Category: Birthdays

Individuals born on this date with an emphasis on American history and culture, including pop culture.

September 13

… is the birthday:

… of Milton S. Hershey, born on this date in 1857. Hershey, who only completed the fourth grade, developed a formula for milk chocolate that made what had been a luxury product into the first nationally marketed candy.

… of Sherwood Anderson, born on this date in 1876 in Camden, Ohio.

[Anderson] is best known for his short stories, “brooding Midwest tales” which reveal “their author’s sympathetic insight into the thwarted lives of ordinary people.” Between World War I and World War II, Anderson helped to break down formulaic approaches to writing, influencing a subsequent generation of writers, most notably Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. Anderson, who lived in New Orleans for a brief time, befriended Faulkner there in 1924 and encouraged him to write about his home county in Mississippi. (Library of Congress)

… of Bill Monroe, born on this date in 1911. The Father of Bluegrass Music was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970. In 1993, Monroe was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, an honor that placed him in the company of Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles and Paul McCartney. Monroe died in 1996.

Monroe is also an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

Musical pioneer Bill Monroe is known as “the father of bluegrass music.” While Monroe would humbly say, “I’m a farmer with a mandolin and a high tenor voice,” he and His Blue Grass Boys essentially created a new musical genre out of the regional stirrings that also led to the birth of such related genres as Western Swing and honky-tonk. From his founding of the original bluegrass band in the Thirties, he refined his craft during six decades of performing. In so doing, he brought a new level of musical sophistication to what had previously been dismissed as “rural music.” Both as ensemble players and as soloists, Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys upped the ante in their chosen genre much the way Duke Ellington’s and Miles Davis’s bands did in jazz. Moreover, the tight, rhythmic drive of Monroe’s string bands helped clear a path for rock and roll in the Fifties. That connection became clear when a reworked song of Monroe’s, “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” became part of rock and roll history as the B side of Elvis Presley’s first single for Sun Records in 1954. Carl Perkins claimed that the first words Presley spoke to him were, “Do you like Bill Monroe?”

… of Mel Torme, born on this date in 1925. The “Velvet Fog” was a wonderful jazz singer, but his greatest legacy is writing “The Christmas Song” — “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”. Torme died in 1999.

And it’s the anniversary of the inspiration for our most famous song:

As the evening of September 13, 1814, approached, Francis Scott Key, a young lawyer who had come to negotiate the release of an American friend, was detained in Baltimore harbor on board a British vessel. Throughout the night and into the early hours of the next morning, Key watched as the British bombed nearby Fort McHenry with military rockets. As dawn broke, he was amazed to find the Stars and Stripes, tattered but intact, still flying above Fort McHenry.
…

Key’s experience during the bombardment of Fort McHenry inspired him to pen the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” He adapted his lyrics to the tune of a popular drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” and the song soon became the de facto national anthem of the United States of America, though Congress did not officially recognize it as such until 1931.

Library of Congress

Star-spangled Banner
 
 
The Smithsonian Institution, which has the original “star-spangled banner,” has details about the flag.

More here as well.
 
 

H(enry) L(ouis) Mencken

… essayist and editor, was born on this date in 1880. Some Mencken quotes:

  • The cynics are right nine times out of ten.
  • Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.
  • A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
  • It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.
  • The first kiss is stolen by the man; the last is begged by the woman.
  • The only really happy folk are married women and single men.
  • It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry.
  • Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
  • A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.
  • Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.
  • No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.
  • Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
  • I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone.
  • In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for. As for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.

(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay

Otis Redding was born on this date in 1941.

Though his career was relatively brief, cut short by a tragic plane crash, Otis Redding was a singer of such commanding stature that to this day he embodies the essence of soul music in its purist form. His name is synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying. Redding left behind a legacy of recordings made during the four-year period from his first sessions for Stax/Volt Records in 1963 until his death in 1967. Ironically, although he consistently impacted the R&B charts beginning with the Top Ten appearance of “Mr. Pitiful” in 1965, none of his singles fared better than #21 on the pop Top Forty until the posthumous release of “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” That landmark song, recorded just four days before Redding’s death, went to #1 and stayed there for four weeks in early 1968.

— Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Redding wrote the song known as Aretha Franklin’s signature hit, “Respect.”

Try a Little Tenderness

Two Country Music Immortals

… were born on this date.

