Category: Birthdays

Today is the birthday

… of Kirk Douglas. The three-time Oscar nominee is 95. He was born Issur Danielovitch Demsky. NewMexiKen’s favorite Douglas performance is in Lonely Are the Brave. “Filmed on location in New Mexico, Lonely are the Brave was adapted by Dalton Trumbo from Edward Abbey’s novel Brave Cowboy.”

… of Dina Merrill. Nedenia Marjorie Hutton is 86 today. Her father was E.F. Hutton. Her mother was Marjorie Merriweather Post (of Post cereal). She has 107 acting credits at IMDb and was Mrs. Cliff Robertson for 20 years.

… of Buck Henry, 81 today. Henry was nominated for Oscars for directing, with Warren Beatty, Heaven Can Wait and co-writing The Graduate.

… of Dame Judi Dench. The six-time Oscar nominee, one-time winner for Shakespeare in Love, is 77.

… of Beau Bridges. Jeff’s big brother is 70. No Oscars for Beau, but he has three wins from 10 Emmy nominations.

… of Dick Butkus, 69. The Butkus Award is given each year to the best college linebacker, so I guess that tells you what kind of a linebacker Butkus was.

… of Tom Kite. He’s 62. Kite won the U.S. Open in 1992.

… of John Malkovich. The two-time Oscar nominee is 58.

… of Donny Osmond, 54. Fifty. Four.

… of Felicity Huffman. The Oscar nominee and Desperate Housewife is 49.

… of Jakob Dylan, son of Bob. Jakob is 42 today. He’s the youngest of his dad’s four children with first wife Sara Lownds, the Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.

… of Imogen Heap, 34.

The actor Broderick Crawford was born 100 years ago today. Crawford won the best actor Oscar in 1950 for his portrayal of politician Willie Stark in All the King’s Men. He has 141 acting credits at IMDb.

The actor Lee J. Cobb was born 100 years ago today. Cobb was twice nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar: On the Waterfront and The Brothers Karamazov. I thing he was superb as Juror #3 in 12 Angry Men. He has 104 acting credits listed on IMDb.

The screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo was born in Montrose, Colorado, 105 years ago today. Trumbo was nominated for three writing Oscars, winning twice, for Roman Holiday and The Brave One. Because he was blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, both Oscars were awarded to fronts. The records were changed only years later after Otto Preminger and Kirk Douglas fought the blacklisting and credited Trumbo’s screenwriting for Exodus and Spartacus respectively. Trumbo’s novel Johnny Got His Gun is a classic that everyone should read.

The famed circus clown Emmett Kelly was born on December 9, 1898. Kelly was known for his character Weary Willie, in makeup as a bum sweeping up. His was a revolutionary character; clowns always appeared in white face before Kelly. He was a star performer with Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus when I was a kid.

Grace Hopper was born in New York City 105 years ago today.

She began tinkering around with machines when she was seven years old, dismantling several alarm clocks around the house to see how they worked. She studied math and physics in college, and eventually got a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale.

Then World War II broke out, and Hopper wanted to serve her country. Her father had been an admiral in the Navy, so she applied to a division of the Navy called WAVES, which stood for Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service. They turned her down at first[;] they said she was too old at 35, and that she didn’t weigh enough, at 105 pounds. But she wouldn’t give up, and they eventually accepted her. With her math skills, she was assigned to work on a machine that might help calculate the trajectory of bombs and rockets.

Hopper learned how to program that early computing machine, and wrote the first instruction manual for its use. And she went on to help write an early computer language known as COBOL — “Common Business-Oriented Language.” She remained in the Navy, and eventually she became the first woman ever promoted to rear admiral.

The Writers Almanac from American Public Media (2006)

Clarence Birdseye was born on this date in 1886. Birdseye, fishing with Inuit in the Arctic, observed that fish flash frozen at Arctic temperatures, when thawed, tasted much better and fresher than fish frozen at higher temperatures, as was being done commercially. That is, Birdseye came up with the approach that made frozen food acceptable. The company he founded eventually became General Foods.

Today is the birthday

… of Eli Wallach. Tuco is 96. “Hey Blondie, do you know what you are? You’re a stinking son of a….” [Theme starts.]

Wallach has more than 150 acting credits lidsted on IMDb.

… of Ellen Burstyn. Alice is 79. Ms. Burstyn has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress five times, winning for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore in 1975. She was also nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Last Picture Show.

… of Johnny Bench. The Hall of Fame catcher is 64.

As one of the most impressive defensive catchers, Johnny Bench was also considered to be an outstanding hitter. A durable catcher, noted for his excellent baseball intelligence, Bench won 10 Gold Glove Awards, two Most Valuable Player Awards and the Rookie of the Year Award during his 17-year National League career. A skilled hitter, the 14-time All-Star selection belted 389 home runs and led the league in RBIs three times as a leader of the Big Red Machine teams of the 1970s.

Baseball Hall of Fame

… of Tom Waits. He’s 62. His voice is 138.

http://youtu.be/1ymBaAsSqDE

… of Larry Bird. The Basketball Hall of Famer is 55.

Harry Chapin was born on this date in 1942. He died in 1981. “Cat’s in the Cradle” was his only number one song.

My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin’ ‘fore I knew it, and as he grew
He’d say “I’m gonna be like you dad
You know I’m gonna be like you”

And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin’ home dad?
I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then son
You know we’ll have a good time then

Ted Knight, Ted Baxter of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, was born Tadeusz Wladyslaw Konopka on this date in 1923. He died in 1986. Knight received six Emmy nominations for playing Baxter; two wins.

Richard Warren Sears was born December 7, 1863, in Stewartville, Minnesota. In 1886, seeking to make some extra money, he took a number of watches on consignment and sold them all to fellow railroad stations agents. Within six months he quit the railroad and formed the R.W. Sears Watch Company, a mail-order business. He joined with watch repairman Alvah C. Roebuck the next year. Sears, Roebuck and Co. moved to Chicago in 1893.

Willa Cather was born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia, on this date in 1873. The following is from her New York TImes obituary in 1947.

One of the most distinguished of American novelists, Willa Sibert Cather wrote a dozen or more novels that will be long remembered for their exquisite economy and charm of manner. Her talent had its nourishment and inspiration in the American scene, the Middle West in particular, and her sensitive and patient understanding of that section of the country formed the basis of her work.

Much of her writing was conceived in something of an attitude of placid reminiscence. This was notably true of such early novels as “My Antonia” and “O Pioneers!” in which she told with minute detail of homestead life on the slowly conquered prairies.

Perhaps her most famous book was “A Lost Lady,” published in 1923. In it Miss Cather’s talents were said to have reached their full maturity. It is the story of the Middle West in the age of railway-building, of the charming wife of Captain Forrester, a retired contractor, and her hospitable and open-handed household as seen through the eyes of an adoring boy. The climax of the book, with the disintegration of the Forrester household and the slow coarsening of his wife, is considered a masterpiece of vivid, haunting prose.

