is one of the few true Renaissance persons of 20th-century mass media. Known primarily for his work as creator, writer and producer of The Dick Van Dyke Show–one of a handful of classic sitcoms by which others are measured–Reiner has also made his mark as a comedian, actor, novelist, and film director.

… of Barney Miller, who’s 77. That’s Hal Linden.

… of Hockey hall-of-famer Bobby Orr, 60.

… of Marcia Ball, 59.

… of four-time Oscar nominee William Hurt, 58. He won best actor for Kiss of the Spider Woman.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds’ Jimmie Vaughan (Stevie Ray’s brother) is 57.

Two-time Oscar nominee Shelton Lee is 51. His mother called him Spike.

Holly Hunter is 50. Miss Hunter has been nominated for an Academy Award four times, twice for best actress and twice for supporting actress. She won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Piano in 1993. She has also won Emmys for Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom and Roe vs. Wade.

Fred McFeely Rogers was born 80 years ago today. It was always a beautiful day in his neighborhood, and what higher praise can you give any individual?

Bruce Willis is 53 today, Glenn Close is 61 and Ursula Andress is 72.

Philip Roth is 75 today.

Roth’s novels often feature smart, middle-class, fiercely honest Jewish characters. Perhaps Roth’s best-known character is Nathan Zuckerman, who appears in nine of his novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Pastoral (1997 ) and his most recent novel, Exit Ghost (2007). Zuckerman, like Roth, is a novelist, and Roth has noted that the books featuring Zuckerman are like “hypothetical autobiographies” — ideas of what Roth might be doing. However, Roth has said that Exit Ghost will be the final appearance of Nathan Zuckerman. In an interview with The New Yorker after the book’s release, Roth said of Zuckerman’s departure, “Will I miss him? No. I’m curious to see who and what will replace him.”

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

Congress approved Daylight Saving Time on this date in 1918. Word hasn’t reached Arizona.

Bob Dylan’s first album, titled Bob Dylan, was released 46 years ago today.

Wyatt Earp was born on this date in 1848. He died in 1929, age 80. Larry McMurtry had an essay on Earp, Back to the O.K. Corral in The New York Review of Books three years ago. (You can read the whole article for $3.)

I am talking, of course, about the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which, for starters, wasn’t fought in the O.K. Corral—the shooting occurred across the street in a vacant lot adjacent to the local photographer Camillus Fry’s rooming house. Some say the shooting only lasted fifteen seconds; others give it twenty seconds, or even thirty. Local estimate was that some thirty shots were fired, at close if not quite point blank range. Three men were killed and three wounded. The shoot-out at the O.K. Corral was neither more nor less violent than a number of shootings that had occurred in Tombstone or its environs in the few short years of the community’s existence. It solved nothing, proved nothing, meant nothing; and yet, 123 years later, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral is reenacted every day in Tombstone, Arizona, to paying customers—lots of paying customers.

The most recent O.K. Corral movie stars Kevin Costner as Wyatt; the next most recent, released a few months earlier, stars Kurt Russell as Wyatt, with Val Kilmer as Doc. There are so many gunfight-at-the O.K.-Corral movies that they constitute a kind of subgenre of the western. In the most lyrical version, John Ford’s My Darling Clementine (1946), Henry Fonda plays Wyatt Earp.

What I’m wondering is why, in this day and time, anyone should care about Wyatt Earp, or any Earp, or the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, either. The Battle of the Little Bighorn at least offers heroism, spectacle, and mass, whereas the gunfight at the O.K. Corral was merely a bungled arrest. Virgil Earp, not Wyatt, was the peace officer in charge that day. How do we get from a bungled arrest to Henry Fonda, Hugh O’Brian, Burt Lancaster, Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell, and all the other movie land Wyatts? I’d like to know.

Three-time Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States, “The Great Commoner” William Jennings Bryan was born on March 19th in 1860. Bryan is known most for his “Cross of Gold Speech,” which got him the nomination in 1896, and at the Scopes evolution trial in 1925, where his dogmatic views were seen by some as indicative of American ignorance and anti-intellectualism.

Today is the birthday

… of Peter Graves. Mr. Phelps is 82. Long before he was on Mission Impossible, Graves was Jim Newton on the Saturday morning show Fury. He’s Jim Arness’s little brother. The family name is Aurness.

… of author John Updike. “[O]ne of the chief glories of postwar American literature” is 76.

Updike is known for writing about middle-class, middle-aged, ordinary Americans. He is also known for writing about the theme of adultery. His most popular books feature a character named Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a man who is afraid of responsibility, aging, and his tedious job, and who suffers marital problems. The last two novels in Updike’s “Rabbit” series, Rabbit is Rich (1981) and Rabbit at Rest (1990), earned Updike a number of awards including the National Book Critics Circle Award, the American Book Award, and two respective Pulitzer Prizes.