Jimmie Rodgers, considered the “Father of Country Music,” was born in Meridian, Mississippi, on September 8, 1897. He died from TB in 1933. Jimmie Rodgers was the first person inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and among the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

James Charles Rodgers, known professionally as the Singing Brakeman and America’s Blue Yodeler, was the first performer inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was honored as the Father of Country Music, “the man who started it all.” From many diverse elements—the traditional melodies and folk music of his southern upbringing, early jazz, stage show yodeling, the work chants of railroad section crews and, most importantly, African-American blues—Rodgers evolved a lasting musical style which made him immensely popular in his own time and a major influence on generations of country artists.

Blue Yodel No. 9

Patsy Cline, the most popular female country singer in recording history, was born in Winchester, Virginia, on September 8, 1932. She died in a plane crash in 1963. Patsy Cline is an inductee of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Cline is invariably invoked as a standard for female vocalists, and she has inspired scores of singers including k. d. lang, Loretta Lynn, Linda Ronstadt, Trisha Yearwood, and Wynonna Judd. Her brief career produced the #1 jukebox hit of all time, “Crazy” (written by Willie Nelson) and her unique, crying style and vocal impeccability have established her reputation as the quintessential torch singer.

Crazy

Interesting Birthdays Today

Elizabeth, born in 1533. The queen Virginia is named after.

Anna Mary Robertson, born in 1860. Grandma Moses lived until 1961, and only started painting at age 76.

David Packard, born in 1912. The “P” in HP.

Tenor saxophonist Theodore Rollins. Sonny, born in 1930, is 76 today.

Buddy Holly, born in 1936. Just 22 when the music died.

Gloria Gaynor, born in 1949. Still surviving.

Julie Kavner, born in 1951. NewMexiKen liked her best in Awakenings, but we all know her as the voice of Marge Simpson.

W. Earl Brown, born in 1963. Dan Dority of Deadwood.

Birthday boys

Broadcast journalist Daniel Schorr is 90 today.

One of just 13 men to win baseball’s triple crown (with Baltimore in 1966), Frank Robinson is 71 today. A few of the others: Cobb, Hornsby (twice), Foxx, Gehrig, Williams (twice), Mantle. The last, Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. Robinson won the MVP award with Cincinnati in the National League and with Baltimore in the American.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Van Morrison is 61 today (I love those 1945 babies).

A paragon of blue-eyed soul, Van Morrison has been following his muse for four decades. His travels have led him down pathways where he’s explored soul, jazz, blues, rhythm & blues, rock and roll, Celtic folk, pop balladry, and more, forging a distinctive amalgam that has Morrison’s passionate self-expression at its core. With a minimum of hype or fanfare, working with a craftsman’s discipline and an artist-mystic’s creativity, Morrison has steadily amassed one of the great bodies of recorded work in the 20th century. His discography numbers roughly thirty albums, among them the deeply poetic song cycle Astral Weeks, the warm, pop-soul classic Moondance and such spiritually minded later works as the ambitious double-disc set Hymns to the Silence. At one extreme, Morrison has made raw, angry blues-rock with the British Invasion-era group Them. At the other, he has produced some of the most transcendent, even-toned soul music of the modern era as a solo artist. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

Richard Gere is 57. No Oscar nominations for Gere.

Five time Oscar nominee for best actor, two time winner, Frederic March was born on this date in 1897. March won for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1931 and The Best Years of Our Lives in 1946. NewMexiKen met Mr. March when he was in Tucson in 1966 for the making of Hombre, one of his last roles.

The esteemed New Yorker editor William Shawn was born on this date in 1907. His actual name is William Chon. Before The New Yorker, Shawn worked briefly at the Las Vegas, New Mexico, Optic.

Four days before he died in 1992, Shawn had lunch with Lillian Ross, and she showed him a book cover blurb she had written and asked if he would check it. She later wrote of that day, “He took out the mechanical pencil he always carried in his inside jacket pocket, and … made his characteristically neat proofreading marks on a sentence that said ‘the book remains as fresh and unique as ever.’ He changed it to read, ‘remains unique and as fresh as ever.’ ‘There are no degrees of uniqueness,’ Mr. Shawn said politely.” (The Writer’s Almanac)

Princess Diana died nine years ago today. Inconceivable.

Birthday folks

Seven-time Oscar nominee for best actress, Ingrid Bergman was born on this date in 1915. She won the award three times: Gaslight, Anastasia, Murder on the Orient Express. No, she was not nominated for Casablanca. Ms. Bergman’s last role was as Golda Meir in 1982. She died that same year on her birthday, August 29.

Charlie Parker was born on this date in 1920.

