Frank Beacham's Journal

Dominic Chianese is 90 years old today

Dominic Chianese at the opening party for the folk music exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, June 15, 2015

Photo by Frank Beacham

Dominic Chianese is 90 years old today.

When it comes to television viewing, I’m definitely a latecomer. It was years after the run of The Sopranos that I finally watched the series in a stretch of binge viewing on Netflix.

The characters were mesmerizing and I felt I knew each one before the series was over.

Then, through a weird series of events, I began meeting the real life actors in The Sopranos. Of course, as actors, they couldn’t have been more different in real life. But it still always surprises me.

One of those actors was Dominic Chianese, the wonderful film, television and theatre actor who played Corrado "Junior" Soprano on the HBO series.

Not only was Chianese not a mobster, he turned out to to be a wonderful folk singer, a former host at Gerdes Folk City and a very friendly man.

Born in the Bronx and the son of a bricklayer, Chianese graduated from Bronx High School of Science in 1948.

He worked as a bricklayer with his father and attended night school during the 1950s, graduating with a bachelor's degree in speech and theater from Brooklyn College in 1961. His earliest stage work occurred in 1952 with a Gilbert and Sullivan repertory company of singers, actors and musicians called The American Savoyards, under the direction of Dorothy Raedler.

After a decade of attending college and appearing in off-broadway theatre, Chianese attended his first professional acting class at HB Studios in Manhattan, with renowned teacher Walt Witcover. Drama and musical theater became Chianese's passion.

His first Broadway show was Oliver! in 1965. He has continued to perform in Broadway theatre, Off Broadway and regional theatre. To supplement income in the dry periods, he played rhythm guitar and sang at Gerdes and other establishments.

Chianese's first television credit occurred when George C. Scott recommended him for a role in the acclaimed series, East Side/West Side.

In 1974, Francis Ford Coppola cast Chianese as Johnny Ola in The Godfather Part II, which sparked a film career, culminating in several films (and plays) with Al Pacino.

Before being cast in Godfather II, Chianese was working for the Drug Commission of New York State as a recreational worker in a rehabilitation center. He taught guitar to women who were serving time for drug-related crimes.

Chianese has appeared in four movies with his friend, Al Pacino: The Godfather Part II (1974) as Johnny Ola; Dog Day Afternoon (1975) as Sonny's Father; And Justice For All (1979) as Carl Travers and Looking for Richard (1996) as himself.

Chianese is an accomplished tenor and musician, having released a CD titled Hits in 2000, on which he sings American and Italian songs. He performed Salvatore Cardillo's sentimental classic "Core 'ngrato" ("Ungrateful Heart"), on the third-season finale of The Sopranos (episode 3x13, "Army of One").

Chianese appeared as a guest actor on the HBO series, Boardwalk Empire, as Leander Whitlock, a retired Atlantic City alderman. His son, Dominic Chianese Jr., is also an actor and appeared in the final season of The Sopranos as a member of the fictional Lupertazzi crime family.

Here, Chianese, as Junior Soprano, sings in an episode of The Sopranos

Dominic Chianese performs at the 50th anniversary party of Gerdes Folk City, June 7, 2010

Chianese was an “MC” at the old Gerdes Folk City in the 1960s.

Photo by Frank Beacham

On this day in 1969 — 52 years ago today — Johnny Cash recorded his famous live concert before inmates at San Quentin State Prison

On this day in 1969 — 52 years ago today — Johnny Cash recorded his famous live concert before inmates at San Quentin State Prison.

The concert was filmed by Granada Television, produced and directed by Michael Darlow. The album was a follow-up to Cash's previous live album, the critically acclaimed and commercially successful, At Folsom Prison.

The album was certified gold on August 12, 1969, platinum and double platinum on November 21, 1986 and triple platinum on March 27, 2003.

In addition to Cash, the concert featured his wife, June Carter Cash on vocals; the Carter Family on vocals, autoharp and guitar; Marshall Grant on bass guitar; W.S. Holland on drums; Carl Perkins and Bob Wootton on electric guitar and the The Statler Brothers on vocals.

Here’s Cash performs “San Quentin” from the prison, 1969

Johnny Cash flipping the bird at San Quentin 52 years ago today.

Photo by Jim Marshall

“San Quentin, may you rot and burn in hell. May your walls fall and may I live to tell. May all the world forget you ever stood. And may all the world regret you did no good.”

— Johnny Cash

“He had the right attitude. He chewed gum, looked arrogant and flipped the bird to the guards — he did everything the prisoners wanted to do. He was a mean mother from the South who was there because he loved us. When he walked away, everyone in that place had become a Johnny Cash fan.”

— Merle Haggard (prisoner at San Quentin at the time)

Marshall, in March, 2010, told the story of the famous shot. He said he asked Cash to express what he thought of the prison authorities when he played the show. He told the San Francisco Art Exchange: “I said, ‘John, let’s do a shot for the warden’,” before Cash flipped the bird.

Marshall said the image was “probably the most ripped off photograph in the history of the world.”

George Thorogood is 71 years old today

George Thorogood is 71 years old today.

A blues rock vocalist/guitarist from Wilmington, Delaware, Thorogood is known for his hit song "Bad to the Bone" as well as for covers of blues standards such as Hank Williams' "Move It On Over," Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love?" and "House Rent Boogie/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" by John Lee Hooker and Amos Milburn respectively.

George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers have released sixteen studio albums, including two that were Platinum and six that were Gold. He has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide. The band's early success contributed to the rise of folk label, Rounder Records.

Here, Thorogood and the Destroyers perform “Bad to the Bone”

The digital mashup hit public awareness with "Grey Tuesday" — 17 years ago today

The phenomenon known as the "mashup" can be traced back through at least several decades of radio DJs and record producers manipulating, or "remixing," one or more existing recordings to create a new musical work.

With the rise of digitally distributed music and of inexpensive, sophisticated production technologies in the late 1990s, the phenomenon was radically democratized.

A trend was born — a trend that reached its highest level of public awareness with the event known as "Grey Tuesday," which took place on this day in 2004 — 17 years ago today.

Grey Tuesday was a well-organized, one-day effort to distribute from as many Internet sources as possible a controversial work called The Grey Album, created by the American DJ/Producer Brian Joseph Burton, aka Danger Mouse.

Burton lived in England in the early 2000s, at a time when the mashup phenomenon exploded in the UK thanks to a radio program called "The Remix," which invited its listeners to send in their own examples of what was also known as "bastard pop."