Another of her famous books is “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” 1927, in which she tells in the form of a chronicle a simple story of two saints of the Southwest. Her novel, “One of Ours,” won the Pulitzer Prize in 1922.

Today is the birthday

… of Dave Brubeck. Dave’s taken five for 91 years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNrmYRiX_o

… of Tom Hulce. The actor who played Mozart in Amadeus is 58. (The film came out in 1984.) Hulce got an Oscar nomination for that performance. He shows up from time-to-time, but the only other role that comes to mind is as Larry Kroger in Animal House.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ciFTP_KRy4

… of Steven Wright. He’s 56.

• All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand.
• If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.
• How do you tell when you’re out of invisible ink?
• Boycott shampoo! Demand the REAL poo!
• Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.
• A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I’m afraid of widths.
• A friend of mine once sent me a post card with a picture of the entire planet Earth taken from space. On the back it said, “Wish you were here.”
• I bought some batteries, but they weren’t included.
• If you shoot at mimes, should you use a silencer?
• What’s another word for Thesaurus?
• If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?

… of Judd Apatow. The director is 44.

Tony Lazzeri was born on this date in 1903. He once hit for the natural cycle, one of only 14 players to do so. That’s a single, a double, a triple and a homerun in that order. (His home run was a grand slam.) Lazzeri was an all-star with the Yankees in the 1920s-1930s.

Agnes Moorehead was born on this date in 1900. She won an Emmy and two Golden Globe awards and had four Academy Award and six Emmy nominations. Ms. Moorehead was in Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds and Citizen Kane (she played Kane’s mother). She earned lasting fame in the Suspense broadcast of “Sorry, Wrong Number,” a stunning performance you must listen to! (Listen with the lights out.) Alas, she is probably most widely know now for playing Samantha’s mother Endora on Bewitched.

And there is this from Wikipedia: “Moorehead appeared in the 1956 movie The Conqueror, which was shot near Saint George, Utah– downwind from the Yucca Flat, Nevada nuclear test site. She was one of over 90 (of 220) cast and crew members–including costars Susan Hayward, John Wayne, and Pedro Armendariz, as well as director-producer Dick Powell–who, over their lifetimes, all developed cancer(s); at least 46 from cast and crew have since died from cancer(s), including all of those named above.”

One of America’s great lyricists, Ira Gershwin was born on this date in 1896.

Summertime
And the livin’ is easy,
Fish are jumpin’
And the cotton is high.
Oh yo’ daddy’s rich
An’ yo’ ma is good lookin’
So hush, little baby,
Don’t you cry.

[with Dubose Heyward]

*****

You’ve made my life so glamorous
You can’t blame me for feeling amorous.
Oh! ‘S wonderful! ‘S marvelous!
That you should care for me!

‘S wonderful! ‘S marvelous!
That you should care for me!
‘S awful nice! ‘S paradise!
‘S what I love to see!

*****

The way you wear your hat,
The way you sip your tea,
The mem’ry of all that —
No, no! They can’t take that away from me!

The way your smile just beams,
The way you sing off key,
The way you haunt my dreams —
No, no! They can’t take that away from me!

Alfred Joyce Kilmer was born on December 6th in 1886. He published his most famous poem in 1914.

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

John Singleton Mosby, the Gray Ghost, was born on this date in 1833. A Virginian, Mosby sided with his state during the secession. He organized a partisan ranger company, the 43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, also known as Mosby’s Rangers or Mosby’s Raiders, and conducted what Union leaders considered to be guerilla raids in northern Virginia, from the Shenandoah Valley to the Potomac River. After the war, Mosby became politically aligned and friendly with Republican President Grant, was a successful lawyer, and entertained a young George S. Patton with Civil War stories. He lived until 1916.

That’s Kunstler’s painting Fairfax Raid, depicting Mosby’s daring saunter behind enemy lines on March 9, 1863. That morning he captured Union General Edwin H. Stoughton. According to a story reported in Wikipedia, “Mosby found Stoughton in bed and roused him with a slap to his rear. Upon being so rudely awakened the general shouted, ‘Do you know who I am?’ Mosby quickly replied, ‘Do you know Mosby, general?’ ‘Yes! Have you got the rascal?’ ‘No, but he has got you!” His group also captured 30 or more sentries without firing a shot.”

You can’t drive two miles in the Fairfax-Manassas, Virginia, area without seeing this or that Mosby shopping center, neighborhood, school and so on.

And you can’t walk past Jill’s dining room without seeing a nicely framed print of “Fairfax Raid.”

Today is the birthday

… of Richard Penniman, born 79 years ago today (1932).

He claims to be “the architect of rock and roll,” and history would seem to bear out Little Richard’s boast. More than any other performer – save, perhaps, Elvis Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music and charismatic persona. On record, he made spine-tingling rock and roll. His frantically charged piano playing and raspy, shouted vocals on such classics as “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly” defined the dynamic sound of rock and roll. Onstage, he’d deliver wild, piano-pounding epistles while costumed in sequined vests, mascara, lipstick, and a pompadour that shook with every thundering beat. His road band, the Upsetters, has been credited by James Brown and others with first putting the funk in the rock and roll beat.

In a 1990 interview, Little Richard offered this explanation for the birth of rock: “I would say that boogie-woogie and rhythm & blues mixed is rock and roll.” . . .

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

Little Richard, 55 years ago.

… of Joan Didion and Calvin Trillin, two of America’s finest writers, both of whom have written movingly about the loss of their spouse. Didion is 77 and Trillin is 76.

[B]orn in Sacramento, California (1934). [Didion] was a shy girl, without too many friends. She loved to read and she was a good student, nothing special; she chose UC Berkeley because it was so big, and she wanted to be anonymous. She remembered herself at the age of 23: “Skirts too long, shy to the point of aggravation, always the injured party, full of recriminations and little hurts and stories I do not want to hear again.” As a senior at Berkeley, she won first place in an essay contest for Vogue, and her prize was a job at the magazine, where she started her writing career.
. . .

A couple of months ago, she published a new memoir, Blue Nights (2011), about her relationship with her adopted daughter, Quintana Roo, who died just before the publication of The Year of Magical Thinking.

---

Eventually, [Trillin] was hired by The New Yorker. For 15 years, from 1967 to 1982, he traveled around the country writing a column for The New Yorker called U.S. Journal. He also writes about food, and has a humorous poetry column in The Nation.

He said, “The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”

Both of the above excerpts from The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor.

… of James Lee Burke, author of the “Dave Robicheaux” detective novels. He’s 75.

… of John Weldon “J.J.” Cale, 73. The Grammy winner is the author of “Cocaine” and “After Midnight”.

Tenor José Carreras is 65. Jim Messina is 64. So is Heisman-winner Jim Plunkett.

Frankie Muniz is 26 today. Party on, Malcolm.

Walter Elias Disney was born 110 years ago today.

From his fertile imagination and industrious factory of drawing boards, Walt Elias Disney fashioned the most popular movie stars ever to come from Hollywood and created one of the most fantastic entertainment empires in history.