Charlie Parker was one of the most influential improvising soloists in jazz, and a central figure in the development of bop in the 1940s. A legendary figure in his own lifetime, he was idolized by those who worked with him, and he inspired a generation of jazz performers and composers. (PBS – JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns)

Parker died in 1955.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ruth Jones was born on this date in 1924.

Dinah Washington skirted the boundaries of blues, jazz and popular music, becoming the most popular black female recording artist of the ’50s.

She changed her name from Ruth Jones upon joining jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton’s band in 1943. After leaving Hampton in 1946, she began her own recording career, leading to Top 10 R&B hits in “Baby Get Lost” (No. 1, 1949), “Trouble in Mind” (No. 4, 1952), “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” (No. 4 R&B, No. 8 pop, 1959), and “This Bitter Earth” (No. 1 R&B, No. 24 pop, 1960).

In 1960, Washington also sang two No. 1 R&B duets with Brook Benton, “Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)” (No. 5 pop) and “A Rockin’ Good Way” (No. 7 pop).

Washington died in 1963 after mixing alcohol and pills. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum)

Two-time Oscar nominee for director, William Friedkin is 71 today. He won for The French Connection; he was nominated for The Exorcist.

Oscar nominee Elliott Gould is 68 today. He was nominated for a supporting role in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.

And today is the birthday of Michael Jackson. He’s 48. Jackson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

It’s the birthday

… of Barbara Eden. “Jeannie” is 72.

… of Linda Thompson. The folk/rock musician, who with then husband Richard made one of the great rock albums — Shoot Out the Lights, is 58 today. She was voted best female singer of 1982 in Rolling Stone.

… of Shelley Long. The star of Cheers and numerous films is 57. Long received six Emmy nominations for her portrayal of Diane Chambers, winning once.

… of Kobe Bryant. He’s 28.

… and of Gene Kelly. The wonderful singer/dancer/actor was born on this date in 1912. Kelly is most famous for Singin’ in the Rain but received his sole Oscar nomination for best actor for Anchors Aweigh. He died in 1996.

Today

Kenny Rogers is 68.

Patty McCormack is 61. The actress, known now as Patricia McCormack, was nominated for the supporting actress Oscar as an 11-year-old for her performance in The Bad Seed.

Kim Cattrall of Sex in the City is 50.

William “Count” Basie was born on this date in 1904.

Hawaii entered the Union as the 50th state on this date in 1959. The eight major islands in the chain are Ni’ihau, Kaua’i, O’ahu, Moloka’i, Lāna’i, Kaho’olawe, Maui and Hawai’i.

Today is the 999th day that NewMexiKen has something posted on this blog.

An all-time scorer

Wilt Chamberlain was born in Philadelphia 70 years ago today. Usually called “The Stilt” because it rhymed with Wilt, Chamberlain actually preferred the nickname “The Big Dipper.”

  • Scored 800 points in first 16 high school games.
  • Unanimous All-American at Kansas 1957, 1958, averaging nearly 30 points per game.
  • Four-time NBA MVP.
  • Scored 31,419 points (30.1 ppg) in 1,045 pro games, including 100 in one game against the Knicks.
  • All-time scoring leader when he retired, since surpassed by Abdul-Jabbar, Malone and Jordan.

Chamberlain died in 1999.

It’s the birthday

… of Ginger Baker of Cream and Blind Faith. Peter Edward Baker, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, is 67.

… of Johnny Nash. He’s 66.

I can see clearly now, the rain has gone
I can see all obstacles in my way

… of Jill St. John; she’s 66. A sixties hottie, St. John, real name Jill Oppenheim, reportedly has an IQ of 162.

… of Fred Dalton Thompson. The actor and former U.S. Senator is 64.

… of Tipper Gore. She’s 58.

… of Kyra Sedgwick, 41.

… of Matthew Perry. The Friend is 37.

Happy Birthday!

William Jefferson Clinton is 60 today.

And you know what that means President Clinton?

It means a year from now you’ll be 61. And the year after that …

It’s the birthday

… of Rosalynn Carter; she’s 79.

… of Robert Redford; he’s 69. Redford has been nominated for two directing Oscars, winning for Ordinary People. His only acting nomination was for The Sting.

… of Rockabilly great Johnny Preston, singer of the classic “Running Bear.” He’s 67.

… of Martin Mull; he’s 63.

… of Patrick Swayze; he’s 54.

… of Madeleine Stowe; she’s 48.

… of Edward Norton; he’s just 37. Norton has both a leading and a supporting Oscar nomination but no wins yet.