Among the most popular and creatively successful mashups introduced on "The Remix" were: Freelance Hellraiser's "A Stroke of Genie-us" (2001), which paired Christina Aguilera's vocal from "Genie in a Bottle" with the instrumental track of The Strokes' "Hard To Explain;" and Go Home Productions' brilliantly titled "Ray of Gob" (2003), which combined Madonna's "Ray of Light" with the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" and "God Save the Queen."

Burton's inspiration for The Grey Album came in December, 2003 while listening to the Beatles' White Album shortly after hearing an a capella version of Jay-Z's Black Album.

Over an intense two-week period, Burton constructed a brand-new version of the Jay-Z album layered over beats and samples lifted from the Beatles.

Burton created The Grey Album only to share among his friends, so he never even tried to clear the rights to the Beatles samples it contained.

Even as The Grey Album caught on as a word-of-mouth Internet phenomenon, Burton's only concern was a creative one: "I'm just worried whether Jay-Z will like it, or whether Paul and Ringo will like it."

It is fair to say that EMI, the owners of the rights to the Beatles' master recordings, did not. The intensity of their legal response to The Grey Album, however, did not sit well with vocal Internet opponents of the music industry, and Grey Tuesday was organized in protest.

On that day, hundreds of websites organized to offer Burton's album for free download in defiance of EMI. That protest, and its attendant publicity, combined to make The Grey Album the most widely distributed mashup album in history.

Thanks History.com

Steve Jobs was born 66 years ago today

Steve Jobs was born 66 years ago today.

Normally, I don’t feature computer executives on this page because most are not very creative people. But Jobs was a special breed. He had one of the great inventive minds of the 20th century — a creative genius who was ahead of his time.

I know some of you don’t see Jobs as any more than a marketer. I don’t agree. He led and pushed the teams that invented some amazing devices. In modern terms, I choose to call him an inventor.

Of course, Jobs was the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple. Through Apple, he was widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields, transforming one industry after another, from computers and smartphones to music and movies.

In the late 1970s, Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, engineered one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. Jobs saw the future and was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Apple Lisa and, one year later, the Macintosh.

After using an Apple Lisa at a photographic conference in Hawaii in the early 1980s, I purchased a first generation Macintosh in 1984.

It literally changed my life, allowing me to work as a freelancer for the first time without the constraints of hiring computer consultants and having mountains of equipment manuals that made little sense to me.

Since 1984, I have used Apple Macs and never looked back. I consider it an essential tool that has allowed me to making a living as an independent. As one who wrote about Apple for a time, I attended Apple press conferences and once interviewed Steve Jobs. He was as acerbic and as witty as I imagined.

His sense of showmanship was extraordinary. He was a man whose intelligence and skill genuinely changed the world.

One of my favorite Jobs quotes came in 1997:

“I wish [Bill Gates] the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger."

Today, Apple is big business and definitely not the same company that existed under Jobs. It is clear the quality of Apple products has diminished and they not nearly as innovative since Jobs’ death. But hopefully Jobs-designed products will survive through my working life. For his work, I’m eternally grateful.

Here, Jobs explains the difference of Apple and Microsoft (sorry for the poor lip sync).

Though he lived to be 101, Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s passing was so unexpected. He was one of those people I thought might live forever

Photo by Frank Beacham

Though he lived to be 101, Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s passing was so unexpected. He was one of those people I thought might live forever.

I first met him in May, 1994, at the Beat Generation Conference at New York University, when most of real beat poets and musicians of the 1940s and 50s gathered together for the last time. Of the ones I didn’t already know, I met the rest of them at that amazing, unforgettable conference that ran for several days.

At a private dinner at the close of the gathering, I was seated next to Ferlinghetti. He was an incredibly charming man. His openness and engaging manner won everyone at our table over quickly. You could ask him anything and I did. He told us about City Lights Books, the famous trial over Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and writing “A Coney Island of the Mind” in 1958.

At the time, Ferlinghetti was 75 years old. His passion at that moment in his life was painting. He showed me examples of his work and gave me some cards of his paintings.

It is important to know that even though Ferlinghetti was considered by most a “beat” writer, he did not consider himself one. He referred to himself as a bohemian from an earlier generation. He did, however, have a close association with the beat writers and published many of them. That sometimes made him a character in their work. For example, in Jack Kerouac’s “Big Sur,” it was Ferlinghetti’s Big Sur cabin that was used and he was written into the book as “Lorenzo Monsanto.”

And, of course, Ferlinghetti published many of the beat writers, including Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, Diane diPrima, Michael McClure, Philip Lamantia, Bob Kaufman and Gary Snyder.

In my mind, whether an official beat or not, Ferlinghetti was a major contributor to making the beat movement possible. And he outlived most of them.

RIP, Lawrence Ferlinghetti!

Peter Fonda was born 81 years ago today

Peter Fonda (foreground) and Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider

Peter Fonda was born 81 years ago today.

The son of Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda and father of Bridget and Justin Fonda (by first wife, Susan Brewer, stepdaughter of Noah Dietrich), Fonda was an icon of the counterculture of the 1960s.

Born in New York City, Fonda was the only son of actor, Henry Fonda, and his wife, Frances Ford Seymour. He was the younger brother of actress Jane Fonda. He and Jane had a maternal half-sister, Frances de Villers Brokaw (1931-2008), from their mother's first marriage.

On his eleventh birthday, he accidentally shot himself in the stomach and nearly died. He went to Nainital and stayed for a few months for recovery. Through his friendships with members of the Byrds, Fonda visited The Beatles in their rented house in Benedict Canyon in Los Angeles in August, 1965.

While John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Fonda were under the influence of LSD, Lennon heard Fonda say, "I know what it's like to be dead." Lennon used this phrase as the tag line for his song, "She Said She Said," which was included on the Revolver (1966) album.

Early on, Fonda studied acting in Omaha, Nebraska, his father's home town. While attending the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Fonda joined the Omaha Community Playhouse, where many actors (including his father and Marlon Brando) had begun their careers.

Fonda found work on Broadway, where he gained notice in Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole. He moved on to Hollywood to make films, starting his career in romantic leading roles. But Fonda's intensity impressed Robert Rossen, who had directed the Oscar winner, All the King's Men.

He cast Fonda in Lilith (1964). He also was in The Victors (1964), and played the male lead in The Young Lovers (1964), about out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

By the mid-1960s, Peter Fonda was not a conventional "leading man" in Hollywood. As Playboy magazine reported, Fonda had established a "solid reputation as a dropout."