In return for the happiness he supplied, the world lavished wealth and tributes upon him. He was probably the only man in Hollywood to have been praised by both the American Legion and the Soviet Union.

Where any other Hollywood producer would have been happy to get one Academy Award–the highest honor in American movies–Mr. Disney smashed all records by accumulating 29 Oscars.

“We’re selling corn,” Mr. Disney once told a reporter, “and I like corn.”

David Low, the late British political cartoonist, called him “the most significant figure in graphic arts since Leonardo.”

Walt Disney, 65, Dies on Coast; Founded an Empire on a Mouse (1966)

Rose Wilder Lane was born on December 5, 1886. She is the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder. She collaborated with her mother in writing the Little House books. She was also instrumental in founding the Libertarian movement.

Bill Pickett was born on December 5, 1870.

Bill Pickett…is credited with founding bulldogging or steer wrestling, as it is known today. Legend has it that Pickett resorted to biting the lip of a recalcitrant steer to wrestle it to the dirt to get it into the corral. Pickett moved from ranch work into the show arena in the 1890s, when he and his brother began the Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and Rough Riders Show that toured fairs and rodeos. In 1907, Pickett was hired as a cowhand on the 101 Ranch in Oklahoma and participated in the Miller Brothers’ 101 Ranch Wild West Show. He worked on the ranch when he was not traveling with the Miller Brothers for more than 25 years.  He died April 2, 1932, after being kicked in the head while breaking a colt at the ranch. He was later honored by the U.S. Postal Service, who featured Pickett on a stamp as part of its Legends of the West series.

Prorodeo Hall of Fame

One problem with the stamp. Artist Mark Hess depicted Bill’s brother Ben in the orginal artwork for the 1993 20-stamp panel Legends of the West. When the family notified the Postal Service, they had Hess re-do the art and withdrew 5 million panes of stamps (that’s 100 million stamps). Alas, some had already been sold and rather than create a rare collector’s item, the Postal Service sold 150,000 of the incorrect panels to create a not-so-rare collector’s item. The wrong stamp is worth about $150 today. (The Bill Pickett incident)

Ben on the left, Bill on the right.

George Armstrong Custer was born on this date in 1839. The PBS series The West has a fair essay on his life, career and legacy.

Custer’s blunders cost him his life but gained him everlasting fame. His defeat at the Little Bighorn made the life of what would have been an obscure 19th century military figure into the subject of countless songs, books and paintings. His widow, Elizabeth Bacon Custer, did what she could to further his reputation, writing laudatory accounts of his life that portrayed him as not only a military genius but also a refined and cultivated man, a patron of the arts, and a budding statesman.

Martin Van Buren was born on December 5, 1782, in Kinderhook, New York. He was the tenth Secretary of State, eighth Vice President and eight President of the United States (1837-1841).

Just five feet six inches tall, with reddish-blond hair, Van Buren earned the nicknames “The Little Magician” and the “Red Fox of Kinderhook” for his legendary skill in political manipulation. Alongside his gift for politics, however, Van Buren harbored a sense of idealism that helped lead him, late in his career, to oppose the westward expansion of slavery.

Van Buren rose to national fame under the wing of Andrew Jackson, who defeated President John Quincy Adams in Adams’ 1828 bid for a second term. Before coming to Washington as a senator in 1821, Van Buren crafted the powerful New York political machine known as the “Albany Regency.” In 1825, he put his formidable political skills at Jackson’s disposal.

Having assembled the coalition that made possible “Old Hickory”‘s ascension to the presidency in 1828, Van Buren was rewarded with an appointment as secretary of state. The election, the first in which a candidate directly appealed for the popular vote, marked a turning point in American politics and confirmed the emergence of the Democratic Party as heir to the Jeffersonian Republicans.

Today in History: December 5

Today is the birthday

… of Jeff Bridges. The six-time Oscar nominee is 62 — three for supporting, three for leading, winning for Crazy Heart. He received his first Oscar nomination in 1972 and his most recent this year.

… of Marisa Tomei. The three-time Oscar nominee — winning for best supporting actress in My Cousin Vinny — is 47.

… of Tyra Banks, 38.

Gilbert Stuart was born on this date in 1755.

Because he portrayed virtually all the notable men and women of the Federal period in the United States, Gilbert Stuart was declared the “Father of American Portraiture” by his contemporaries. Born in Rhode Island, the artist trained and worked in London, England, and Dublin, Ireland, from 1775 to 1793. He then returned to America with the specific intention of painting President Washington’s portrait.

Stuart resided in New York (1793-1795); Philadelphia (1795-1803), where he did his first portrait of George Washington; and the new capital at Washington, D.C. (1803-1805). In 1805 he settled in Boston and painted the Gibbs-Coolidge Set, the only surviving depiction of all five first presidents. Before his death at seventy-two, Stuart also taught many followers. A charming conversationalist, Stuart entertained his sitters during long hours of posing to sustain the fresh spontaneity of their expressions. To emphasize facial characterization, he eliminated unnecessary accessories and preferred dark, neutral backgrounds and simple, bust- or half-length formats.

Stuart often was irritatingly slow in completing commissions, in spite of his swift, bravura brushwork. Though he inevitably commanded high prices, Stuart lived on the verge of bankruptcy throughout his career because of his extravagant lifestyle and inept business dealings. In London, for instance, he had owned a carriage, an unheard-of presumption for a commoner. And Stuart’s years in Ireland, both coming and going, had been ploys to escape debtors’ prison.

National Gallery of Art

Andy Williams is 84. Williams headlined at Caesar’s Palace when it opened in 1966. That is, he was once a very big star.

Director Jean-Luc Godard is 81.

As a charter member of the Nouvelle Vague, Jean-Luc Godard was also arguably the most influential French filmmaker of the postwar era. Beginning with his groundbreaking 1959 feature debut A Bout de Souffle, Godard revolutionized the motion picture form, freeing the medium from the shackles of its long-accepted cinematic language by rewriting the rules of narrative, continuity, sound, and camera work. Later in his career, he also challenged the common means of feature production, distribution, and exhibition, all in an effort to subvert the conventions of the Hollywood formula to create a new kind of film.

All Movie Guide via NY Times

Ozzy Osbourne is 63.

Daryl Hannah is 51 today. So is Julianne Moore. Together they have four Oscar nominations, two for leading actress and two for supporting actress. All are Moore’s, of course.

Brendan Fraser is 43.

Sean Parker is 32 today. That’s the Napster/Plaxo/Facebook co-founder portrayed by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network. He’s a billionaire, perhaps the only one to graduate from Chantilly (Virginia) High School (1998). According to Wikipedia, Parker was earning $80,000 a year coding when he graduated. He skipped college.

George B. McClellan was born on this date in 1826. McClellan was the commander of Union forces in the east during much of the first two years of the War of the Rebellion. He loved to organize and feared to fight. McClellan was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for President in 1864, receiving 21 to Lincoln’s 212 electoral votes.

