NewMexiKen

Hugh Downs is 91. Downs was the host of The Today Show from 1962-1971; before that he was Jack Paar’s sidekick on The Tonight Show from 1957-1962. He also hosted the NBC daytime quiz show Concentration from 1958-1969. That’s right, at one point he was doing all three. And even before all that he was the announcer for Kukla, Fran and Ollie, one of television’s earliest hits beginning on NBC in 1949. And many other shows.

The Bradys’ mom and stepmom, Florence Henderson, is 78.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is 70.

Carl Bernstein of Woodward and Bernstein is 68.

Magician-comedian Teller is 64. Raymond Joseph Teller was his given name, but Teller is now in fact his legal name. He is one of just a few Americans with one name on his passport (according to Wikipedia).

Michael Doucet of Beausoleil is 61.

Meg Tilly is 52.

Actor Vic Morrow was born February 14, 1929. He and two child-actors were killed when a helicopter crashed on them during the filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1982.

The DJ Murray the ‘K’ (Murray Kaufman) was born 90 years ago today (he died in 1982). While at WINS in New York City Kaufman latched onto The Beatles in their first U.S. tour. Later he help establish the Album Rock format at WOR-FM.

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes was born on Valentine’s Day in 1913. Hayes coached The Ohio State University football team from 1951–1978. During the 1978 Gator Bowl, Hayes punched Clemson’s Charlie Bauman after Bauman intercepted an Ohio State pass. Hayes then abused an official and had to be physically restrained, attacking even his own player. He was ejected from the game and fired the next day.

Jimmy Hoffa was born on February 14, 1913. Hoffa worked for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1932 to 1975; as its president from 1958-1971. In 1964 Hoffa was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for jury tampering, but pardoned by President Nixon in 1971 after serving 58 months. The Teamsters, who had always endorsed Democratic presidential candidates, endorsed Nixon 1972. Hoffa disappeared in 1975 and was declared legally dead in 1982.

Mel Allen was also born on February 14, 1913, as Melvin Allen Israel.

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Allen began broadcasting while an undergraduate at the University of Alabama. At the age of 26 he joined the New York Yankees’ broadcasting team, and from 1939 through 1964 was the “Voice of the Yankees.”

Allen gained national acclaim as a broadcaster of numerous World Series and was the longtime voice of baseball’s weekly highlight show This Week in Baseball.

Allen was a dedicated baseball fan whose voice was known to millions. Highly articulate and extremely knowledgeable, he was often more popular than many of the outstanding players he covered. Allen’s broadcasts transcended the drama and excitement of the game in a cultivated, resonant tone that was uniquely his own.

Baseball Hall of Fame 1978 Ford C. Frick Award Winner

Jack Benny was born as Benjamin Kubelsky on this date in 1894. In The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, the entry for The Jack Benny Program on radio runs for eight pages. And then he was on television. Truly one of the great stars of the mid-20th century.

NewMexiKen knows how corny the jokes and skits would sound now — how corny they undoubtedly were then — but tucked among my fond memories is being at my Great Grandmother’s house in Rensselaer, New York, about 60 years ago. I was sick, so stayed home with Gram that Sunday evening while the rest of the family socialized. She had to be in her seventies; I no more than five or six. We listened to The Jack Benny Program on radio. And all I can remember is how hard we laughed. I feel pretty certain the radio audience that Sunday consisted of people my parents and grandparents’ age and they were laughing too. If you know, please tell me a television program today that could as easily amuse four generations.

Happy Saint Valentine’s Day.

In addition to Chuck Yeager, 89 today, and mentioned in previous post, today is the birthday

… of Kim Novak. Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton (Vertigo) and Madge Owens (Picnic) is 79.

… of George Segal. Jack Gallo (Just Shoot Me) and Nick (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) is 78.

… of Carol Lynley. Nonnie Parry (The Poseidon Adventure) and Janet Willard (Blue Denim) is 70.

… of Peter Tork of the Monkees. He’s 70.