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

… of Grammy award winner Charley Pride. He’s 70.

… of Brad Dourif. Deadwood’s Doc Cochran is 58.

… of Jazz guitar great Bill Frisell. He’s 57.

… of the first African-American Miss America. Vanessa Williams is 45.

… of Oscar nominee — for best supporting actress in Chicago — Queen Latifah. She’s 38.

Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, was born on this date in 1837.

John C. Calhoun was born on this date in 1782. Calhoun was a representative, senator, vice president (for both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson), secretary of war and secretary of state.

Kurt Russell is 57.

One-time Oscar nominee Gary Sinise is 53.

Rob Lowe is 44.

Mia Hamm is 36 today.

It’s also the birth date of two greats who died young — Nat “King” Cole (1919-1965) and Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993).

Bobby Jones was born on this date in 1902. This from his obituary in 1971.

In the decade following World War I, America luxuriated in the Golden Era of Sports and its greatest collection of super-athletes: Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb in baseball, Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney in boxing, Bill Tilden in tennis, Red Grange in football and Bobby Jones in golf.

Many of their records have been broken now, and others are destined to be broken. But one, sports experts agree, may outlast them–Bobby Jones’s grand slam of 1930.

Jones, an intense, unspoiled young man, started early on the road to success. At the age of 10, he shot a 90 for 18 holes. At 11 he was down to 80, and at 12 he shot a 70. At 9 he played against men, at 14 he won a major men’s tournament and at 21 he was United States Open champion.

At 28 he achieved the grand slam–victories in one year in the United States Open, British Open, United States Amateur and British Amateur championships. At that point, he retired from tournament golf.

A nation that idolized him for his success grew to respect him even more for his decision to treat golf as a game rather than a way of life. This respect grew with the years.

The New York Times

And, of course it’s Saint Patrick’s Day. Patrick was just another Briton who conquered Ireland — in his case spiritually — but for some reason he’s the Irish patron saint.

Today is the birthday

… of Jerry Lewis. He’s 82.

… of Erik Estrada of ”CHiPS.” Ponch is 59.

… of Eddie Van Halen and Valerie Bertinelli’s son Wolfgang Van Halen. He’s 17.

The individual most responsible for the U.S. Constitution was born on this date in 1751. That’s James Madison.

No government any more than an individual will long be respected without being truly respectable.

There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

[I]t is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties.

… of D.J. Fontana, Elvis Presley’s drummer for 14 years, is 77.

… of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She’s 75.

… of Judd Hirsch. He’s 73.

… of Beach Boy Mike Love. He’s 67. Love is the cousin of brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson.

Subsequently, the band has intermittently released new albums and toured like clockwork every summer while making headlines for various extracurricular mishaps: the accidental drowning death of Dennis Wilson in 1983; the legal battles over Brian’s conservatorship between elements in the Beach Boys’ camp and his control-oriented (and since-deposed) psychologist, Eugene Landy; and Mike Love’s lawsuit against Brian, wherein he claimed to have coauthored certain Beach Boys songs credited to Brian alone. Burdened by these and myriad other subplots, the Beach Boys at time seemed to be rock and roll’s longest-running soap opera. At the same time, they’ve been responsible for some of the most perfect harmonies and gorgeous melodies in rock and roll history, and it is for this vast accumulation of timeless music for which they will ultimately be remembered and celebrated.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

… of Sylvester Stewart. He’s 65.

Sly and the Family Stone took the Sixties ideal of a generation coming together and turned it into deeply groove-driven music. Rock’s first integrated, multi-gender band became funky Pied Pipers to the Woodstock Generation, synthesizing rock, soul, R&B, funk and psychedelia into danceable, message-laden, high-energy music. In promoting their gospel of tolerance and celebration of differences, Sly and the Family Stone brought disparate audiences together during the latter half of the Sixties. The group’s greatest triumph came at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969. During their unforgettable nighttime set, leader Sly Stone initiated a fevered call-and-response with the audience of 400,000 during an electrifying version of “I Want to Take You Higher.”

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

… of Ry Cooder. He’s 61.

He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in the American roots music, and, more recently, for his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries. Cooder was ranked number 8 on Rolling Stone’s “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

Wikipedia

… of Eva Longoria Parker, desperate at turning 33.

Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the U.S., was born on this date in 1767.

James Taylor is 60 today. He’s seen a lot of fire and he’s seen a lot of rain by now.

Liza Minnelli is 62.

Jon Provost is 58. Who? Timmy on Lassie.

Courtney B. Vance is 48.

Dave Eggers is 38.

While he was in college at the University of Illinois, his mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Then, just after his mother went through severe stomach surgery, his father was diagnosed with cancer. Six months later, both of his parents were dead. Eggers was just 21 years old.