“Many say they would almost worship you, if you would put a fighting general in the place of McClellan. This would be splendid weather for an engagement.” Mary Todd Lincoln to Abraham Lincoln, November 2, 1862 — Lincoln removed McClellan November 7th

Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was born on this date in 1857. Born in the Ukraine of Polish descent, Joseph Conrad learned English in the British merchant marine in his twenties. He began writing in the 1890s and published his first novel, Almayer’s Folly, in 1895. Lord Jim (1900) and Heart of Darkness (1902) are his most famous works.

In 1890, he captained a steamboat into the Congo, which was then the Belgian Congo, controlled by King Leopold II. He saw horrible atrocities there. People had been forced into slave labor camps, where many of them were abused and killed. He called it “the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of the human conscience.”

He went back to England, settled in Kent, and never worked as a sailor again. He wrote adventure stories, and 10 years after returning from the Congo, he wrote Heart of Darkness (1902). It’s about a man’s journey down a river into the middle of Africa and about a powerful and mysterious trading agent named Kurtz. Kurtz has established himself as a god among the natives, surrounding his trading post with severed heads on stakes.

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor (2010)

And Happy Birthday, David, good friend and esteemed colleague.

Five-time Tony winner (10 nominations), three-time Emmy winner (11 nominations), Grammy winner, Kennedy Center Honoree and Oscar nominee Julie Harris is 86 today. That’s her smooching James Dean in East of Eden (1955).

David Hackett Fischer is 76 today. The historian is author of the outstanding, Pulitizer-winning Washington’s Crossing, Paul Revere’s Ride, Champlain’s Dream, Albion’s Seed and Fairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies: New Zealand and the United States, due out in February.

Senator Harry Reid is 72.

Monica Seles is 38.

Nelly Furtado is 33.

Britney Spears is 30.

Aaron Rodgers is 28.

Great Google doodle today.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835), Dick Clark (1929), Bill Walsh (1931) and Sandra Oh (1970) were all born on November 30th.

And it’s not a national holiday!

Seriously?!

It’s the birthday of Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, in Florida, Missouri (1835), who wrote Life on the Mississippi (1883), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), and his own favorite, The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1891). He was cynical and irreverent, but he had a tender spot for cats. There were always kittens in the house, and he gave them names like “Sin” and “Sour Mash.” “Mamma has morals,” said his daughter Suzy, “and Papa has cats.” He swore constantly and without shame. His streams of profanity broke his wife’s heart on a daily basis. One day he cut himself shaving, and she heard a string of oaths from the bathroom. She resolved to move him to repentance, and she repeated back to him all the bad words he had just said. He smiled at her and shook his head. “You have the words, Livy,” he said, “but you’ll never learn the tune.” After he published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he found himself awash in cash, which he invested in a typesetting machine that was very complicated and very ingenious and demanded more and more investment and in the end would not work. He had to declare bankruptcy, and he decided to go on a worldwide lecture tour, the proceeds of which he would use to pay back all of his creditors. His visits to Africa and Asia convinced him that a God who allowed Christians to believe that they were better than savages was a God he wanted no part of. He was a funny man and is remembered for his humorous sayings. He said, “It is better to keep you mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.” He also said, “Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media (2005)

As a teenager, Clark began his career in broadcasting in 1945 in the mailroom of station WRUN in Utica, New York, working his way up to weatherman and then newsman. After graduating from Syracuse University in 1951, Clark moved from radio into television broadcasting at station WKTV in Utica. Here, Clark hosted Cactus Dick and the Santa Fe Riders, a country music program which became the training ground for his later television hosting persona. In 1952, Clark moved to Philadelphia and radio station WFIL as a disc jockey for Dick Clark’s Caravan of Music. At that time, WFIL was affiliated with a television station which carried Bandstand, an afternoon teen dance show. Clark often substituted for Bob Horn, the show’s regular host. When Horn was jailed for drunken driving in 1956, Clark took over as permanent host, boosting Bandstand into Philadelphia’s best-known afternoon show. From that point on, he became a fixture in the American television broadcasting arena.

In 1957, the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) picked up the program for its daytime schedule, changing the name to American Bandstand.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications

William Ernest Walsh. . .Led 49ers to three Super Bowl wins (XVI, XIX, XXIII) in 10 years. . .Overall record: 102-63-1. . . Got first head coaching job at age 47. . .Led 49ers to first-ever NFL title in just three years. . . Won six NFC Western division titles, three NFC championships. . .NFL Coach of Year, 1981; NFC Coach of Year, 1984. . .Widely recognized as passing offense expert with keen ability to evaluate talent. . . Born November 30, 1931, in Los Angeles, California. . .Died July 30, 2007, at age of 75.

Pro Football Hall of Fame

It’s also the birthday

… of Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Inspector Lewis Erskine and Stuart Bailey is 93.

… of Robert Guillaume, 84.

… of G. Gordon Liddy, 81. If the good die young, Liddy will live forever.

… of movie director Ridley Scott. He’s 74. Three nominations for the best director Oscar: Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down.

… of Terrence Malick, 68.

… of David Mamet. The playwright is 64. Two Oscar nomintations for writing, Wag the Dog and The Verdict.

… of Mandy Patinkin. “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Patinkin is 59.

… of Billy Idol, 56.

… of Bo Jackson, 49.

… of Ben Stiller. He’s 46.

… of Amy Ryan, 42.

Oliver Winchester was born 201 years ago today. A clothing manufacturer, Winchester bought a small failing division of Smith & Wesson in 1850, the division that made a rudimentary repeating rifle. In 1860, an engineer working for Winchester, Benjamin Tyler Henry, developed the first successful repeating rifle. It was improved upon and became known as the Winchester in 1866.

Winston Churchill was born on this date in 1874.

Lucille Ball married Desi Arnaz 71 years ago today.

Saturnino Orestes Armas “Minnie” Miñoso Arrieta is 86 today. Miñoso played for the Indians, the White Sox, the Cardinals and Senators from 1949-1964. He also played for the White Sox in 1976 (3 games) and in 1980 (2 games). At 54 in 1980, Miñoso was the second oldest ever to come to bat. More significantly, he was a 9-time All-Star and had a career BA of .298.

Vin Scully is 84 today. Scully started broadcasting Dodger games in Brooklyn in 1950. Seems unlikely now, but Scully called NFL games for CBS 1975-1982.

John Mayall is 78. He should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for his influence alone — Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Mick Taylor, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie among those once in the Bluesbreakers. That’s Mayall in 2004 in the photo and with Clapton for his 70th birthday the year before. Crank it up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwGL5LDb4u8

Diane Ladd is 76. Ladd has appeared in more than 100 films and television programs and has been nominated for the best supporting actress Oscar three times including her portrayal of Flo in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and in a film with her daughter Laura Dern, Rambling Rose.

The outstanding Tigers catcher Bill Freehan is 70.

Garry Shandling is 62.

Joel Coen, the Joel of the Coen Brothers, is 57. (Ethan was 54 in September.) Films by the brothers include O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy, Miller’s Crossing, Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn’t There, No Country for Old Men, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man and True Grit.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is 52.