Antonio Salieri

… was born on this date in 1750. After his characterization as a villain in Peter Shaffer’s play and film Amadeus, it seems Salieri is making a bit of a comeback. According to a December 2003 article at Guardian Unlimited and other sources, while there was competition between the upstart Mozart and the established artist Salieri in Vienna, there was cooperation, too; that is, what transpired between them was typical office politics.

As the Guardian Unlimited article notes:

…Mozart’s death, as one respected musical journal wrote, was almost certainly caused not by poison but by “arduous work and fast living among ill-chosen company”.

It was only after Mozart’s demise that Salieri began to have any real reason to hate him. Unlike that of any before him, Mozart’s music kept on being performed. Cut down at the peak of his powers – and with the added frisson of whispered rumours that he might have been murdered – he became the first composer whose cult of celebrity actually flourished after his death.

Salieri, however, had outlived his talent. He wrote almost no music for the last two decades of his life. Instead he spent time revising his previous works. He did have an impressive roster of pupils: Beethoven, Schubert, Meyerbeer and Liszt – not to mention Franz Xaver Mozart, his supposed adversary’s young son. But the composer who had once been at the vanguard of new operatic ideas was not necessarily teaching his students to be similarly innovative…

Of Mozart’s death, the story is more complicated:

So how did this respected musician become the rumoured murderer of the great Mozart? Nobody knows for certain. But in his final weeks Mozart is reported to have believed he had been poisoned, and had gone so far as to blame hostile Italian factions at the Viennese court. People put two and two together and pointed the finger at Salieri. And who could resist a story this good? Certainly not his fellow composers. There are mentions of it in Beethoven’s Conversation Books. Weber, Mozart’s father-in-law, had heard it by 1803, and cold-shouldered Salieri ever after. And 20 years later it was still doing the rounds; Rossini joked about it when he met Salieri in 1822.

As the rumour gathered strength, all denials only served to reinforce it. Then, in 1823, Salieri – hospitalised, terminally ill and deranged – is said to have accused himself of poisoning Mozart. In more lucid moments he took it back. But the damage was done. Even if few believed the ramblings of a confused old man, the fact that Salieri had “confessed” to Mozart’s murder gave the rumour some semblance of validity.

Acting their age

Maureen O’Hara is 86 today. Once voted one of the five most beautiful women in the world, Miss O’Hara is proabably best known now as Natalie Wood’s unbelieving mother in the classic Miracle on 34th Street; or perhaps as Esmeralda to Charles Laughton’s Quasimodo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Robert De Niro is 63 today. De Niro has been nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar five times, winning for Raging Bull in 1981. He also won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role as the young Vito Corleone in Godfather II. De Niro’s nominations were for Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Awakenings and Cape Fear.

Sean Penn is 46 today. Penn has been nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar four times, winning last year for Mystic River. Penn’s other nominations were for Dead Man Walking, Sweet and Lowdown and I Am Sam.

After seeing Mae’s jewelry the coat check girl exclaims, “Goodness, what lovely diamonds!”
Mae replies, “Goodness had nothing to do with it.”

That’s Screen Legend Mae West in Night After Night. Ms. West was born on this date in 1893.

Macbeth

… was killed on this date in 1057. But not as Shakespeare portrayed it. Here’s the story from the BBC:

Shakespeare’s portrait of a great tragic hero, whose fate was linked to black magic and fuelled by the fire of greed and ambition, bears little resemblance to the historical figure. Duncan (1034-40) was not Shakespeare’s venerable, elderly monarch, but a young king who was killed in battle, possibly by Macbeth, although this is not certain. We do know that Duncan was not murdered in the home of a so-called host.

Macbeth, King of Moray, was elected King of Scotland in place of Duncan’s son Malcolm, who was only a child, and for 14 years Macbeth is believed to have ruled equably, imposing law and order and encouraging devout Christianity. In 1050 he is known to have travelled to Rome for a Papal Jubilee. He was also a brave leader and made successful forays over the border into Northumbria, England.

In 1054, Macbeth was challenged by Siward, Earl of Northumbria, who was attempting to return Malcolm (later Malcolm III) to the throne. It was not until 1057 that Macbeth was killed and not by MacDuff but in battle at Lumphanan. The battle of Dunsinane and the encampment in Birnam Wood referred to in Shakespeare’s tragedy are both earlier events. The final battle was probably not between armies, but between two champions – Macbeth, who was middle-aged or even elderly, and Malcolm, still a young man. The two fought in a stone circle near Lumphanan where Malcolm triumphed. It was Malcolm, not Macduff, who beheaded Macbeth.

Napoleon Bonaparte

… was born on the French owned Mediterranean island of Corsica on this date in 1769.

