Individuals born on this date with an emphasis on American history and culture, including pop culture.
… of Lute Olson. The University of Arizona basketball coach is 70 today.
… of semi-famous daughters of very famous fathers. Shari Belafonte is 50. Debby Boone is 48.
… of Joan Jett. The rocker is 46.
… of Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima. The Brazilian football star is 28.
… of Margaret Sanger, born on this date in 1879. From her obituary in The New York Times (1966):
As the originator of the phrase “birth control” and its best-known advocate, Margaret Sanger survived Federal indictments, a brief jail term, numerous lawsuits, hundreds of street-corner rallies and raids on her clinics to live to see much of the world accept her view that family planning is a basic human right.
The dynamic, titian-haired woman whose Irish ancestry also endowed her with unfailing charm and persuasive wit was first and foremost a feminist. She sought to create equality between the sexes by freeing women from what she saw as sexual servitude.
NewMexiKen remembers thoughtlessly riding with high school buddies past Mrs. Sanger’s home, honking and acting like jerks presumably because of who she was and what she stood for, i.e., birth control. She would have been at least 80. Oh, did I tell you, I attended a Catholic high school, though doing this was surely our own idea.
… of Hal Wallis, born on this date in 1899. A producer, Wallis was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar 15 times, winning for Casablanca in 1942.
… of Sam Neill, born in Northern Ireland on this date in 1947. Neill has appeared in numerous films, most famously The Hunt for Red October, Jurassic Park and as the ass-of-a-husband in The Piano.
… 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 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,
… of Mel Torme, born on this date in 1925. The “Velvet Fog” was a wonderful jazz singer, but his greatest legacy is “The Christmas Song” — “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”.
essayist and editor, was born on this date in 1880.
Two immortal football coaches share this birthday.
Paul “Bear” Bryant was born on this date in 1913.
Tom Landry was born on this date in 1924.
Arnold Palmer is 75 today. Wonder if he can shoot his age.
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 group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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.
Elizabeth, born in 1533. The one Virginia is named after.
Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson), born in 1860. She lived until 1961, but only started painting at age 76.
David Packard, born in 1912. The “P” in HP.
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.
was born on this date in 1757. Not yet 20, Lafayette was commissioned a major general in the American army by the Continental Congress. (It helped that he served without pay and funded his own troops.)
Lafayette was wounded at Brandywine, served Washington loyally at Valley Forge and during an attempted cabal against the Commander-in-Chief, saved American troops and supplies in Rhode Island, was instrumental in obtaining vital French assistance from Louis XVI, and was on the field at Yorktown in 1781 when the British surrendered. By then Lafayette was 24.
was born on this date in 1847.
From the review at Amazon.com of T.J. Stiles’s Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War:
James is often grouped with famous frontier criminals like Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy, but he’s best understood as a Southerner who forged partisan alliances in postwar Missouri and promoted himself as a latter-day Robin Hood. Stiles describes James as “a foul-mouthed killer who hated as fiercely as anyone on the planet” and places his life in the context of “the struggle for–or rather, against–black freedom.” Stiles’s fundamental point about James is as startling as it is convincing: “In his political consciousness and close alliance with a propagandist and power broker, in his efforts to win media attention with his crimes … Jesse James was a forerunner of the modern terrorist.”
is 64 today.
hits the double-nickel today. He’s 55.
… of Warren Buffet. The billionaire “uncle” of Jimmy Buffet is 74. (Actually distant cousins.)
… of Jerry Tarkanian. The Shark is also 74.
… of John Phillips. The Papa is 69. (The other Papa was Denny Doherty.)
… of Molly Ivins. The columnist is 60.
… of Peggy Lipton. The Mod Squad member is 57.
… of Lewis Black. The comedian, and regular on The Daily Show, is 56.
… of Cameron Diaz. Princess Fiona is 32.
… of John McCain. The Senator who doesn’t know what he stands for is 68.
… of Elliott Gould. The original “Trapper” John McIntyre and former Mr. Barbra Streisand is 66.
… of William Friedkin. The Oscar-winning director (The French Connection) is 65.