He had become outwardly nonconformist and grew his hair long, alienating the "establishment" film industry. Desirable acting work became scarce.

In 1966, Fonda was arrested in the Sunset Strip riot, which the police ended forcefully. Buffalo Springfield protested the department's handling of the incident in their song, "For What It's Worth."

Fonda did some singing and, in 1968, recorded a single for the Chisa label: "November Night" (written by Gram Parsons) b/w "Catch The Wind" (the Donovan song), produced by Hugh Masekela.

Fonda's first counterculture-oriented film role was as the lead character, "Heavenly Blues," a Hells Angels chapter president, in Roger Corman's B-movie, The Wild Angels (1966). In the film, Fonda delivered a "eulogy" at a fallen Angel's funeral service. This was sampled in the Primal Scream recording, "Loaded" (1991), and in other rock songs.

Fonda next played the male lead in Corman's film, The Trip (1967), a take on the experience and "consequences" of consuming LSD.

In 1968, Fonda produced, co-wrote and starred in Easy Rider, directed by Dennis Hopper. This independent film is his most notable. Easy Rider is about two long-haired bikers traveling through the southwest and southern United States where they encounter intolerance and violence.

Fonda played "Captain America," a charismatic, laconic man whose motorcycle jacket bore a large American flag across the back. Dennis Hopper played the garrulous, "Billy."

Jack Nicholson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his turn as George Hanson, an alcoholic civil rights lawyer who rides along with them. Fonda co-wrote the screenplay with Terry Southern and Hopper.

Hopper filmed the cross-country road trip depicted almost entirely on location. Fonda had secured funding in the neighborhood of $360,000 — (largely based on the fact he knew that was the budget Roger Corman needed to make The Wild Angels).

The film was released in 1969 to international success. The singer and composer Robbie Robertson was so moved by an advance screening that he approached Fonda and tried to convince him to let him write a complete score, even though the film was nearly due for wide release.

Fonda refused, using Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" and Bob Dylan's "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" sung by the Byrds' Roger McGuinn, among many other tracks.

Fonda, Hopper and Southern were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film grossed over $40 million.

After the success of Easy Rider, both Hopper and Fonda were sought for film projects. Hopper made the drug-addled jungle epic, The Last Movie, (in which Fonda co-starred along with singer Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and Papas).

Fonda directed the Western film, The Hired Hand, in 1971. He took the lead role in a cast that also featured Warren Oates, Verna Bloom and the Beat poet, Michael McClure. The film received mixed reviews and failed commercially.

This was followed in 1974 by both Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, a box-office hit that became a cult classic, and Open Season, which failed. He worked again with Warren Oates in Race with the Devil in 1975.

In 1976, Fonda starred opposite Susan St. James as a musician on the run in Outlaw Blues, and in Futureworld, an unsuccessful science fiction sequel to Westworld.

In 1979, he directed and starred in the drama, Wanda Nevada, alongside Brooke Shields. His father, Henry Fonda, made a brief appearance as well, and it is the only film in which they performed together.

After years of films that did not attract much attention, Fonda received high-profile critical recognition and universal praise for his performance in Ulee's Gold (1997). He portrayed a stoic North Florida beekeeper who, in spite of his tumultuous family life, imparts a sense of integrity to his wayward convict son.

He takes risks to protect his drug-abusing daughter-in-law. His performance gained him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Fonda's long movie career has embraced the contrasts between the wide-eyed and questing (possibly amoral, certainly drug-dealing) rebel motorcyclist in Easy Rider and the heartsick, embittered, war-veteran father he played nearly three decades later in Ulee's Gold.

In 2007, Fonda made a notable return to the big screen as the bounty hunter, Byron McElroy, in the remake of the 1957 Western, 3:10 to Yuma. He appeared together with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe. The film received two Academy Award nominations, and positive reviews from critics.

In 2009, he appeared as “The Roman,” the main villain, in The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, the sequel to a cult hit. “Il Duce” was played by Billy Connolly. Fonda also appeared in the TV series, Californication.

Fonda died from respiratory failure caused by lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles on August 16, 2019 at the age of 79.

Here’s Fonda in the trailer for “Easy Rider” in 1969

Steppenwolf performs “‪Born To Be Wild”‬

Johnny Winter was born 77 years ago today

Johnny Winter was born 77 years ago today.

Winter was a blues guitarist, singer and producer best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances. He also produced albums for the blues legend, Muddy Waters. Since his time with Waters, Winter recorded several blues albums and toured until his death on July 16, 2014.

Johnny Winter, along with his brother, Edgar Winter, were nurtured at an early age by their parents in musical pursuits. Both he and his brother, who were born with albinism, began performing at an early age.

When he was ten years old, Winter appeared on a local children's show, playing ukulele and singing Everly Brothers songs with his brother. His recording career began at the age of fifteen, when his band Johnny and the Jammers released "School Day Blues" on a Houston record label.

During this same period, he was able to see performances by classic blues artists such as Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Bobby Bland. In the early days, Winter would sometimes sit in with Roy Head and the Traits when they performed in the Beaumont, Texas area.

In 1967, Winter recorded a single with the Traits: "Tramp" backed with "Parchman Farm" (Universal Records 30496). In 1968, he released his first album, The Progressive Blues Experiment, on Austin's Sonobeat Records.

Winter caught his biggest break in December, 1968, when Mike Bloomfield, whom he met and jammed with in Chicago, invited him to sing and play a song during a Bloomfield and Al Kooper concert at the Fillmore East in New York.

As it happened, representatives of Columbia Records (which had released the Top Ten Bloomfield/Kooper/Stills Super Session album) were at the concert.

Winter played and sang B.B. King's "It's My Own Fault" to loud applause and, within a few days, was signed to reportedly what was then the largest advance in the history of the recording industry — $600,000.

Winter's first Columbia album, Johnny Winter, was recorded and released in 1969. It featured the same backing musicians with whom he had recorded The Progressive Blues Experiment. They included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Uncle John Turner, Edgar Winter on keyboards and saxophone, and (for his "Mean Mistreater") blues legends Willie Dixon on upright bass and Big Walter Horton on harmonica.

The album featured a few selections that became Winter signature songs, including his composition "Dallas" (an acoustic blues, on which Winter played a steel-bodied, resonator guitar), John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson's "Good Morning Little School Girl" and B.B. King's "Be Careful With A Fool."

The album's success coincided with Imperial Records picking up The Progressive Blues Experiment for wider release. The same year, the Winter trio toured and performed at several rock festivals, including Woodstock. With brother, Edgar, added as a full member of the group, Winter also recorded his second album, Second Winter, in Nashville in 1969.

