NewMexiKen

Twas a week before Christmas
And all through the house
Not a creature was stirring
Except these birthday folks

Today is the birthday

… of actor Roger Smith. He’s 79. Smith has been married to Ann-Margret 44 years. Health issues limited his acting career, which was most notable for 77 Sunset Strip.

… of Keith Richards. The Rolling Stone is 68.

… of Steven Spielberg. The director is 65.

… of Ray Liotta. The actor, a good fella, is 56.

… of Brad Pitt, 48.

… of Katie Holmes, 33. (Tom is 49.)

… of Christina Aguilera. She’s 31.

Elizabeth Ruth Grable was born on this date in 1916. She was known as Betty Grable and, according to Wikipedia, “Hosiery specialists of the era often noted the ideal proportions of her legs as: thigh (18.5″) calf (12″), and ankle (7.5″). Grable’s legs were famously insured by her studio for $1,000,000 with Lloyds of London.”

James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was born December 18, 1897.

“Fletcher Henderson … led the most important of the pioneering big bands, which helped to set the pattern for most later big jazz bands playing arranged music.” (PBS – JAZZ – Fletcher Henderson)

The electrical engineer and inventor Edwin H. Armstrong was born on December 18, 1890. Armstrong was instrumental in the development of early radio and the inventor of FM.

Ty Cobb was born on this date in 1886.

Ty Cobb may have been baseball’s greatest player, if not the game’s fiercest competitor. His batting accomplishments are legendary — a lifetime average of .367, 297 triples, 4,191 hits, 12 batting titles (including nine in a row), 23 straight seasons in which he hit over .300, three .400 seasons (topped by a .420 mark in 1911) and 2,245 runs. Intimidating the opposition, The Georgia Peach stole 892 bases during a 24-year career, primarily with the Detroit Tigers.

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Paul Klee was born on this date in 1879. That’s his “Red Balloon” (1922).

Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili was born on this date in 1878. We know him as Joseph Stalin (Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин). He was responsible for the execution of an estimate 700,000 people 1937-1938.

New Jersey ratified the Constitution on December 18, 1787, becoming the third state.

Born on this date were

… Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).

… Jane Austen (1775-1817). Best known for her novels about young women yearning to get married, she was never married.

… George Santayana (1863-1952). “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

… Noel Coward (1899-1973).

… Margaret Mead (1901-1978). “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

… Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008). Clarke’s laws:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Frank Deford is 73, as is Liv Ullmann.

Broadcast journalist Lesley Stahl is 70.

TV producer Steven Bocho is 68.

Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top is 62.

Benjamin Bratt is 48.

The first point-contact transistor was built 64 years ago today (1947).

The Boston Tea Party was 238 years ago tonight (1773).

Physicist Freeman Dyson is 88 today.

Tim Conway is 78 today, Dave Clark of the Dave Clark Five 69, and Don Johnson 62.

Albert James Freed was born 90 years ago today. As the deejay Alan Freed he was instrumental in the synthesis of blues, rhythm and blues and country that became Rock and Roll. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Disk jockey Alan Freed is widely credited with coining the term “rock and roll” to describe the uptempo black R&B records he played as early as 1951 on Cleveland radio station WJW. Freed called himself “the Moondog” and billed his show as the “Moondog Rock ‘n’ Roll Party.” A tireless and enthusiastic advocate of the music he played, Freed kept time to his favorite records by beating his hands on a phone book. He called it rock and roll because “it seemed to suggest the rolling, surging beat of the music.” The Freed-sponsored 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland is believed to be the nation’s first rock and roll concert. After conquering Cleveland, he took his show to WINS New York. There, he further spread the gospel of rock and roll via TV, movies and the celebrated all-star shows he promoted at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater. Those stage shows remain the essential rock and roll revues of the era.

Later, the tangled favors of this period would come back to haunt him in the payola scandals of the late Fifties. Amid the atmosphere of a witch hunt, Freed steadfastly maintained that he never played a record he didn’t like. Nonetheless, he was blackballed within the business and died a broken man in 1965.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

John Hammond was born on this date in 1910. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Fame for Lifetime Achievement in 1986.

John Hammond was responsible for discovering Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Pete Seeger, and Bruce Springsteen, among others. As a producer, writer, critic, and board member of the NAACP, he was credited as a major force in integrating the music business. An early inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, John Hammond was one of the most important figures in 20th century popular music.

American Masters | PBS

Charles Duryea was born 150 years ago today. He is credited as being the first American to build a gas-powered automobile (in 1893).

Nero, the fifth and final Roman Emperor of the Julian-Claudian dynasty, was born on this date in 37. He was Emperor from 54-68. Nero was descended from Mark Antony and Octavia Minor on both sides of his family. And one of his great great grandfathers was Augustus (1st Emperor), Octavia’s brother. Nero killed his mother. She, Agrippina, probably had it coming. She was the sister of Caligula (3rd Emperor), wife of Claudius (4th Emperor and her uncle) and mother of Nero (5th Emperor). The mother probably poisoned Claudius, so that her son, Nero, could become Emperor at age 17. (Nero was the adopted son of Claudius, as well as his great nephew.) Agrippina herself was killed (beaten to death by an assasin) in 59. What goes around, comes around. The verdict on whether Nero set fire to Rome as a large urban renewal project is unclear. He did organize vast relief efforts using his own funds. But he also blamed the Christians for the fire when the populace began to suspect him. Nero did not fiddle while Rome burned. There were no violins (although he did play the lyre). Nero killed himself at age 30. His inattention to important political matters, his self-indulgence and his gene pool had caught up with him.