As an adult, Napoleon was just over 5-feet, 6-inches tall (1.686 m), about average for his countrymen at the time.

It’s the birthday

… of Earl Weaver. The former Orioles manager is 76.

… of Dash Crofts. The Crofts of Seals and Crofts is 66.

… of David Crosby. The Crosby of Crosby, Stills and Nash is 65. Before that, of course, Mr. Crosby was a founder of The Byrds.

… of Steve Martin, born in Waco, Texas, on this date in 1945.

… of Susan St. James. The wife of McMillan and Wife is 60. McMillan was played by Rock Hudson.

… of Danielle Steel. The author is 59.

… of Gary Larson. The Far Side cartoonist is 56.

… of Earvin “Magic” Johnson. Magic is 47.

… of Susan Olsen. Cindy, of The Brady Bunch, is 45.

… of Halle Berry. The Academy Award winner is 40.

… of Ernest Thayer, the man who wrote “Casey at the Bat,” born on this date in 1863.

Ben Hogan

… was born on this date in 1912. Hogan was the great golfer of mid-century, overcoming injuries from a severe, near-fatal auto accident. Hogan won four U.S. Opens, two Masters, two PGAs and one British Open between 1946-53.

At some point NewMexiKen read a story about Hogan playing in a pro-am. The duffer with him kept asking how he, Hogan, did this and how he did that, as if the amateur could match Hogan’s skills if only he used the right club.

Finally, after a wonderful chip shot, the amateur asked Hogan which club he had used. That was too much. Hogan proceeded to pull out every club in his bag and make perfect chip shots onto the green with each.

James Dodson’s is a good biography of Hogan.

Fidel Castro

… is 80 today.

Castro wrote a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940. (He says he was 12, but should have been 14.) “If you like, give me a ten dollars bill green american in the letter [back] because never have I not seen a ten dollars bill green american and I would like to have one of them.” Castro went on to say, “I don’t know very English but I know very much Spanish and I suppose you [FDR] don’t know very Spanish but you know very English because you are American but I am not American.”

A more complete copy of the letter is here.

NewMexiKen actually was able to view a speech Castro gave outside the Hotel Nacional in Havana in 1993. It was interesting to see in person the man who has been so much a focus of America for more than 40 years.

Marilyn vos Savant

… is 60 today. She’s the Parade magazine columnist and one-time holder of the title of world’s highest IQ. Her IQ was once measured at 228, but more modern tests now reveal it to be simply a lofty 180. She is married to Robert Jarvik, inventor of the Jarvik artificial heart.

The Wikipedia article on vos Savant is interesting and discusses two well-known instances of vos Savant’s answers being controversial — the Monty Hall problem and Fermat’s last theorem.

Vos Savant took her mother’s surname.

Terry Gene Bollea

… was born on this date in 1953. Who’s that, you ask?

Does 6’8″ (2.03m) help?
How about 275 pounds (124.7kg)?
Long blond hair, but balding? Fu Man Chu mustache?

Twenty years ago NewMexiKen saw this man in the St. Louis Airport. I had no idea who he was, but knew he had to be somebody. He was huge. His shirt was artistically slit. Twelve-year-old boys were all a twitter.

I finally asked one of the boys, “So, who is that?”

He looked at me like I had just arrived from Mars.

“Hulk Hogan, of course!”

Alex Haley

… was born on this date in 1921. Haley was the author of two publishing phenomena — The Autobiography of Malcolm X (6 million copies) and Roots, which was not only a best-seller, but led to one of the most successful television series ever. Nearly half the people in the country watched the last episode in January 1977. Haley won a special Pulitizer for Roots, “the story of a black family from its origins in Africa through seven generations to the present day in America.”

NewMexiKen co-chaired a symposium at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1979, that included Haley. He was a very self-possessed and self-assured speaker, confident yet pleasant and informal. He spoke for some time without notes, telling the story about the story — that is, how he learned about his family. Along with the Archivist of the U.S. and Professor Wesley Johnson, I sat on the stage behind Haley as he spoke and could see the rapture on the faces of his listeners. To an audience of genealogists this was the Sermon on the Mount.

Subsequently it bothered me to learn he plagarized sections of the book and possibly fudged some of the genealogy. Clearly, that wasn’t right. Even so, the good his work did in educating both black and white America (and I include both books) was a legacy of major proportion.

Haley, who served in the U.S. Coast Guard 1939-1959, before becoming a full-time writer, died of a heart attack in 1992. The Coast Guard has named a cutter for him.