Category: Birthdays

Harry Belafonte is 81 today. Here is a little of what Bob Dylan wrote about Belafonte in Chronicles:

To Harry, it didn’t make any difference. People were people. He had ideals and made you feel you’re a part of the human race. There never was a performer who crossed so many lines as Harry. He appealed to everybody, whether they were steelworkers or symphony patrons or bobby-soxers, even children—everybody. He had that rare ability. Somewhere he had said that he didn’t like to go on television, because he didn’t think his music could be represented well on a small screen, and he was probably right. Everything about him was gigantic. The folk purists had a problem with him, but Harry—who could have kicked the shit out of all of them—couldn’t be bothered, said that all folksingers were interpreters, said it in a public way as if someone had summoned him to set the record straight. He even said he hated pop songs, thought they were junk. I could identify with Harry in all kinds of ways. Sometime in the past, he had been barred from the door of the world famous nightclub the Copacabana because of his color, and then later he’d be headlining the joint. You’ve got to wonder how that would make somebody feel emotionally.

And Belafonte was about the best looking man on the planet too.

Ron Howard is 54 today. He’s been on TV and in the movies for 50 years and, of course, won an Oscar for best director for A Beautiful Mind. Howard has been married to Mrs. Howard since 1975 and is the older brother of TV and film character actor Ron Howard’s brother.

Today is also the birthday

… of Roger Daltrey. “Who?” you say. “Of The Who,” I say. He’s 64.

… of Catherine Bach. “Who?” you say. “Daisy Duke of TV,” I say. She’s 54.

… of Oscar-winner Javier Bardem. He’s 39.

… of Chris Webber, the basketball player who called timeout when his team had none left and down by just two points in the 1993 national championship game. That would be a technical foul. Two shoots. Both made. Down four. Oops. He’s 35 today.

Well-known Americans of the 20th century born on this date include band-leader Glenn Miller (1904), author Ralph Ellison (1914), poet Robert Lowell (1917), Mad magazine publisher William M. Gaines (1922) and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle (1926).

And Lee, official brother of NewMexiKen, circumnavigator of the globe and Pacific Crest Trail thru-hiker celebrates his birthday today. That’s him a few years back in front of some mountain someplace.

Also on March 1st, the Lindbergh infant son was kidnapped (1932), Richard Wright’s Native Son was published (1940), the Peace Corps was established (1961), Johnny Cash married June Carter (1968) and the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional to execute an individual who had committed their crime before age 18 (Roper v. Simmons, 2005).

Not many birthdays today (one-fourth the norm one assumes).

Alex Rocco is 72 (1936). You know, Moe Greene in The Godfather. Got it right in the eye. Actually Rocco has nearly 150 credits listed at IMDb; much TV and voice-over work.

Update: Functional Ambivalent has a great Alex Rocco Story.

Dennis Farina is 64 (1944). Among his many roles, Farina was Ray “Bones” Barboni in Get Shorty.

Two famous entertainers were leap day babies.

Bandleader Jimmy Dorsey (1904) had 12 number one hits with his own band, and two before that with his brother, Tommy. (The two brothers split in 1935, but reunited in 1953.) Jimmy played saxaphone. He died in 1957.

And singer, radio-TV star Dinah Shore (1916). Miss Shore had four number one hits in the 1940s, including Buttons and Bows, which was at the top for 10 weeks. She had a popular TV variety show and then a talk show, and a fling with Burt Reynolds, 19 years her junior. Dinah Shore died in 1994. Throw us a kiss, Dinah.

And two famous athletes.

Al Rosen (1924), four-time American League All-star and 1953 MVP with the Cleveland Indians (and someone NewMexiKen chatted with once upon a time). Rosen lead the AL in home runs (43), RBIs (145) and was second in batting (.336) in ’53. He lost the triple crown by one point (Mickey Vernon batted .337).

And Henri Richard (1936), the Pocket Rocket, brother of the even greater NHL player Maurice “The Rocket” Richard. Henri hated the nickname Pocket Rocket (he was 5-foot-7). One supposes that helped drive him to be part of 11 Stanley Cup champion teams, more than any other player.

Two oldies, but goodies, and one oldie, but no longer so goody, share this birthday.

Academy Award winning actress Joanne Woodward is 78 today. Miss Woodward won the best actress Oscar for The Three Faces of Eve (1957). She was nominated for best actress three other times. Woodward and Paul Newman celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last month.