The two-record album, which only had three recorded sides (the fourth was blank), introduced a couple more staples of Winter's concerts, including Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" and Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited."

Also at this time Johnny entered into an intimate, albeit short-lived, affair with Janis Joplin. It culminated in a concert at New York's Madison Square Garden where Johnny joined Joplin on stage to sing and perform.

Contrary to urban legend, Johnny Winter did not perform with Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison on the 1968 infamous Hendrix bootleg album, Woke Up This Morning and found Myself Dead, from New York City's Scene Club.

According to Winter, "...I never even met Jim Morrison! There's a whole album of Jimi and Jim and I'm supposedly on the album, but I don't think I am 'cause I never met Jim Morrison in my life! I'm sure I never, never played with Jim Morrison at all! I don't know how that [rumor] got started."

Beginning in 1969, the first of numerous Johnny Winter albums was released which were cobbled together from approximately fifteen singles (about 30 "sides") he recorded before signing with Columbia in 1969.

In live performances, Winter often told the story about how, as a child, he dreamed of playing with the blues guitarist, Muddy Waters. In 1977, after Waters' long-time label Chess Records went out of business, he got his chance.

Winter brought Waters into the studio to record Hard Again for Blue Sky Records, a label set up by Winter's manager and distributed by Columbia. In addition to producing the album, Winter played guitar with Waters veteran James Cotton on harmonica.

Winter produced two more studio albums for Waters, I'm Ready (with Big Walter Horton on harmonica) and King Bee and a best-selling live album Muddy "Mississippi" Waters – Live.

The partnership produced three hit albums for Waters. Waters told Deep Blues author Robert Palmer that Winter had done remarkable work in reproducing the sound and atmosphere of Waters's vintage Chess Records recordings of the 1950s. The albums gave Waters the highest profile and greatest financial successes of his life.

Winter was professionally active until the time of his death near Zurich, Switzerland. He was found dead in his hotel room two days after his last performance, at the Cahors Blues Festival in France on July 14, at the age of 70.

The cause of Winter's death was not officially released. According to his friend and record producer Paul Nelson, Winter died of emphysema combined with pneumonia.

Here, Winter performs “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” in 1974

Johnny Winters and Muddy Waters perform the blues…

George Frideric Handel, the Baroque composer, was born 336 years ago today

George Frideric Handel, the Baroque composer, was born 336 years ago today.

The German-born Handel is famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos.

Born in a family indifferent to music, Handel received critical training in Halle, Hamburg and Italy before settling in London (1712) as a naturalized British subject in 1727. By then he was strongly influenced by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.

Within fifteen years, Handel had started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera. In 1737, he had a physical breakdown, changed direction creatively and addressed the middle class.

As Alexander's Feast (1736) was well received, Handel made a transition to English choral works. After his success with Messiah (1742), he never performed an Italian opera again.

Handel was only partly successful with his performances of English oratorio on mythical and biblical themes, but when he arranged a performance of Messiah to benefit London's Foundling Hospital (1750), the criticism ended. It has been said that the passion of Handel's oratorios is an ethical one, and that they are hallowed not by liturgical dignity but by moral ideals of humanity.

Almost blind, and having lived in England for almost fifty years, he died in 1759, a respected and rich man. His funeral was given full state honors, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Handel is regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era, with works such as Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks and Messiah remaining popular.

One of his four Coronation Anthems, Zadok the Priest (1727), composed for the coronation of George II of Great Britain, has been performed at every subsequent British coronation, traditionally during the sovereign's anointing.

Handel composed more than forty operas in over thirty years, and since the late 1960s, with the revival of baroque music and original instrumentation, interest in Handel's operas has grown.

On this day in 1940 — 81 years ago — Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land is Your Land” in his room at the Hanover House Hotel at 43rd St. and 6th Ave. in New York City

Photo by Al Aumuller

On this day in 1940 — 81 years ago — Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land is Your Land” in his room at the Hanover House Hotel at 43rd St. and 6th Ave. in New York City.

The song was written critical response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America,” which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on the radio, he wrote a response originally called "God Blessed America.”

Guthrie varied the lyrics over time, sometimes including more overtly political verses in line with his sympathetic views of communism than appear in recordings or publications.

Guthrie finally recorded the song in 1944. It was not published until 1945, when it was included in a mimeographed booklet of ten songs with typed lyrics and hand drawings. The booklet was sold for twenty-five cents and was copyrighted in 1951.

The first known professionally printed publication was in 1956 by Ludlow Music (now a unit of The Richmond Organization), which administered the publishing rights to Guthrie's song. Ludlow later issued versions with piano and guitar accompaniments.

In 2002, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Born in Okemah, Oklahoma, in 1912, Guthrie lived and wrote of the real West, a place of hard-working people and harsh environments rather than romantic cowboys and explorers. Though he was a son of a successful politician and businessman, during his early teens his mother fell ill and the family split apart.

For several years, Guthrie spent his summers working as a migrant agricultural laborer. When he was 15, he left home to travel the country by freight train. Among his meager possessions were a guitar and harmonica. Guthrie discovered an eager audience among the hobos and migrant workers for the country-folk songs he had learned in Oklahoma.

In 1937, he traveled to California where he hoped to become a successful western singer. He appeared on several West Coast radio shows, mostly performing traditional folk songs. Soon, though, he began to perform his own pieces based on his experiences living among the vast armies of the poor and dispossessed created by the Great Depression.

While in California he also came into contact with the Communist Party and became increasingly sympathetic to its causes. Many of his songs reflected a strong commitment to the common working people, and he became something of a musical spokesman for populist sentiments.

“This Land is Your Land,” reflected not only Guthrie’s support for the common folk, but also his deep love for his country. The verse celebrated the beauty and grandeur of America while the chorus drove home the populist sentiment that the nation belonged to all the people, not merely the rich and powerful.

Probably the best known of his more than 1,000 songs, “This Land is Your Land” was also one of his last. Later that year Guthrie moved to New York where his career was soon after interrupted by World War II. After serving in the Merchant Marines, he returned to New York, where he continued to perform and record his old material, but he never matched his earlier prolific output.

Guthrie’s career was cut short in 1954, when he was struck with Huntington’s Disease, a degenerative illness of the nervous system that had killed his mother. His later years were spent in a New York hospital where he received visitors like the adoring young Bob Dylan, who copied much of his early style from Guthrie.

Guthrie died in 1967, having lived long enough to see his music inspire a whole new generation and “This Land is Your Land” become a rallying song for the Civil Rights movement.