… of Michael Jackson. He was born in 1958, but who knows what that is in Michael years.
… of Rebecca DeMornay. The actress is 42.
… of German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, born in Frankfurt on this date in 1749. Goethe said, “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”
… of Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, the first American-born saint, born in New York City on this date in 1774.
… of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, born near Tula on this date in 1828.
… of ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson, born in Jamestown, New York, on this date in 1908.
Macaulay Culkin is 24 today.
in 1916, actor Van Johnson.
in 1917, actor Mel Ferrer.
in 1918, composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein (d. 1990).
in 1919, Alabama governor George Wallace (d. 1998).
in 1921, deal-maker Monty Hall.
Regis Philbin and Tom Skerritt share this birthday. They were born in 1933.
was born on this date in 1913. The tribute to Kelly at The International Museum of Cartoon Art Hall of Fame reads:
Like a number of other successful newspaper cartoonists of his day, Walt Kelly learned his craft as an animator at the Walt Disney Studios between 1935 and 1941, and the Disney style was always evident in his work. After a brief stint as a comic book artist and an editorial cartoonist, Kelly launched his masterpiece, Pogo, in 1949. The strip featured a colorful cast of furry and not-so-furry creatures who inhabited the Okefenokee Swamp, including Pogo, Albert, Howland Owl, P.T. Bridgeport, Beauregard and Churchy la Femme. Out of the mouths of these innocent animals came everything from profound musings on the human condition to downright nonsense. The superb artistry, satirical humor and playful language of Pogo enchanted millions of readers and even now, years after his death in 1973, Kelly still has a loyal following.
According to the web site I Go Pogo:
Walt Kelly first used the quote “We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us” on a poster for Earth Day in 1970. … In 1971, he did a two panel version with Pogo and Porky in a trash filled swamp.
A classic Pogo strip is published each week at Welcome to Pogo’s Website!
Sean Connery is 74 today.
… of Barbara Eden. “Jeannie” is 70. We can stop dreaming about her now.
… of Linda Thompson. The folk/rock musician, who with then husband Richard made one of the great rock albums — Shoot Out the Lights, is 57 today.
… of Shelley Long. The star of Cheers and numerous films is 55.
… of Kobe Bryant. He’s 26.
… and of Gene Kelly. The wonderful singer/dancer/actor was born on this date in 1912. He died in 1996.
Wilt Chamberlain was born in Philadelphia on this date in 1936.
Usually called “The Stilt” because it rhymed with Wilt, Chamberlain actually preferred the nickname “The Big Dipper.”
NewMexiKen had the pleasure of seeing Chamberlain play in person during the great Philadelphia 76ers 1966-1967 championship season. Wilt averaged 24.2 rebounds and 24.1 points per game that year.
… of Issac Hayes. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is 62.
Isaac Hayes is a multi-faceted talent: songwriter, producer, sideman, solo artist, film scorer, actor, rapper and deejay. He has been hugely influential on the rap movement as both a spoken-word pioneer and larger-than-life persona who’s influenced everyone from Barry White to Puff Daddy. Hayes is best known for his soundtrack to Shaft, one of the first and best “blaxploitation” films, and for the song “Theme from ‘Shaft,’” a Top Ten hit. But his varied resume boasts everything from backing up Otis Redding and writing for Sam and Dave and others at Stax Records in the Sixties to serving as the voice of Chef on South Park in the Nineties.
… of Connie Chung. The newscaster is 58.
… of Robert Plant. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee (as part of Led Zeppelin) is 56.
… of Al Roker. The weatherman who’s not half of what he used to be is 50.
… of Joan Allen. The three-time Oscar nominee is 48.
To William Jefferson Clinton, 58 today.
Rosalynn Smith Carter was born in Plains, Georgia, 77 years ago today. She and Jimmy have been married 58 years.
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 article at Guardian Unlimited, “Next year the renovated La Scala in Milan is to reopen its doors with the work Salieri wrote for its very first performance back in 1778. And now Cecilia Bartoli has recorded an album devoted to his music.”
This article and other sources seem persuasive in saying that 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.