Two-time Academy Award winning actress Elizabeth Taylor is 76 today. Miss Taylor won best actress Oscars for Butterfield 8 (1960) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

Ralph Nader is 74.

Among others having a birthday today are Chelsea Clinton, 28, and Josh Groban, 27.

Today is the birthday

… of Antoine “Fats” Domino. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is 80.

They call him the Fat Man. With his easy-rolling boogie-woogie piano and smooth rhythm & blues vocals, Antoine “Fats” Domino put a New Orleans-style spin on what came to be known as rock and roll. A pianist, singer, and songwriter who was born in the Crescent City in 1928, Domino sold more records (65 million) than any Fifties-era rocker except Elvis Presley. Between 1950 and 1963, he cracked the pop Top Forty thirty-seven times and the R&B singles chart fifty-nine times. Domino’s biggest songs are as winning as his broad smile. They include “Ain’t That a Shame,” “Blueberry Hill,” “I’m Walkin’,” “Blue Monday” and “Walking to New Orleans.”

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

… of columnist Robert Novak. He’s 77 and ought to be shuffling off to Florida with David Broder.

… of Mitch Ryder. He’s 63. No report on the ages of the Detroit Wheels.

… of Michael Bolton. The singer is 55. The computer programmer’s age in Office Space isn’t known.

Johnny Cash was born on this date in 1932.

“To millions of fans, Johnny Cash is “the Man in Black,” a country music legend who sings in an authoritative baritone about the travails of working men and the downtrodden in this country. Lesser known is the fact that Johnny Cash was present at the birth of rock and roll by virtue of being one of the earliest signees to Sam Phillips’ Sun Records back in 1955. Cash was part of an elite club of rock and roll pioneers at Sun that included Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. The four were collectively referred to as “the Million Dollar Quartet” after an impromptu gathering and jam session at the Sun recording studio on December 4, 1956. What Cash and his group, the Tennessee Two, brought to the “Sun Sound” was a spartan mix of guitar, standup bass and vocals that served as an early example of rockabilly. Cash recorded a string of rockabilly hits for Sun that included “Cry, Cry, Cry,” “Folsom Prison Blues” and “I Walk the Line.” The latter was first of more than a dozen Number One country hits for Cash and also marked his first appearance on the national pop singles charts.

Straddling the country, folk and rockabilly idioms, Johnny Cash has crafted more than 400 plainspoken story-songs that describe and address the lives of coal miners, sharecroppers, Native Americans, prisoners, cowboys, renegades and family men.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Jackie Gleason was born in Brooklyn on this date in 1916. One of the greats of early TV, known primarily now for his portrayal of bus driver Ralph Kramden in the Honeymooners. He was in a number of films and received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor in The Hustler. Gleason also won a Tony Award. “And away we go” was one of Gleason’s stock lines. It is also the inscription at his grave site.

Grover Cleveland Alexander was born on this date in 1887.

Suffering from epilepsy, haunted by his experiences in combat during World War I and shadowed by the dark side of alcoholism, Grover Cleveland Alexander was able to win 373 games during a 20-year major league career, the third highest total in major league history. He led the league in ERA on four occasions, wins in six different seasons, complete games six times and shutouts during seven campaigns. Alexander also won 30 or more games three consecutive seasons.

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Alexander was portrayed by Ronald Reagan in the 1952 film “The Winning Team.”

John Harvey Kellogg was born on this date in 1852.

When he became a physician Dr. Kellogg determined to devote himself to the problems of health, and after taking over the sanitarium he put into effect his own ideas. Soon he had developed the sanitarium to an unprecedented degree, and he launched the business of manufacturing health foods. He gained recognition as the originator of health foods and coffee and tea substitutes, ideas which led to the establishment of huge cereal companies besides his own, in which his brother, W. K. Kellogg, produced the cornflakes he invented. His name became a household word. (The New York Times)

There might have been something to it. Kellogg lived to 91.

Betty Hutton, who died last year, would have been 87 today. She was Annie Oakley in the eponymous 1950 film, and the trapeze artist who saves the circus in The Greatest Show on Earth.

Larry Gelbart, the writer and producer of M*A*S*H, is 80 today.

CBS news veteran Bob Schieffer is 71.

Karen Grassle, the mom on Little House on the Prairie, is 64.