Thanks History.com

Here, Guthrie performs his song.

On this day in 1868 — 153 years ago — William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts

On this day in 1868 — 153 years ago — William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

A brilliant scholar, Du Bois was an influential proponent of civil rights. Du Bois' childhood was happy, but during adolescence he became aware of a "vast veil" separating him from his white classmates. He devoted most of his life to studying the position of blacks in America from a sociological point of view.

He received a doctorate at Harvard, but was unable to get a job at a major university despite his impressive academic achievements and the publication of his doctoral thesis about the slave trade to the United States in the mid-1800s.

He taught at Wilberforce College in Ohio, then spent a year at the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote his first major book, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899). The book was the first sociological case study of a black community.

Du Bois came to national attention with the publication of The Souls of Black Folks (1903). The book explored the thesis that the "central problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line."

One controversial essay attacked the widely respected Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which trained blacks in agricultural and industrial skills.

Du Bois accused Washington of selling out blacks by advocating silence in civil rights issues in return for vocational training opportunities for blacks.

In 1909, Du Bois helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He edited the association's journal, The Crisis, from 1910 to 1934, reaching an audience of more than 100,000 readers. But he resigned after an ideological rift with the group.

In 1935, he published Black Reconstruction, a Marxist interpretation of the post-Civil War era.

At Atlanta University, where he later taught, he founded a review of race and culture called Phylon in 1940 and the same year published, Dusk at Dawn, in which he examined his own career as a case study of race dynamics.

He rejoined the NAACP from 1944 to 1948, but broke with the group permanently after a bitter dispute. He joined the Communist Party in 1961 and moved to Ghana, where he became a citizen in 1963, the year of his death.

Thanks History.com

Ablove, Du Bois in 1918

The last good times at Joe Zelli’s Royal Bar, Paris, Oct. 28, 1929

This was “Black Monday,” the very beginning of the stock market crash that would lead to the Great Depression.

Ernest Kador, Jr. — known by the stage name Ernie K-Doe — was born 88 years ago today

Ernie K-Doe and his fans at the Warehouse, New Orleans, 1974

Photo by Michael P. Smith

Ernest Kador, Jr. — known by the stage name Ernie K-Doe — was born 88 years ago today.

K-Doe was a rhythm and blues singer best known for his 1961 hit single, "Mother-in-Law," which went to #1 on the Billboard pop chart in the U.S.

Born in New Orleans, K-Doe recorded as a member of the group the Blue Diamonds in 1954 before making his first solo recordings the following year. "Mother-in-Law," written by Allen Toussaint, was his first hit, and was #1 on both the Billboard pop and R&B charts.

K-Doe never had another Top 40 pop hit, but 1961's "Te-Ta-Te-Ta-Ta" (#21) and 1967's "Later For Tomorrow" (#37) both charted in the R&B Top 40.

In the 1980s, K-Doe did radio shows on New Orleans community stations WWOZ and WTUL. The shows were known for his explosively energetic announcements and frequent self promotion (occasionally causing problems for the non-commercial station).

K-Doe's catch phrases included "Burn, K-Doe, Burn!," "I'm a Charity Hospital Baby!" and (addressed to himself) "You just good, that's all!" For a time, he billed himself as "Mister Naugahyde" until he was ordered to desist by the owners of the Naugahyde trademark.

K-Doe then explained that it was a misunderstanding. He was actually referring to himself as "Mister M-Nauga-Ma-Hyde," a word he invented himself. In the 1990s, K-Doe began billing himself as "The Emperor of the Universe" and wearing a cape and crown he became a famous local eccentric on the New Orleans scene.

K-Doe continued performing and occasionally recording until shortly before his death. Always an elaborate showman, one of K-Doe's most notable later performances was at New Orleans' Aquarium of the Americas, where he performed at a benefit for a local group aiding people with disabilities.

The show ended with K-Doe performing seven continuous renditions of "Mother In Law" while dancing in front of the Gulf of Mexico shark tank exhibit dressed in a green plumed cape.

K-Doe died in 2001 and, after a traditional jazz funeral, was interred in the 200-year-old Duval tomb in Saint Louis Cemetery #2, in his native New Orleans. He was 65.

His widow, Antoinette K-Doe, continued to operate his music club/bar, "Ernie K-Doe's Mother-in-Law Lounge," which houses a life-size statue of K-Doe himself. The club was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina in late 2005 and had to shut down.

With the help of the Hands on Network and the musical artist, Usher Raymond, Antoinette reopened the Mother-in-Law Lounge on August 28, 2006, in its original location at 1500 N. Claiborne Avenue.

Here is an amateur video of K-Doe shortly before his death with Fireball Rockett, made at the Mother in Law Lounge in 2001

Bobby Hendricks is 83 years old today

Bobby Hendricks is 83 years old today.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Hendricks is an R&B singer who charted two hits in the late 1950s. He was a member of The Swallows, The Flyers and sang lead with The Drifters before becoming a successful solo act (he sang The Drifters', "Drip Drop").

His single, "Itchy Twitchy Feeling," which was covered by his former band soon after it began attracting radio airplay, hit the U.S. charts, reaching #5 on the Black Singles chart and #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958.

Hendricks's only other charting single, "Psycho," was a novelty song depicting a psychiatrist talking with a patient. Psycho peaked at #73 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960. New York City disc jockey, Dr. Jive (Tommy Smalls), was the voice of the psychiatrist on "Psycho."

From 1961, off and on, through 2008, Bobby Hendricks worked as lead singer with Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters and appeared with them on PBS in the Doo Wop 51 television broadcast and Doo Wop Love Songs, singing "Stand By Me" with Bill Pinkney, Charlie Thomas and Ben E. King.

Here, Hendricks and The Roomates performs “This Magic Moment,” 2013

Edna St. Vincent Millay, the poet, was born 129 years ago today in Rockland, Maine

Edna St. Vincent Millay, the poet, was born 129 years ago today in Rockland, Maine.

One of three daughters of a divorced nurse, Millay learned independence and self-reliance early, and transmitted those qualities to her poetry. She began publishing poetry in high school.

In 1912, the year she turned 20, her poem, “Renascence,” appeared in a literary review and drew the attention of a benefactor who made it possible for Millay to attend Vassar. The year she graduated, in 1917, her first volume of poetry, Renascence and Other Poems, appeared.

Millay moved to New York City, where she lived a hectic, glamorous life as a writer and actress in Greenwich Village. One of the first women to write openly and without shame about her lovers, Millay had numerous affairs.