… of Elaine Pagels, 69. The Princeton professor (Stanford B.A., Harvard Ph.D.) has written extensively on the Gnostic Gospels.

… of Jerry Springer. He’s 68.

… of Stockard Channing. Abbey Bartlet (West Wing) and Louisa (‘Ouisa’) Kittredge (Six Degrees of Separation) is 68.

… of historian and art historian Simon Schama, 67 today.

… of Mike Krzyzewski. The Duke coach is 65 today.

… of Peter Gabriel. He’s 62.

… of fitness expert Denise Austin, 55.

… of Leslie Feist, 1-2-3-4 … 36 today. She was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada.

William Shockley, who shared in a Nobel Prize for Physics for his role in creating the transistor, was born on this date in 1910. The transistor is the component on which the electronic age is based — we call them semi-conductors and you’re using a whole lot of them to create this page. Shockley earned even more fame for arguing for genetic differences among races — at one point calling for monetary awards if the “genetically disadvantaged” voluntarily underwent sterilization.

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

Grant Wood was born on this date in 1891. That’s his “American Gothic.”

Frank Selvy of Furman scored 100 points in a game against Newberry College 58 years ago today. He’s the only one in NCAA Divison I history to hit triple figures. 41 of 66 field goals and 18 of 22 free throws. Remember, no three point shots then. He tossed up a prayer at the buzzer to get to 100.

The first person to break the sound barrier is 89 today.

Charles Elwood “Chuck” Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, with two ribs broken two nights before in a drunken horseback ride. He reached a speed of 700 miles per hour, or Mach 1.06, at an altitude of 43,000 feet over what is now Edwards Air Force Base, California. The plane, Glamorous Glennis, is hanging from the Air & Space Museum ceiling. Glennis was Mrs. Yeager.

Yeager told his story in Popular Mechanics in 1987. Good reading.

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

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

ChuckYeager.com

Yeager is on Twitter — @GenChuckYeager.

But it sure as hell ought to be. Not only “Rhapsody in Blue” (1924), Abraham Lincoln (1809) and Charles Darwin (1809), but it’s the birthday of Bill Russell for heaven’s sake! And Alice Roosevelt! And Omar Bradley!

[Note, I used “heaven” and “hell” in the same short paragraph. And some of you think I am not religious.]

Bill Russell is 78. Back-to-back NCAA championships at the University of San Francisco, 1955-1956 — 55 consecutive wins. Eleven NBA championships with the Celtics in 13 years, 1957-1969 — Russell was the only player there for all 11. Simply the greatest winner in basketball history. (And the best laugh.)

Today is also the birthday

… of Joe Garagiola, 86.

… of author Judy Blume. She was born Judith Sussman 74 years ago today.

… of Ray Manzarek. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is 73.

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

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

And it is also the birthday

… of Arsenio Hall, 56.

… of Josh Brolin, 44. I wonder if his stepmom will sing “Happy Birthday” to him.

… of actress Christina Ricci. Wednesday Addams is 32.

… of Jennifer Stone, 19. She’s known to millions of grammar school kids as Harper Finkle, Alex Russo’s best friend.

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

John L. Lewis was born on February 12, 1880. Lewis was president of the United Mine Workers (UMW), 1920-1960. In the 1930s, with others, he formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The CIO lead the unionization of steel, rubber, auto, glass, electrical equipment and meat industries. He withdrew the UMW from the CIO however, supported Wilkie against FDR in 1940, and took his miners out on strike during World War II. He remained popular with miners, of course, but his reputation and that of organized labor suffered. Even so, Lewis was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Teddy Roosevelt’s daughter and Speaker of the House Nicholas Longworth’s wife, was born on February 12th in 1884. Ms. Longworth was prominent in Washington until her death in 1980. This despite the fact — or maybe because of it — that her only child was not with her husband, but a result of her affair with Senator William Borah. Embroidered on her sofa pillow was “If you haven’t got anything good to say about anybody, come sit next to me.”

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

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

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

U.S. Army Center of Military History

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