It’s the birthday of Debby, official younger sister of NewMexiKen. Debby is a lecturer and author of children’s books, newly minted cowgirl, and middle school recess wrangler. Happy birthday Debby.

John Foster Dulles was born on this date in 1888. Dulles was Secretary of State under Eisenhower from 1953 until April 1959. He is the person for whom Washington Dulles International Airport is named.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born on this date in 1841. Click image for larger version of Renoir’s painting “The Picture Book.”

Enrico Caruso was born in Naples on this date in 1873. The Writer’s Almanac had this to say about Caruso a few years back:

It’s the birthday of tenor Enrico Caruso, born in Naples, Italy (1873), the eighteenth of twenty-one children and the first to survive past infancy. He was determined to become a singer, but several teachers told him he had neither voice nor talent. He finally persuaded one teacher to let him observe other students’ lessons; eventually he was given his own private classes. Legend has it that when the young tenor was asked to sing as Rodolfo in La Bohème, he first had to get permission from Puccini himself. After listening to Caruso sing a few pages, Puccini allegedly leapt from his chair and cried, “Who sent you to me? God!?!” In 1902, Caruso made his debut in Rigoletto at London’s Covent Garden, and the following year at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He was engaged there continually for the next eighteen years. Caruso has often been called the greatest tenor of the twentieth century, known for his brilliant high notes and his dramatic interpretations. He was immensely popular, partly because he was the first major tenor to be recorded on gramophone records.

NewMexiKen had this about Caruso in 2004.

Today is the birthday

… of Abe Vigoda. Fish on Barney Miller and Sal Tessio of The Godfather is 87.

… of Steven Hill. Adam Schiff on Law and Order is 86.

… of Dominic Chianese. Uncle Junior on The Sopranos is 77.

Baseball great Honus Wagner was born on this date in 1874.

One of the Hall of Fame’s five original inductees in 1936, Honus Wagner combined rare offensive and defensive excellence throughout a 21-year career. Despite his awkward appearance – stocky, barrel-chested and bow-legged – the longtime Pirates shortstop broke into the big leagues by hitting .344 in 1897 with Louisville, the first of 17 consecutive seasons of hitting over .300, including eight as the National League batting champion. Wagner compiled a lifetime average of .329, and the Flying Dutchman also stole 722 bases, while leading the league in thefts on five occasions.

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Winslow Homer was born on this date in 1836. The painting is his “Coming Storm” (1901). Click for larger version.

From the late 1850s until his death in 1910, Winslow Homer produced a body of work distinguished by its thoughtful expression and its independence from artistic conventions. A man of multiple talents, Homer excelled equally in the arts of illustration, oil painting, and watercolor. Many of his works—depictions of children at play and in school, of farm girls attending to their work, hunters and their prey—have become classic images of nineteenth-century American life. Others speak to more universal themes such as the primal relationship of man to nature.

Source: The National Gallery of Art, which has a fine online Winslow Homer exhibit.

Today is the birthday

… of Don Pardo. The original “Jeopardy!” and “Saturday Night Live” announcer is 90.

… of Senator Edward Kennedy. He’s 76.

… of Sparky Anderson. The baseball hall-of-fame manager is 74.

… of Julius Erving. Dr. J is 58.

… of Kyle MacLachlan. The actor is 49.

… of Vijay Singh. He’s 45.

… of Drew Barrymore. The actress is 33.

… of James Blunt, 31.

Artist Peter Hurd was born in Roswell, New Mexico, on this date in 1904. That’s his watercolor, “The Winos.”

American poets James Russell Lowell and Edna St. Vincent Millay were born on this date; Lowell in 1819 and Millay in 1892.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was a terse and moving spokesman during the Twenties, the Thirties and the Forties. She was an idol of the younger generation during the glorious early days of Greenwich Village when she wrote, what critics termed a frivolous but widely know poem which ended:

My candle burns at both ends, It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends, It gives a lovely light!

All critics agreed, however, that Greenwich Village and Vassar, plus a gypsy childhood on the rocky coast of Maine, produced one of the greatest American poets of her time. (The New York Times)

Rembrandt Peale was born on this date in 1778. His brothers were named Raphael, Rubens and Titian. Son of portrait-painter Charles Wilson Peale, Rembrandt Peale is known primarily for his many renditions of George Washington. Most are based on his most famous work, this portrait of Washington from 1795 (click to view larger version). Rembrandt Peale also painted a classic portrait of Thomas Jefferson.

Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter, should have been 46 today.

Today is the birthday

… of Blanche Elizabeth Hollingsworth Devereaux. Rue McClanahan is 74 today.

… of Mary Beth Lacey. Tyne Daly is 62.

… of Anthony Daniels. 3CPO is 62.

… of Alan Rickman. Professor Snape is 62.

… of Patricia Nixon Cox. The former first daughter is 62.

… of Frasier Crane. Kelsey Grammer is 53 today.

… of Mary Chapin Carpenter. Celebrating, and one hopes, feeling lucky, she’s 50 today.

… of Ellen Page. The Oscar nominee is 21.

Erma Bombeck was born on this date in 1927. According to The Writer’s Almanac:

[Bombeck] became famous for her humor column called “At Wits End”, about the daily madness of being a housewife. She knew she wanted to be a journalist from the eighth grade, and she had a humor column in her high school newspaper. She got a job at the Dayton Journal-Herald writing obituaries and features for the women’s page, but when she married a sportswriter there, she chose to quit her job and stay home with the kids. She spent a decade as a fulltime mother, and then in 1964 she decided she had to start writing again or she would go crazy. She said, “I was thirty-seven, too old for a paper route, too young for social security, and too tired for an affair.”

She got a column at a small Ohio paper and wrote about the daily trials and tribulations of the average housewife. Within a few years, she was one of the most popular humor columnists in America.

NewMexiKen thought Bombeck funniest when she really was a a full-time mom. When she became rich and famous the humor often seemed more contrived and strained. But then I’d rather be rich and famous than funny, too.

Anaïs Nin was born on this date in 1903. I almost passed over Nin but figured if she was good enough for a Jewel song she was good enough for NewMexiKen.

The great classical guitarist Andrés Segovia was born on this date in 1893. This from his obituary in The New York Times in 1987.

The guitarist himself summed up his life’s goals in an interview with The New York Times when he was 75 years old: ”First, to redeem my guitar from the flamenco and all those other things. Second, to create a repertory – you know that almost all the good composers of our time have written works for the guitar through me and even for my pupils. Third, I wanted to create a public for the guitar. Now, I fill the biggest halls in all the countries, and at least a third of the audience is young – I am very glad to steal them from the Beatles. Fourth, I was determined to win the guitar a respected place in the great music schools along with the piano, the violin and other concert instruments.”

The Washington Monument was dedicated on this date in 1885. Malcolm X was shot and killed on this date in 1965.

Today is the birthday

… of William “Smokey” Robinson, born in Detroit on this date in 1940.

Some Smokey Robinson trivia:

• The nickname Smokey was given him as a child by an uncle.
• The Robinsons were neighbors of the Franklins; Smokey is two years older than Aretha.
• They both attended Detroit’s Northern Senior High School (as did NewMexiKen’s mom).
• Smokey wrote both “My Guy” and “My Girl.”
• Bob Dylan called Smokey “America’s greatest living poet.”
• Smokey has written more than 4,000 songs.

… of author Amy Tan, 56 today.

When Tan was 15, her father and older brother both died of brain tumors, within six months of each other. Her mother became convinced spirits were cursing the family, and she moved Tan and her younger brother to Switzerland. Tan continued to rebel against her mother, who wanted her to become a part-time concert pianist and a full-time brain surgeon. Instead, Tan became an English and linguistics major, and fell in love with an Italian. She and her mother didn’t speak for six months.

Tan worked as a freelance business writer, working 90-hour weeks to keep up with demand. But she eventually realized she was addicted to work she didn’t like. She went into counseling and began writing short stories.

When her mother went into the hospital in 1985, Tan promised herself that if her mother survived, she would take her to China and learn her mother’s stories. It was a trip that would change Tan’s perspective. She said later, “When my feet touched China, I became Chinese.”

Tan’s short stories became The Joy Luck Club (1989), a novel about four Chinese immigrant mothers and their relationships with their American-born daughters. It was an instant best seller and was made into a film. Tan has written five novels, all best sellers, including The Kitchen God’s Wife (1991) and The Bonesetter’s Daughter (2001). Her most recent novel is Saving Fish from Drowning (2005).

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

… of Jeff Daniels, 53. Daniels has been nominated for several acting awards, most recently for The Squid and the Whale.