Millay left her mark on Greenwich Village in the 1920s. She wrote about MacDougal Street, helped found the Cherry Lane Theater and lived at 75 ½ Bedford Street, potentially the narrowest house in New York at nine and a half feet wide.

The critic, Floyd Dell, wrote that the red-haired and beautiful Millay was "a frivolous young woman, with a brand-new pair of dancing slippers and a mouth like a valentine." Millay described her life in New York as "very, very poor and very, very merry."

While establishing her career as a poet, Millay initially worked with the Provincetown Players on MacDougal Street and the Theatre Guild.

In 1924, Millay and others founded the Cherry Lane Theater "to continue the staging of experimental drama." Magazine articles under a pseudonym also helped support her early days in the village.

Millay was openly bisexual. Counted among her close friends were the writers Witter Bynner, Arthur Davison Ficke and Susan Glaspell, as well as Floyd Dell and the critic Edmund Wilson, both of whom proposed marriage to her and were refused.

In 1920, her famous poem, “First Fig,” set the tone for the 1920s, with its resounding lines, “My candle burns at both ends, it will not last the night.” Millay’s fast-paced life took a toll. Exhausted, she traveled to Europe for a long rest in 1921. There she met and married Dutch importer, Jan Boissevan, who gave up his business to devote himself to Millay.

In 1923, the couple moved to a farm in upstate New York, where Millay continued to write verse and plays. That year, she published The Harp Weaver and Other Poems, for which she became the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize.

A passionate proponent of civil liberty, she was arrested and jailed for supporting Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, anarchists condemned to death for robbery and murder.

In the 1930s, she wrote anti-totalitarian poetry for newspapers, as well as radio plays and speeches. She suffered a nervous breakdown in 1944 and endured two years of writer’s block afterward. She broke down again after her husband’s death in 1949, and died of a heart attack on Oct. 19, 1950 at the age of 58.

Thanks History.com and the New York Times

In 1854, Elizabeth Jennings refused to give up her bus seat in New York City, leading to the desegregation of the city's public transit system

Rosa Parks was known as "the first lady of civil rights."

But a century before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, a young black schoolteacher took a similar stand in New York that led to the desegregation of our city's public transit system.

It might not have happened, but she was running late.

On a sweltering Sunday morning in the summer of 1854, Elizabeth Jennings was on her way to play the organ at the First Colored American Congregational Church on Sixth Street in Lower Manhattan.

In a hurry, she hailed a horse-drawn streetcar at the corner of Pearl and what was then called Chatham Street, according to her account.

When Jennings tried to hop on, the conductor stopped her and told her to wait for a car with her "people in it."

"I then told him that I had no people," Jennings wrote, and boarded the car anyway.

Although New York had abolished slavery nearly 30 years before, many restaurants, churches and schools were still segregated. Public transportation cars were marked with placards announcing whether African-Americans were allowed to board.

Get out, the conductor ordered.

"I answered again that I was a respectable person, born and raised in New York," Jennings said, "and that he was a good for nothing impudent fellow for insulting decent persons while on their way to church."

The conductor tried to pull Jennings from the car, but she held onto the window frame. "You shall sweat for this," he told her.

He drove without making stops to a corner on the Bowery and called over a police officer. The officer sided with the conductor and pushed Jennings onto the street, breaking her bonnet and dirtying her Sunday attire. The officer "tauntingly told me to get redress if I could," Jennings wrote hours later.

She filed a lawsuit against the Third Avenue Railroad Company, the operator of the streetcar, with the help of a lawyer, Chester A. Arthur, who would later become 21st president.

The court ruled in her favor, granting her $225 in damages and allowing all African-Americans to use public transit, so long as they were "sober, well behaved, and free from disease."

As a result of the ruling, within five years the city's streetcars were largely integrated.

Jennings went on to found the city's first kindergarten for African-American children at her home on West 41st Street. Her story of defiance may not be widely known, but in 2007 a sign reading "Elizabeth Jennings Place" went up at the corner of Spruce Street and Park Row — 153 years and a few blocks from where she refused to get off the streetcar.

Thanks New York Times!

Luis Buñuel, the Spanish-Mexican filmmaker, was born 121 years ago today

Luis Buñuel, the Spanish-Mexican filmmaker, was born 121 years ago today.

When Buñuel died at age 83, his obituary in the New York Times called him "an iconoclast, moralist and revolutionary who was a leader of avant-garde surrealism in his youth and a dominant international movie director half a century later.”

His first picture — made in the silent era — was called "the most famous short film ever made" by critic Roger Ebert, and his last film — made 48 years later — won him Best Director awards from the National Board of Review and the National Society of Film Critics.

Writer Octavio Paz called Buñuel's work "the marriage of the film image to the poetic image, creating a new reality...scandalous and subversive.”

Often associated with the surrealist movement of the 1920s, Buñuel created films from the 1920s through the 1970s. His work spans two continents, three languages and nearly every film genre, including experimental, documentary, melodrama, satire, musical, erotica, comedy, romance, costume dramas, fantasy, crime, adventure and western.

Despite this variety, filmmaker John Huston believed that, regardless of genre, a Buñuel film is so distinctive as to be instantly recognizable, or, as Ingmar Bergman put it, "Buñuel nearly always made Buñuel films.” Six of Buñuel's films are included in Sight & Sound's 2012 critics' poll of the top 250 films of all time.

Fifteen of his films are included in the They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? list of the 1,000 greatest films of all time, which is tied with John Ford for second most, and he ranks #14 on their list of the top 250 directors.

Oliver was born 76 years ago today

William Oliver Swofford — better known as Oliver — was born 76 years ago today.

Born in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, Swofford began singing as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the early 1960s. He was a member of two music groups — The Virginians and, later, The Good Earth — and was then known as Bill Swofford.

His clean-cut good looks and soaring baritone voice were the perfect vehicle for the uptempo single entitled, "Good Morning Starshine," from the pop/rock musical "Hair," which reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July, 1969 and sold over a million copies.

Later that fall, a softer, ballad single entitled "Jean" (the theme from the Oscar-winning film, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) bested his previous effort by one, reaching #2 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart.

Written by poet Rod McKuen, "Jean" also sold over a million copies, garnering Oliver his second gold disc in as many months. Performing both hits on a number of TV variety shows and specials in the late 1960s, including The Ed Sullivan Show, helped both songs.

Oliver had more modest commercial success, however, with the cover of "Sunday Mornin'," which peaked at #35 in December, 1969, and "Angelica," which stalled at #97 four months later.