Of the experience of losing both of his parents so suddenly, Eggers later said, “On the one hand you are so completely bewildered that something so surreal and incomprehensible could happen. At the same time, suddenly the limitations or hesitations that you might have imposed on yourself fall away. There’s a weird, optimistic recklessness that could easily be construed as nihilism but is really the opposite. You see that there is a beginning and an end and that you have only a certain amount of time to act. And you want to get started.”

Eggers had to drop out of college to become the guardian of his 8-year-old younger brother. They moved to San Francisco, and Eggers used the insurance money from his parents’ deaths to start his own magazine with some high school friends. They called their publication Might Magazine, because the liked the fact that the word “might” conveyed both strength and hesitation. The magazine developed a cult following for the way it satirized the magazine format. Each issue included an erroneous table of contents, irrelevant footnotes, and fictional error retractions. In one issue, they wrote, “On page 111, in our ‘Religious News Round-up,’ we reported that Jesus Christ was a deranged, filthy protohippy. In fact, Jesus Christ was the son of God. We regret the error.” To raise money for the magazine, they sold the contents of their recycle bins to readers.

Excerpt above from The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media, which has more on Eggers and also has commentary on Jean-Louise Kerouac, who was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on this date in 1922, and Edward Albee who is 80 today.

Rupert Murdoch is 77 today and Justice Antonin Scalia is 72.

Today is the birthday

… of Willard Scott, 75.

… of Steelers greats Franco Harris, 58, and Lynn Swann, 56.

… of Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz. She’s 37 or 38.

… of The Office’s Pam. Jenna Fischer is 34.

Oscar winner Anna Magnani was born on this date in 1908. She won best actress in 1956 for The Rose Tattoo and was nominated again in 1958 for Wild Is the Wind. Magnani died in 1973.

Maurice Ravel was born on this date in 1875. Bolero premiered in 1928. It was originally written as a ballet..

Five-time Oscar nominee, one-time winner Jennifer Jones is 89 today. As mentioned here not too long ago, Ms. Jones won the best actress award for The Song of Bernadette.

Author Tom Wolfe is 78 today.

“I can’t read him because he’s such a bad writer,” Irving said of Wolfe. When Solomon added that “Bonfire of the Vanities” author Wolfe is “having a war” with Updike and Mailer, Irving dismissed the notion out of hand: “I don’t think it’s a war because you can’t have a war between a pawn and a king, can you?”

Irving described Wolfe’s novels as “yak” and “journalistic hyperbole described as fiction … He’s a journalist … he can’t create a character. He can’t create a situation.”

Salon Books

Author John Irving is 66 today.

Reached through his publisher, Wolfe responded in writing. “Why does he sputter and foam so?” he asked about Irving. “Because he, like Updike and Mailer, has panicked. All three have seen the handwriting on the wall, and it reads: ‘A Man in Full.'”

If the literary trio don’t embrace “full-blooded realism,” Wolfe warns, “then their reputations are finished.” He also offers Irving some additional literary advice: “Irving needs to get up off his bottom and leave that farm in Vermont or wherever it is he stays and start living again. It wouldn’t be that hard. All he’d have to do is get out and take a deep breath and talk to people and see things and rediscover the fabulous and wonderfully bizarre country around him: America.”

Salon Books

Mikhail Gorbachev is 77.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Lou Reed is 66.

The influence of the Velvet Underground on rock greatly exceeds their sales figures and chart numbers. They are one of the most important rock and roll bands of all time, laying the groundwork in the Sixties for many tangents rock music would take in ensuing decades. Yet just two of their four original studio albums ever even made Billboard’s Top 200, and that pair – The Velvet Underground and Nico (#171) and White Light/White Heat (#199) – only barely did so. If ever a band was “ahead of its time,” it was the Velvet Underground. Brian Eno, cofounder of Roxy Music and producer of U2 and others, put it best when he said that although the Velvet Underground didn’t sell many albums, everyone who bought one went on to form a band. The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, the Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, U2, R.E.M., Roxy Music and Sonic Youth have all cited the Velvet Underground as a major influence.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

Jon Bon Jovi, New Jersey’s second most famous rock-and-roller, is 46.

Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) was born 104 years ago today. When Geisel/Seuss was awarded an honorary degree from Princeton in 1985, the entire graduating class stood and recited Green Eggs and Ham.

Green Eggs and Ham is the third largest selling book in the English language — ever.

Green Eggs and Ham à la Sam-I-Am

1-2 tablespoons of butter or margarine
4 slices of ham
8 eggs
2 tablespoons of milk
1-2 drops of green food coloring
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of pepper

Wilt Chamberlain who apparently scored often, did particularly well on this date in 1962, when he scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors vs. the Knicks. The game was played in Hershey, Pennsylvania, before 4,124 witnesses. Wilt was 36 for 63 from the field and 28 for 32 from the line. The Warriors won the game 169-147.