… of “Family Ties” actress Justine Bateman. Mallory Keaton is 42.

… of Benicio Del Toro. The supporting actor Oscar winner, for Traffic, is 41. Del Toro was nominated for the supporting actor Oscar again for 21 Grams.

Author Carson McCullers was born on in Columbus, Georgia, on this date in 1917.

Her most famous novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, published in 1940, delves into the “lonely hearts” of four individuals—an adolescent girl, an embittered radical, a black physician, and a widower who owns a cafe—struggling to find their way in a Southern mill town during the Great Depression. (Library of Congress)

The great jockey Eddie Arcaro was born on this date in 1916.

Today is the birthday

… of Jim Brown, 72. Brown was listed as the 4th greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN. (Which makes him the second greatest athlete born on this date.)

“For mercurial speed, airy nimbleness, and explosive violence in one package of undistilled evil, there is no other like Mr. Brown,” wrote Pulitzer Prize winning sports columnist Red Smith.

Read the entire ESPN essay on Jim Brown: Brown was hard to bring down.

… of Michael Jordan, 45 today.

Jordan was the ranked the top athlete of the 20th century by ESPN. Here’s what they had to say: Michael Jordan transcends hoops.

“What has made Michael Jordan the First Celebrity of the World is not merely his athletic talent,” Sports Illustrated wrote, “but also a unique confluence of artistry, dignity and history.”

… of Oscar-nominee Hal Holbrook, 83.

… of Rene Russo, 54.

… of Lou Diamond Phillips, 46.

… of Paris Hilton, 27 today. Age now surpassing apparent IQ. That’s her celebrating last night. She’s a walking argument for keeping the inheritance tax.

H.L. Hunt was born on this date in 1889. Hunt was a Texas oil tycoon who, among other things, fathered 14 children with three women, including two that he was married to simultaneously.

Today is the birthday

… of actor Allan Arbus. Major Sidney Friedman on M*A*S*H is 90.

… of Harvey Korman. Hedley Lamarr (that’s Hedley) and Carol Burnett’s buddy is 81.

… of Melissa Manchester. She’s 57.

… of Jane Seymour. Dr. Quinn is 57.

… of Matt Groening. He’s 54.

It’s the birthday of cartoonist Matt Groening, . . . born in Portland, Oregon (1954). He decided to move to Los Angel[e]s after college to try to make it as a writer. He lived in a neighborhood full of drug dealers and thieves, and got a job ghostwriting the memoirs of an 88-year-old filmmaker. After that, he worked at a convalescent home, a waste treatment plant, and a graveyard.

He started writing a comic strip based on his daily troubles called “Life in Hell.” When a television producer asked Groening to create a TV show, Groening decided to invent a cartoon family that would be the exact opposite of all the fictional families that had ever been on American television. He named the parents after his own parents, Homer and Marge, and he named the two sisters after his own sisters, Lisa and Maggie. He chose the name Bart for the only son because it was an anagram of the word “brat.”

Critics immediately praised The Simpsons, because it was in some ways more realistic than any other American sitcom. Homer was fat, bald, and stupid; he drank a lot, worked at a nuclear power plant, and occasionally strangled his son. His wife, Marge, was an obsessive-compulsive housewife with a blue beehive hairdo. The characters were frequently selfish, rude, and mean to one another, and the show often took on dark subjects like suicide, adultery, and environmental disaster. The Simpsons went on to become the most popular and longest-running sitcom in America.

Matt Groening said, “Teachers, principals, clergymen, politicians — for the Simpsons, they’re all goofballs, and I think that’s a great message for kids.

The Writers Almanac from American Public Media

Harold Arlen was born Hyman Arluck in Buffalo, New York, on this date in 1905. A short list from the more than 400 tunes written by Harold Arlen:

• Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive
• Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
• Come Rain Or Come Shine
• Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead
• Hooray For Love
• It’s Only A Paper Moon
• I’ve Got the World on A String
• One For My Baby
• Over The Rainbow
• Stormy Weather
• That Old Black Magic

Arlen worked with many lyricists through the years, most notably Ira Gershwin, Yip Harburg, Johnny Mercer and even Truman Capote. Harburg, for example, wrote the lyrics for the Wizard of Oz songs. Though it’s the lyrics we most remember, it’s the melody that makes a song memorable. That was Arlen.