Actress Kim Delaney is 50.

Don Cheadle is 47. Cheadle was, of course, nominated for the best actor Oscar for his performance in Hotel Rwanda.

Mariano Rivera is 42 today. He can’t pitch forever, right?

C.S. Lewis was born on this date in 1898. He’s the author of the seven-volume children’s series The Chronicles of Narnia.

Louisa May Alcott was born on this date in 1832.

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

“It’s so dreadful to be poor!” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

“I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all,” added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

“We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,” said Beth contentedly from her corner.

The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words.

The Library of Congress’s Today in History has a lot about Alcott.

The first Army-Navy football game was 121 years ago today. Navy won 24-0.

George Harrison died 10 years ago today.

Stan the Man is 91. He batted .331 lifetime. It ought to be a national holiday.

After 22 years as a Cardinal, Stan Musial ranked at or near the top of baseball’s all-time lists in almost every batting category. The dead-armed Class C pitcher was transformed into a slugging outfielder who topped the .300 mark 17 times and won seven National League batting titles with his famed corkscrew stance and ringing line drives. A three-time MVP, he played in 24 All-Star games. He was nicknamed The Man by Dodgers fans for the havoc he wrought at Ebbets Field and was but one home run shy of capturing the National League Triple Crown in 1948.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Today is also the birthday

… of “That Girl” Marlo Thomas, now 74.

… of Malcolm John “Mac” Rebennack, Jr. That’s Dr. John, in the right place, wrong time. He’s 71 today.

… of actress Juliet Mills. Hayley’s older sister and John’s older daughter is 70. Juliet Mills first appeared in a movie in 1942, when she played an infant.

… basketball hall-of-famer Earl Monroe. The Pearl is 67.

… of writer-director-actor Harold Ramis. He’s 67. Ramis co-wrote the screenplay and directed “Groundhog Day,” enough to make me a fan. He was the doctor in the film.

… of Goldie Hawn. Kate Hudson’s mom is 66.

… of the other Judy Garland daughter, Lorna Luft. She’s 59.

… of journalist and editor Tina Brown. She’s 58.

… of the not so desperate Nicollette Sheridan. She’s 48.

… of Björk Guðmundsdóttir. Björk is 46.

… of football hall-of-famer Troy Aikman. He’s 45.

… of probable future baseball hall-of-famer Ken Griffey Jr. Junior is 42.

… of Michael Strahan, 40.

Coleman Randolph Hawkins was born on this date in 1904. According to Wikipedia:

Lester Young, who was called “Pres”, in a 1959 interview with The Jazz Review, said “As far as I’m concerned, I think Coleman Hawkins was the President first, right? As far as myself, I think I’m the second one.” Miles Davis once said: “When I heard Hawk, I learned to play ballads.”

François-Marie Arouet was born in Paris on this date in 1694. We know him as Voltaire.

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”

Today really ought to be a national holiday.

Oh, wait, it is a holiday.

Three-time Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio is 37 today.

Calista Flockhart, Mrs. Harrison Ford, is 47. (He’s 69.)

Demi Moore is 49.

Stanley Tucci is 51.

Carlos Fuentes Macías is 83.

Jonathan Winters is 86.

The late Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born on November 11, 1922.

“Do you realize that all great literature — Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, A Farewell to Arms, The Scarlet Letter, The Red Badge of Courage, The Iliad and The Odyssey, Crime and Punishment, the Bible, and”The Charge of the Light Brigade” — are all about what a bummer it is to be a human being?” — Kurt Vonnegut

George Patton was born on November 11, 1885. From his New York Times obituary in 1945:

Gen. George Smith Patton Jr. was one of the most brilliant soldiers in American history. Audacious, unorthodox and inspiring, he led his troops to great victories in North Africa, Sicily and on the Western Front. Nazi generals admitted that of all American field commanders he was the one they most feared. To Americans he was a worthy successor of such hardbitten cavalrymen as Philip Sheridan, J. E. B. Stuart and Nathan Bedford Forrest.

His great soldierly qualities were matched by one of the most colorful personalities of his period. About him countless legends clustered–some true, some untrue, but all testifying to the firm hold he had upon the imaginations of his men. He went into action with two pearl-handled revolvers in holsters on his hips. He was the master of an unprintable brand of eloquence, yet at times he coined phrases that will live in the American Army’s traditions.

“We shall attack and attack until we are exhausted, and then we shall attack again,” he told his troops before the initial landings in North Africa, thereby summarizing the military creed that won victory after victory along the long road that led from Casablanca to the heart of Germany.

Today is the 236th anniversary of the founding of the United States Marine Corps (1775).

From the Halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country’s battles
In the air, on land, and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean:
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.

Russell Johnson is 87. You know, The Professor on Gilligan’s Island. Johnson has another 150 or so cast credits at IMDb.

The Mama and Papa’s little girl is 52; that’s Mackenzie Phillips. Known, of course, as the older Cooper sister in “One Day At a Time,” the young Phillips, I thought, was best as Carol in “American Graffiti.”

Tracy Morgan is 43.

It’s the birthday of Ellen Pompeo. Dr. Grey’s anatomy is 42 today.

Roy Scheider was born on this date in 1932. He was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for “The French Connection,” and the best actor Oscar for “All That Jazz,” but we may know him best as Sheriff Martin Brody in Jaws. Scheider died in 2008.

Richard Burton was born 86 years ago today (1925). Burton was nominated for the best actor Oscar six times and best supporting actor Oscar once. He never won. Burton died at age 58.

Martin Luther was born on this date in 1483.

Sesame Street debuted 42 years ago today.

Mary Travers, Mary of Peter, Paul & Mary, would have been 75 today. She died in 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW6NVcqcRVE

Carl Sagan would have been 77 today. He died in 1996.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M

Whitey Herzog is 80.

Whitey Herzog, former Rangers, Angels, Royals and Cardinals manager, won six division titles, three National League pennants and the 1982 World Series during his career as skipper. Herzog led the Royals to three straight American League West titles from 1976-78, then landed with the Cardinals in 1980. He led the Cardinals to NL pennants in 1982, 1985 and 1987 – leading the Redbirds to the ’82 World Series title in a classic seven-game series against the Brewers. Herzog was named the 1985 NL Manager of the Year by the BBWAA. He finished with a career record of 1,281-1,125 for a .532 winning percentage. His 1,281 wins rank 32nd on the all-time list.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson is 76.

Over 17 seasons with the Cardinals, Bob Gibson won 20 games five times and established himself as the very definition of intimidation, competitiveness, and dignity. One of the best athletes to ever play the game, the ex-Harlem Globetrotter posted a 1.12 ERA in 1968, the lowest figure since 1914, and was named the National League Cy Young Award winner and Most Valuable Player. Known as a premier big-game pitcher, Gibson posted World Series records of seven consecutive wins and 17 strikeouts in a game, and was named World Series MVP in 1964 and 1967.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Tom Weiskopf is 69. His one major win was The Open Championship in 1973.

The Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno, is 60.

Eric Dane is 39.

The actress Hedy Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler on November 9th in 1913. Married six times, first to a Austrian armaments manufacturer, arrested for shoplifting in 1965, and co-holder of a 1942 patent that, according to Wikipedia is “a basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology, such as COFDM used in Wi-Fi network connections and CDMA used in some cordless and wireless telephones.”

Benjamin Banneker was born on November 9, 1731, in Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland.

Largely self-taught, Banneker was one of the the first African Americans to gain distinction in science. His significant accomplishments and correspondence with prominent political figures profoundly influenced how African Americans were viewed during the Federal period.

Banneker spent most of his life on his family’s 100-acre farm outside Baltimore. There, he taught himself astronomy by watching the stars and learned advanced mathematics from borrowed textbooks. In 1752, Banneker garnered public acclaim by building a clock entirely out of wood. The clock, believed to be the first built in America, kept precise time for decades. Twenty years later, Banneker began making astronomical calculations that enabled him to successfully forecast a 1789 solar eclipse. His estimate, made well in advance of the celestial event, contradicted predictions of better-known mathematicians and astronomers.

Library of Congress

Gail Borden, the inventor of condensed milk, was born on this date in 1801. His timing was perfect. He patented the milk just before the civil war when it’s use as part of the field ration made it a success. Borden was also instrumental in requiring dairy farmers to maintain clean facilities if they wanted to sell their milk to his company — Eagle Brand.

The first of seven African-Americans to be nominated for a best actress Oscar, Dorothy Dandridge was born on this date in 1922. She was nominated for Carmen Jones in 1955.

And 72 years ago the Holocaust began:

Today is the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night in 1938 when Hitler ordered a series of supposedly spontaneous attacks on Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues. The idea was to make the attacks look random, and then accuse the Jews of inciting the violence. In all, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned or destroyed. Rioters looted about 7,500 Jewish businesses and vandalized Jewish hospitals, homes, schools, and cemeteries. The event was used to justify barring Jews from schools and most public places, and forcing them to adhere to new curfews. In the days following, thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps. The event was called Kristallnacht, which means, “Night of Broken Glass.” It’s generally considered the official beginning of the Holocaust. Before that night, the Nazis had killed people secretly and individually. After Kristallnacht, the Nazis felt free to persecute the Jews openly, because they knew no one would stop them.

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media (2007)

The Atlantic began publication 154 years ago today; Rolling Stone began 44 years ago today.

In addition to Margaret Mitchell mentioned earlier, today is the birthday

… of Patti Page. A good gift for Patti as she turns 84 might be A Doggy in The Window. Depends on how much, I suppose.

… of Bobby Bowden. He’s 82.

… of Morley Safer. He’s 80.

… of Bonnie Bramlett. The Bonnie of Delaney, Bonnie & Friends is 67.

… of Bonnie Raitt. She turns 62 in the Nick of Time.

… of Michael Nyqvist. The Swedish actor — the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy films among others — is 51.

… of Sam Bradford. The 2008 Heisman winner is just 24.

Milton Bradley was born 175 years ago today (1836). In 1860 he released The Checkered Game of Life. In addition to success with games, Bradley was an advocate of kindergarten and early childhood education.

Bram Stoker was born on November 8th in 1847. He published Dracula in 1897. The Bram comes from his actual given name, Abraham. He was born in Dublin.

Today is the birthday of Billy Graham. He’s 93. You’d think he’d want to go to heaven by now.

Tom Peters is 69 today. In 1982 he published a widely-acclaimed bestseller In Search of Excellence. I have a first edition. The pages of the book about excellence are bound into the cover upside-down.

Johnny Rivers is 69.

Roberta Joan Anderson is 68. We know her as Joni Mitchell.

A consummate artist, Joni Mitchell is an accomplished musician, songwriter, poet and painter. Hailing from Canada, where she performed as a folksinger as far back as 1962, she found her niche on the same Southern California singer/songwriter scene of the late Sixties and early Seventies that germinated such kindred spirits as Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Mitchell’s artistry goes well beyond folksinging to incorporate elements of jazz and classical music. In her own words, “I looked like a folksinger, even though the moment I began to write, my music was not folk music. It was something else that had elements of romantic classicism to it.” Impossible to categorize, Mitchell has doggedly pursued avenues of self-expression, heedless of commercial outcomes. Nonetheless, she managed to connect with a mass audience in the mid-Seventies when a series of albums—Court and Spark (1974, #2), Miles of Aisles (1974, #2), The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975, #4) and Hejira (1976, #13)-established her as one of that decade’s pre-eminent artists.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

General David Petraeus is 59. His current job is Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Christopher Knight is 54. We know him better as Peter Brady.

The jockey Calvin Borel is 45 today.

Herman Mankiewicz was born 114 years ago today.

[Mankiewicz] worked as a screenwriter on many successful Hollywood films, but he was uncredited on a lot of them, like Horse Feathers (1932), Million Dollar Legs (1932), and The Wizard of Oz (1939) — he was the one who suggested that they film the Kansas scenes in The Wizard of Oz in black and white. But he did get credit for his work with Orson Welles co-writing the script for Citizen Kane (1941). Citizen Kane topped a lot of lists as the best film of the 20th century, but when it came out it only won one Academy Award, and that was for its screenplay.

When he was in New York, he said, “Oh, to be back in Hollywood, wishing I was back in New York.”

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor (2010)

Leon Trotsky was born on November 7, 1879 (but it was October 26th at the time).

The first internet radio broadcast was 17 years ago today according to Wikipedia. It was by WXYC at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Doug Wilder was elected governor of Virginia 22 years ago today. He was the first African-American governor of any state. Twenty-two years earlier, Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland, the first African-American mayor of a major city.

Pat Conroy is 66.

Today is Pat Sajak’s birthday. His wheel of fortune has spun for 65 years.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is 64 today.

Westley is 49. That’s actor Cary Elwes.

Natalie Merchant is 48.

And it’s the birthday of Mahalia Jackson, born in New Orleans 100 years ago today. As The New York Times noted in Ms. Jackson’s 1972 obituary:

“I been ‘buked and I been scorned/ I’m gonna tell my Lord/ When I get home/ Just how long you’ve been treating me wrong,” she sang in a full, rich contralto to the throng of 200,000 people as a preface to Dr. King’s “I’ve got a dream” speech.

The song, which Dr. King had requested, came as much from Miss Jackson’s heart as from her vocal cords. The granddaughter of a slave, she had struggled for years for fulfillment and for unprejudiced recognition of her talent.

She received the latter only belatedly with a Carnegie Hall debut in 1950. Her following, therefore, was largely in the black community, in the churches and among record collectors.

Although Miss Jackson’s medium was the sacred song drawn from the Bible or inspired by it, the words–and the “soul” style in which they were delivered–became metaphors of black protest, Tony Heilbut, author of “The Gospel Sound” and her biographer, said yesterday. Among blacks, he went on, her favorites were “Move On Up a Little Higher,” “Just Over the Hill” and “How I Got Over.”