In addition, his cover of "I Can Remember," the 1968 James and Bobby Purify hit, missed the Hot 100, but climbed into the Top 25 of the Billboard Easy Listening chart in the mid summer of 1970.

Despite his vocal talents, Swofford was unable to sustain further success on the charts, and in 1983, People magazine ran a feature article on Swofford, describing him as a happily married father who kept his distance from the music industry, selling real estate.

Several years later, it was reported that he was engaged as a business manager in Shreveport, LA, for a major American pharmaceutical company.

In the late 1990s, Swofford was diagnosed with cancer and died at the age of 54 in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Here, Oliver performs “Good Morning Starshine” in 1959

Robert Young was born 114 years ago today

Robert Young with Shirley Temple in Stowaway, 1936

Robert Young was born 114 years ago today.

Young was a television, film and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father character in Father Knows Best (NBC and then CBS), and the physician, Marcus Welby, in Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC).

Born in Chicago, Young was discovered by a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talent scout. He made his sound film debut for MGM in the 1931 Charlie Chan film, Black Camel. Young appeared in over 100 films between 1931 and 1952.

After appearing on stage, he was signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and, in spite of having a "tier B" status, he co-starred with some of the studio's most illustrious actresses, including Katharine Hepburn, Margaret Sullavan, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Helen Hayes, Luise Rainer, Hedy Lamarr and Helen Twelvetrees.

Yet, most of his assignments consisted of B movies, also known as "programmers," which required two to three weeks of shooting (considered very brief shooting periods at the time). Actors who were relegated to such a hectic schedule appeared, as Young did, in some six to eight movies per year.

As an MGM contract player, Young was resigned to the fate of most of his colleagues — to accept any film assigned to him or risk being placed on suspension — and many actors on suspension were prohibited from earning a salary from any endeavor at all (even those unrelated to the film industry).

Despite his trademark portrayal of happy, well-adjusted characters, Young's bitterness towards Hollywood casting practices never diminished, and he suffered from depression and alcoholism — culminating in a suicide attempt in January, 1991.

Later, he spoke candidly about his personal problems in an effort to encourage others to seek help. The Robert Young Center for Community Mental Health, in Rock Island, Illinois, is named after Young in honor of his work toward passage of the 708 Illinois Tax Referendum, which established a property tax to support mental health programs in his home state.

Young died of respiratory failure at his Westlake Village, California home on July 21, 1998.

Here’s the opening of the first episode of Robert Young in “Father Knows Best”

Boulevard de Clichy, Paris, 1958

Photo by Andre Martin

Greta Garbo, known for her almost unearthly beauty and intense desire for privacy, made her U.S. screen debut in The Torrent on this day in 1926 — 95 years ago

The glamorous, husky-voiced Swedish actress Greta Garbo, known for her almost unearthly beauty and intense desire for privacy, made her U.S. screen debut in The Torrent on this day in 1926 — 95 years ago.

Born Greta Louisa Gustaffson in 1905, Garbo grew up in a poor family in Stockholm. At age 13, she started working as a lather girl at a barbershop and later moved to a department store, where she was asked to appear in a publicity film for the store. Later, she appeared in a publicity film for a bakery.

Pleased with her success, she applied for and won a scholarship to the Royal Dramatic Theater’s acting school, where she was discovered by director Mauritz Stiller, one of the most powerful directors in Swedish cinema.

Stiller cast her as the Countess Elizabeth Dohna in his critically acclaimed 1924 film, The Legend of Gosta Berling, which ran some four hours. He also gave her the now-famous stage name of Garbo.

In 1924, Louis B. Mayer of Hollywood’s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio hired Stiller on contract and brought him to the United States. Stiller only accepted the job on the condition that MGM contract Garbo as well.

Mayer agreed, although he reportedly considered Garbo too full-figured to succeed as an actress in America at the time. In The Torrent, a silent film co-starring the Latin heartthrob Ricardo Cortez, Garbo played a Spanish peasant girl who becomes an opera star. Her charisma, beauty and acting talent made an immediate impact on the filmmakers, so much so that they raised her salary even before the movie was released.

When it hit theaters, Garbo was an immediate sensation. For his part, Stiller had been prevented by Mayer from directing The Torrent, and clashed with the studio repeatedly during the filming of a follow-up picture, The Temptress.

Fired mid-production, he had an unhappy stint at Paramount before being forced to return to Sweden, where he died in 1945. The loss reportedly left Garbo devastated.

Unlike many of her contemporaries, the Swedish beauty successfully made the transition to sound after becoming a star during the silent film era. Her first talking picture was Anna Christie in 1930, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Romantically linked with numerous fellow celebrities, including her frequent co-star John Gilbert, Garbo never married. Reserved and withdrawn, she recoiled from publicity, cloaking herself in dark glasses and large hats when she traveled. “I want to be alone,” a line from her 1939 film, Grand Hotel, has often been used to sum up her aversion to fame. Garbo’s reclusiveness only heightened her mystique, however.

Although she retired from moviemaking in 1941, she was chosen by the entertainment trade newspaper Variety in 1950 as the best actress of the first half of the 20th century.

She became an American citizen in 1951, and was honored with a special Academy Award for her “unforgettable” work in 1954.

Garbo died on April 15, 1990.

Malcolm X, African American nationalist and religious leader, was assassinated 56 years ago today in New York City

Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, was assassinated 56 years ago today in New York City.

He was killed by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom on Broadway and 165th Street in Washington Heights.

Born as Malcolm Little in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, Little was the son of James Earl Little, a Baptist preacher who advocated the black nationalist ideals of Marcus Garvey. Threats from the Ku Klux Klan forced the family to move to Lansing, Michigan, where his father continued to preach his controversial sermons despite continuing threats.

In 1931, Malcolm Little’s father was brutally murdered by the white supremacist Black Legion, and Michigan authorities refused to prosecute those responsible. In 1937, the young man was taken from his family by welfare caseworkers. By the time he reached high school age, he had dropped out of school and moved to Boston, where he became increasingly involved in criminal activities.

In 1946, at the age of 21, he was sent to prison on a burglary conviction. It was there he encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, whose members are popularly known as Black Muslims. The Nation of Islam advocated black nationalism and racial separatism and condemned Americans of European descent as immoral "devils."

Muhammad's teachings had a strong effect on young Malcolm, who entered into an intense program of self-education and took the last name "X" to symbolize his stolen African identity. After six years, Malcolm X was released from prison and became a loyal and effective minister of the Nation of Islam in Harlem.