John Barrymore, Drew’s grandpa, was born on this date in 1882. John is the sibling of Lionel and Ethel Barrymore. Considered the greatest American Shakespearean actor of his time, John Barrymore’s later career was hampered (and shortened) by alcoholism.

“There are lots of methods. Mine involves a lot of talent, a glass and some cracked ice.”

Susan B. Anthony was born on this date in 1820. As The New York Times said in her obituary in 1906, “Susan Brownell Anthony was a pioneer leader of the cause of woman suffrage, and her energy was tireless in working for what she considered to be the best interests of womankind.”

Hugh Downs is 87.

The Bradys’ mom and stepmom, Florence Henderson, is 74.

Michael Bloomberg is 66.

Carl Bernstein of Woodward and Bernstein is 64.

Pat O’Brien is 60, as is magician-comedian Teller.

Michael Doucet of Beausoleil is 57.

Meg Tilly is 48.

Jack Benny was born as Benjamin Kubelsky on this date in 1894. In The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, the entry for The Jack Benny Program on radio runs for eight pages. And then he was on television. Truly one of the great stars of the mid-20th century. NewMexiKen realizes how corny the jokes and skits would sound now — how corny they undoubtedly were then — but tucked among my fond memories is being at my Great Grandmother’s house in Rensselaer, New York, more than 55 years ago. I was sick, so stayed home with Gram that Sunday evening while the rest of the family socialized. She had to be in her seventies; I no more than five or six. We listened to The Jack Benny Program on radio. And all I can remember is how hard we laughed.

Oregon entered the union as the 33rd state on February 14, 1859.

Arizona entered the union as the 48th state on February 14, 1912.

In addition to Chuck Yeager mentioned earlier today, it’s the birthday

… of Kim Novak. Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton (Vertigo) and Madge Owens (Picnic) is 75.

… of George Segal. Jack Gallo (Just Shoot Me) and Nick (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) is 74.

… of Carol Lynley. Nonnie Parry (The Poseidon Adventure) and Janet Willard (Blue Denim) is 66.

… of Peter Tork of the Monkees. He’s 66.

… of Jerry Springer. He’s 64.

… of Stockard Channing. Abbey Bartlet (West Wing) and Louisa (‘Ouisa’) Kittredge (Six Degrees of Separation) is 64.

… of Mike Krzyzewski. The Duke coach is 61 today.

… of Peter Gabriel. He’s 58.

… of actor Neal McDonough. He’s 42.

Pauline Frederick, the first woman to be a major correspondent for network news, was born on this date in 1908. (She died in 1990.) Frederick was the first woman to win the Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.

Grant Wood was born on this date in 1891.

The first person to break the sound barrier is 85 today.

Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, reportedly with two ribs broken two nights before in a drunken horseback ride. The plane, Glamorous Glennis, is hanging from the Air & Space Museum ceiling. Glennis was Mrs. Yeager.

Yeager is the basis for the character played by Sam Shepard in The Right Stuff. Glennis was played by Barbara Hershey.

In his wonderful book The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe explains that West Virginian Yeager is the reason why all airline pilots talk with a drawl — to be like Yeager, “the most righteous of all the posessors of the right stuff.”

The Writer’s Almanac has some Lincoln trivia.

Today is also the birthday

… of Bill Russell. He’s 74. Back-to-back NCAA championships at the University of San Francisco, 1955-1956 — 55 consecutive wins. Eleven NBA championships with the Celtics in 13 years, 1957-1969 — Russell was the only player there for all 11. Simply the greatest winner in basketball history. (And the best laugh.)

… of author Judy Blume. She’s 70.

… of Ray Manzarek. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is 69.

The Doors formed in the summer of 1965 around Morrison and Manzarek, who’d met at UCLA’s film school. A year later the group signed with Elektra Records, recording six landmark studio LPs and a live album for the label. They achieved popular success and critical acclaim for their 1967 debut, The Doors (which included their eleven-minute epic “The End” and “Light My Fire,” a Number One hit at the height of the Summer of Love), and all the other albums that followed.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

… of actress Maud Adams. Octopussy is 63.

… of Arsenio Hall, 53.

… of Josh Brolin, 40. I wonder if his stepmom will sing “Happy Birthday” to him.

… of actress Christina Ricci. Wednesday Addams is 28.