Singing these and other songs to black audiences, Miss Jackson was a woman on fire, whose combs flew out of her hair as she performed. She moved her listeners to dancing, to shouting, to ecstasy, Mr. Heilbut said. By contrast, he asserted, Miss Jackson’s television style and her conduct before white audiences was far more placid and staid.

Had Mahalia Jackson been born a few decades later, when she could have sung her soul for audiences black and white, she, Mahalia Jackson, and not Aretha Franklin, would have been the Queen of Soul and the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Even so, she is an inductee.

In Jackson’s own words, “Rock and roll was stolen out of the sanctified church!” Certainly, in the unleashed frenzy of the “spirit feel” style of gospel epitomized by such singers as Mahalia Jackson, Marion Williams and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, one can hear the rousing roots of rock and roll. One of Jackson’s accompanists was keyboardist Billy Preston, who went on to great fame as a rock and R&B star. But religious passion was paramount in Jackson’s life, and no sacred-to-secular transformation would mark her career as it did so many others. “Her voice is a heartfelt express of all that is most human about us—our fears, our faith, our hope for salvation,” David Ritz wrote in his liner notes for Mahalia Jackson: 16 Most Requested Songs. “Hope is the hallmark of Mahalia Jackson and the gospel tradition she embodies.”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

Harry Belafonte called her “the single most powerful black woman in the United States.”

Just 61 days until Christmas.

Pablo Picasso was born on this date in 1881.

Today is the birthday

… of Marian Ross, 83 today. She was Marion Cunningham on Happy Days.

… of basketball coach Bobby Knight. He’s 71.

… of singer Helen Reddy. “I am woman, hear me roar” is a roaring 70.

… of author Anne Tyler (not to be confused with Ann Taylor). The Pulitzer winner (for Breathing Lessons) is 70.

… of basketball hall-of-famer Dave Cowens. The tenacious Celtic is 63.

… of Nancy Cartwright. The voice of Bart Simpson is 54.

… of Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, 27. She’s better known as Katy Perry.

Charles Edward Coughlin was born on this date in 1891.

One of the first public figures to make effective use of the airwaves, Charles E. Coughlin, was for a time one of the most influential personalities on American radio. At the height of his popularity in the early 1930s, some 30 million listeners tuned in to hear his emotional messages. Many of his speeches were rambling, disorganized, repetitious, and as time went by, they became increasingly full of bigoted rhetoric. But as a champion of the poor, a foe of big business, and a critic of federal indifference in the face of widespread economic distress, he spoke to the hopes and fears of lower-middle class Americans throughout the country. Years later, a supporter remembered the excitement of attending one of his rallies: “When he spoke it was a thrill like Hitler. And the magnetism was uncanny. It was so intoxicating, there’s no use saying what he talked about…”

The American Experience

Minnie Pearl was born Sarah Ophelia Colley on this date in 1912.

Jim Bunning is 80 today.

Displaying a remarkable consistency during his 17-year career, Jim Bunning became the first pitcher to record 100 wins and 1,000 strikeouts in both the American and National Leagues. He also threw no-hitters in both leagues, including a perfect game on Father’s Day 1964. Accumulated 224 career wins as a seven-time All-Star selection, Bunning was also a leading figure in the founding of the player’s union and later served Kentucky as a United States Senator.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Too bad about the political career. I always liked Bunning as a pitcher, and regret not attending a game I almost went to he pitched against the Mets in 1964. He threw a no-hitter that day. As a senator he was a raving lunatic on his lucid days.

Pele is 71 today.

Oscar-winning director Ang Lee is 57.

Dwight Yoakam is 55. Yoakam has been in a number of films — he was the nasty boyfriend in Sling Blade — but it’s country music that earned his fame.

With his stripped-down approach to traditional honky tonk and Bakersfield country, Dwight Yoakam helped return country music to its roots in the late ’80s. Like his idols Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and Hank Williams, Yoakam never played by Nashville’s rules; consequently, he never dominated the charts like his contemporary Randy Travis. Then again, Travis never played around with the sound and style of country music like Yoakam. On each of his records, he twists around the form enough to make it seem like he doesn’t respect all of country’s traditions. Appropriately, his core audience was composed mainly of roots rock and rock & roll fans, not the mainstream country audience. Nevertheless, he was frequently able to chart in the country Top Ten, and he remained one of the most respected and adventurous recording country artists well into the ’90s.

allmusic

Weird Al Yankovic is 52.

Johnny Carson was born 86 years ago today. A little luck and many fewer cigarettes and he might be alive today. While he was alive, Carson would have been my choice for the person I’d most like to have dinner with.

He grew up an extremely shy boy, but when he was 12 years old he happened to read a how-to book about magic tricks and he later said that it was the discovery of magic that helped him relate to people. He started writing jokes in college and went on to host a TV game show called “Who Do You Trust?” But his big break came when he took over hosting The Tonight Show from Jack Parr in 1962.

By the mid-1970s, more than 15 million people were watching The Tonight Show every night before they went to bed. When he retired in 1992, he had been on the air for 30 years. He almost never appeared in public again, and died in 2005.

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Michael Crichton died three years ago; he would have been 69 today. The Writer’s Almanac (link above) has a interesting entry about Crichton.

Harvey Penick was born on this date in 1904. His Little Red Book is the best-selling golf book ever.

John William Heisman was born on this date in 1869. He’s the guy the trophy is named after. The following milestones in Heisman’s career are excerpted from his 1936 obituary in The New York Times and put here in chronological order.

In 1888 he was a member of the Brown football team, and in 1889 of the Pennsylvania varsity football eleven.

He began his coaching career in 1892 at Oberlin College. In 1893 he coached all sports at the University of Akron. From 1895 to 1900 he coached football and baseball at Alabama Polytechnic Institute, and from 1900 to 1904 was coach at Clemson College.

From 1904 to 1920 he coached football, baseball and basketball at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he developed the famous “Golden Tornado” teams.

In 1908 he was director of athletics at the Atlanta Athletic Club. From 1910 to 1914 he was president of the Atlanta Baseball Association. In 1920 he coached football at the University of Pennsylvania and in 1923 filled the same position at Washington and Jefferson College. From 1924 to 1927 he was head football coach and director of athletics at Rice Institute, Houston, Texas.

In 1923 and 1924 he was president of the American Football Coaches Association.

For the last six years [before 1936] he had been physical director of the Downtown Athletic Club.

Curly Howard (Jerome Lester Horwitz) was born on this date in 1903. The most popular of the Three Stooges, Curly had no formal training and was often improvising. According to older brother Moe Howard, “If we were going through a scene and he’d forget his words for a moment, you know. Rather than stand, get pale and stop, you never knew what he was going to do. On one occasion he’d get down to the floor and spin around like a top until he remembered what he had to say.” It’s said Curly squandered all his money on wine, food, women, homes, cars, and especially dogs. Sounds like good choices, but they took their toll. Curly Howard died at age 48 in 1952 after a series of strokes.