Lorne Greene (aka Ben Cartwright) was born on this date in 1915.

Omar Bradley, the G.I General, was born on this date in 1893.

Except for his original division assignments, Bradley won his wartime advancement on the battlefield, commanding American soldiers in North Africa, Sicily, across the Normandy beaches, and into Germany itself. His understated personal style of command left newsmen with little to write about, especially when they compared him to the more flamboyant among the Allied commanders, but his reputation as a fighter was secure among his peers and particularly with General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander, who considered him indispensable.

Self-effacing and quiet, Bradley showed a concern for the men he led that gave him the reputation as the “soldier’s general.” That same concern made him the ideal choice in 1945 to reinvigorate the Veterans Administration and prepare it to meet the needs of millions of demobilized servicemen. After he left active duty, both political and military leaders continued to seek Bradley’s advice. Perhaps more importantly, he remained in close touch with the Army and served its succeeding generations as the ideal model of a professional soldier.

U.S. Army Center of Military History

 

And it’s the birthday of artist Thomas Moran, born on this date in 1837. The National Gallery of Art has an outstanding online exhibit on Moran. Click the image for a larger replica of his classic painting Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

… were born 199 years ago today.

Today is the birthday

… of actor Leslie Nielsen. Lt. Frank Drebin is 82.

… of Conrad Janis. Mindy’s father on Mork and Mindy is 80.

… of Tina Louise. Ginger, the movie star from Gilligan’s Island, is 74.

… of Burt Reynolds. Bandit is 72. Burt — his real name is Burton Reynolds — was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for Boogie Nights.

… of Gerry Goffin. Married to Carole King while they were still teenagers, Goffin is 69.

Songwriting partners Gerry Goffin and Carole King composed a string of classic hits and cherished album tracks for a variety of artists during the Sixties. A brief sampling: “Up On the Roof” (the Drifters), “One Fine Day” (the Chiffons), “I’m Into Something Good” (Herman’s Hermits), “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” (the Shirelles), “Take Good Care of My Baby” (Bobby Vee), “Chains” (the Cookies), “Don’t Bring Me Down” (the Animals), “Take a Giant Step” (the Monkees) and “Goin’ Back” (the Byrds). The prolific duo, who remained married for much of the Sixties, even tapped their babysitter to sing one of the songs they’d written, and the result was a Number One hit and a new dance craze: “The Loco-Motion,” by Little Eva. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

… of Sheryl Crow. She’s 46.

All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I’m not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I’m not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
Until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard

… of Jennifer Aniston. She’s 39. Had her photo taken enough to be 139.

… of Q’orianka. Pocahontas in The New World is 18.

Today is the birthday

… of Mike Farrell. Captain B.J. Hunnicut is 69.

… of Tom Brokaw. He’s 68.

… of Fabian, now 65.

… of Axl Rose. He’s 46.

Babe Ruth was born on this date in 1895.

Ronald Reagan was born on this date in 1911.

It should be a friggin’ holiday. No silly, for Ruth.

Aaron Burr, the first vice president known to have shot someone, was born on this date in 1756.

Today is NewMexiKen’s birthday.

Also Dan Quayle is 61, Alice Cooper is 60, Lawrence Taylor is 49 and Clint Black is 46.

Charles Lindbergh was born on this date in 1902. The following is the from the beginning of his obituary in 1974:

In Paris at 10:22 P.M. on May 21, 1927, Charles Augustus Lindbergh, a one-time Central Minnesota farm boy, became an international celebrity. A fame enveloped the 25-year-old American that was to last him for the remainder of his life, transforming him in a frenzied instant from an obscure aviator into a historical figure.

The consequences of this fame were to exhilarate him, to involve him in profound grief, to engage him in fierce controversy, to turn him into an embittered fugitive from the public, to accentuate his individualism to the point where he became a loner, to give him a special sense of his own importance, to allow him to play an enormous role in the growth of commercial aviation as well as to be a figure in missile and space technology, to give him influence in military affairs, and to raise a significant voice for conservation, a concern that marked his older years.

Today is the Feast of St. Blaise.

It’s also the birtdate of Pretty Boy Floyd, born on February 3, 1904.

Fran Tarkenton is 68 today; Bob Griese is 63.

Blythe Danner is 65.

Melanie is 61, Morgan Fairchild 58, Nathan Lane 52.

James Michener was born on this date in 1907.