“N’yuk, n’yuk, n’yuk.”

Three time best actress Oscar nominee Joan Fontaine is 94 today. She was born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland. Miss Fontaine won the Oscar in 1942 for Suspicion. Good genes in that family. Her sister Olivia de Havilland turned 95 in July.

Nobel Prize-winner Doris Lessing is 92 today.

In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. She was out grocery shopping when the announcement came, and she came home to find her house swamped with reporters. She was nonplussed about the prize, saying, “Oh Christ! I couldn’t care less. This has been going on for 30 years. I’ve won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one, so I’m delighted to win them all. It’s a royal flush.” And she said, “I can’t say I’m overwhelmed with surprise. I’m 88 years old and they can’t give the Nobel to someone who’s dead, so I think they were probably thinking they’d probably better give it to me now before I’ve popped off.”

By the time she accepted the prize, she was considerably more gracious, saying, “Thank you does not seem enough when you’ve won the best of them all. It is astonishing and amazing.”

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor (2010)

Christopher Lloyd is 73. The trifecta — Emmett Brown, Uncle Fester and Jim Ignatowski.

Annette Funicello is 69. At the Disney Archives, once upon a time, I actually saw first-hand something I had often fantasized about in junior high — Annette’s Mouseketeer sweater.

Catherine Deneuve is 68.

Jeff Goldblum is 59.

Spike Jonze is 42.

Ichiro Suzuki is 38.

Albuquerque’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson of Modern Family is 36.

Slugger Jimmie Foxx was born on October 22, 1907.

A fearsome power hitter whose strength earned him the moniker The Beast, Jimmie Foxx was the anchor of an intimidating Philadelphia Athletics lineup that produced pennant winners from 1929-31. The second batter in history to top 500 home runs, Foxx belted 30 or more homers in 12 consecutive seasons and drove in more than 100 runs 13 consecutive years, including a career-best 175 with Boston in 1938. He won back-to-back MVP Awards in 1932 and ’33, capturing the Triple Crown in the latter year.

Baseball Hall of Fame

It was on this date in 1962, that President Kennedy told the nation about the Soviet missiles in Cuba. From The New York Times report on the speech:

President Kennedy imposed a naval and air “quarantine” tonight on the shipment of offensive military equipment to Cuba.

In a speech of extraordinary gravity, he told the American people that the Soviet Union, contrary to promises, was building offensive missiles and bomber bases in Cuba. He said the bases could handle missiles carrying nuclear warheads up to 2,000 miles.

Thus a critical moment in the cold war was at hand tonight. The President had decided on a direct confrontation with–and challenge to–the power of the Soviet Union.

*****

All this the President recited in an 18-minute radio and television address of a grimness unparalleled in recent times. He read the words rapidly, with little emotion, until he came to the peroration–a warning to Americans of the dangers ahead.

“Let no one doubt that this is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have set out,” the President said. “No one can foresee precisely what course it will take or what costs or casualties will be incurred.”

“The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are–but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world,” he added.

It was as close as we’ve ever come to nuclear war.

Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Norton on “The Honeymooners” with Jackie Gleason, Art Carney and Audrey Meadows, is 87.

Whitey Ford is 83.

Edward Whitey Ford was the big-game pitcher on the great Yankees teams of the 1950s and early ’60s, earning him the moniker Chairman of the Board. The wily southpaw’s lifetime record of 236-106 gives him the best winning percentage (.690) of any 20th century pitcher. He paced the American League in victories three times, and in ERA and shutouts twice. The 1961 Cy Young Award winner still holds many World Series records, including 10 wins and 94 strikeouts, once pitching 33 consecutive scoreless innings in the Fall Classic.

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Steve Cropper is 70. According to the All Music Guide:

Probably the best-known soul guitarist in the world, Cropper came to prominence in the early ’60s, first with the Mar-Keys (“Last Night”), then as a founding member of Booker T. & the MG’s. A major figure in the Southern soul movement of the ’60s, Cropper made his mark not only as a player and arranger (most notably on classic sides by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, and Wilson Pickett) but as a songwriter as well, co-writing the classic “In the Midnight Hour.”

http://youtu.be/U-7QSMyz5rg

Green Onions is the single greatest rock instrumental ever, period (Booker T. Jones, organ; Steve Cropper, guitar; Al Jackson, drums; and Lewis Steinberg, bass). Donald “Duck” Dunn replaced Steinberg in 1965. Jackson was killed in 1975.

Bassist Dunn and drummer steve Potts with Jones and Cropper in 2010. I wonder how many times they’ve played “Green Onions.”

M.G.’s stands for the British motor car and not for Memphis Group. Chips Moman of Stax founded the band and named it for his car. Moman had played with Jones in an earlier band, the Triumphs. Stax changed the origin of the M.G.’s story when Moman left the label. Steve Cropper confirmed Moman’s version on Fresh Air in 2007.

Judy Sheindlin (“Judge Judy”) is 69.

Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis is 59.

The daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher has hit the double-nickel. That’s Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia, and once Mrs. Paul Simon. (Debbie Reynolds is 79.)

Ken Watanabe is 52.

One of the Kardashian sisters — and does it really matter which one — is 31 today.

Dizzy Gillespie was born on October 21, 1917.

Dizzy Gillespie was one of the principal developers of bop in the early 1940s, and his styles of improvising and trumpet playing were imitated widely in the 1940s and 1950s. Indeed, he is one of the most influential players in the history of jazz.
. . .

Early in 1953, someone accidentally fell on Gillespie’s trumpet, which was sitting upright on a trumpet stand, and bent the bell back. Gillespie played it, discovered that he liked the sound, and from that point on had trumpets built for him with the bell pointing upwards at a 45 degree angle. The design is his visual trademark — for more than three decades he was virtually the only major trumpeter in jazz playing such an instrument.

PBS – JAZZ A Film by Ken Burns

Alfred Nobel was born on this date in 1833. He was the owner of a weapons manufacturer and inventor of dynamite.

Nobel’s enormous legacy — the impetus to leave the prize money now awarded to Nobel laureates — actually stemmed from an event that left him with feelings of great indignation. After his older brother Ludvig died, a French newspaper printed a scathing obituary of Alfred Nobel, who was in fact alive and well. The writer was allegedly confused about who had died, and he used the obituary to write a condemnation of Alfred’s life and work. “Le marchand de la mort est mort (‘The merchant of death is dead’),” the newspaper proclaimed — and also, “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”

Alfred Nobel read the obituary about himself and was so upset that this was to be his legacy that he rewrote his will to establish a set of prizes celebrating humankind’s greatest achievements.

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor (2009)

That great sixth game of the World Series where Carlton Fisk hit the winning home run in the 12th to give the Red Sox a 7-6 victory over the Reds was 35 years ago tonight.

NewMexiKen’s very own parents were married 69 years ago today in Angola, Indiana. They eloped from Detroit. She was 17 and he 19.