In contrast with civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X advocated self-defense and the liberation of African Americans "by any means necessary." A fiery orator, he was admired by the African American community in New York and around the country.

In the early 1960s, he began to develop a more outspoken philosophy than that of Elijah Muhammad, whom he felt did not sufficiently support the civil rights movement.

In late 1963, Malcolm X’s suggestion that President John F. Kennedy's assassination was a matter of the "chickens coming home to roost" provided Elijah Muhammad, who believed that Malcolm had become too powerful, with a convenient opportunity to suspend him from the Nation of Islam.

A few months later, Malcolm formally left the organization and made a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, where he was profoundly affected by the lack of racial discord among orthodox Muslims.

He returned to America as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and in June, 1964 founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which advocated black identity and held that racism, not the white race, was the greatest foe of the African American.

Malcolm's new movement steadily gained followers, and his more moderate philosophy became increasingly influential in the civil rights movement, especially among the leaders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

On February 21, 1965, one week after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City.

Thanks History.com and the New York Times

Mary Chapin Carpenter is 63 years old today

Mary Chapin Carpenter, New York City, January, 2016

Photo by Frank Beacham

Mary Chapin Carpenter is 63 years old today.

A folk and country music singer, songwriter and musician, Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C. clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records, who marketed her as a country singer.

Carpenter's first album, 1987's Hometown Girl, did not produce any singles, although 1989's State of the Heart and 1990's Shooting Straight in the Dark each produced four Top 20 hits on the Billboard country singles charts.

Carpenter's most successful album to date remains 1992's Come On Come On, which yielded seven charting country singles and was certified quadruple platinum in the U.S. for sales exceeding four million copies. She followed it with Stones in the Road (1994) and A Place in the World (1996), which both featured hit singles.

In the 2000s, Carpenter's albums departed both thematically and musically from her early work, becoming less radio-friendly and more focused on societal and political issues. Her most acclaimed and most topical album to date, The Calling, was released in March, 2007. She followed that with The Age of Miracles in April, 2010.

On October 7, 2012, Mary Chapin Carpenter was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Here, Carpenter performs “Shut Up and Kiss Me” in 1994

Nina Simone was born 88 years ago today

Photo by Tony Gale

Nina Simone was born 88 years ago today.

A singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz, Simone became a classical pianist while working in a broad range of styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel and pop.

Born the sixth child of a preacher's family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist. Her musical path changed direction after she was denied a scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, despite a well-received audition.

Simone was later told by someone working at Curtis that she was rejected because she was black. When she began playing in a small club in Philadelphia to fund her continuing musical education and become a classical pianist she was required to sing as well.

She was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendering of "I Loves You Porgy" was a hit in the United States in 1958. Over the length of her career, Simone recorded more than 40 albums, mostly between 1958 — when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue — and 1974.

Her musical style arose from a fusion of gospel and pop songs with classical music, in particular with influences from her first inspiration, Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied with her expressive jazz-like singing in her characteristic contralto.

She injected as much of her classical background into her music as possible to give it more depth and quality, as she felt that pop music was inferior to classical.

Her intuitive grasp on the audience–performer relationship was gained from a unique background of playing piano accompaniment for church revivals and sermons regularly from the early age of six years old.

After 20 years of performing, she became involved in the civil rights movement and the direction of her life shifted once again. Simone's music was highly influential in the fight for equal rights in the U.S.

In later years, she lived abroad, finally settling in France in 1992. Simone died in April, 2003 at age 70.

In 2015, two documentary features about Simone's life and music were released.

The first, directed by Liz Garbus, What Happened, Miss Simone? was produced in cooperation with Simone's estate and her daughter, who also served as the film's executive producer. The film was produced as a counterpoint to the unauthorized Cynthia Mort film, and featured previously unreleased archival footage. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2015 and was distributed by Netflix on June 26, 2015.

It was nominated on January 14, 2016 for a 2016 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The Amazing Nina Simone is an independent film directed by Jeff L. Lieberman. It was released in 2015. The director initially consulted with Simone's daughter before going the independent route and instead worked closely with her siblings, predominantly Sam Waymon.

Here, Simon performs “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”

Finding Soul Food, and Comfort, at Sylvia’s

Finding Soul Food, and Comfort, at Sylvia’s

Alexander Smalls is now an acclaimed restaurateur in his own right, but when he came to New York to sing opera in 1977, he told us, he found sustenance and comfort at Sylvia’s, the Harlem restaurant and fixture founded by Sylvia Woods in 1962.

For me, it was sort of like going to a big Southern enclave where the people were very much like Southern people I knew in the South.

Sylvia was the queen of all that in Harlem because she came from South Carolina and she created this environment for other Southern people to congregate and carry on.

It was like that Sunday dinner after the church service, but it was in Sylvia’s.

We would go up there, and it was a little edgy and sketchy and you kind of clutched yourself a little tighter because clearly the economic scenario there was much different from the Upper West Side or Lincoln Center.

But it was also exciting. We were going to have fried chicken and candied yams and mingle and run into folks who made you feel like you were back home, south of the Mason-Dixon line. That’s what Sylvia’s was like. It was a pilgrimage.

And Sylvia was there. And she greeted you. And seated you and sometimes gave you a hug. When I told her I was from South Carolina, I remember her taking me back in the kitchen, showing me how she made her ribs.

It makes me think of Nina Simone. I was there eating one night, and Nina Simone came in and she and Sylvia had a little tussle, a little argument, because Nina never wanted to pay her bill.

You know Nina was one of those girls, like, “You know who I am?” And Sylvia was like, “Yes, and somebody’s going to pay this bill, Nina, I’m tired of you.”

I’ve been there many times with Cicely Tyson; with Ruby Dee and Ossie. This is the chorus of voices and images and impressions that wraps around me when I go there.

These are people I knew personally, but I was introduced to them as a 20-something-year-old from South Carolina who had come to New York to produce my operatic career, and they were as fascinated with me as I was with them. Baldwin! At Sylvia’s! It was iconic.

And I see that photo and I think of Gordon Parks and Life magazine.

And that’s what comes at me. You hear the roar of history, you know, a flash of civil rights and marches, Sylvia standing out front during a press conference and being revered and being seen as the mother of whatever the movement was, an anchor that anchors this great community. Adam Clayton Powell. That picture conjures up all of that for me.

New York Times

Photo by Jim Wilson

Article by Damien Cave

Sam Peckinpah was born 96 years ago today

Sam Peckinpah directs Bob Dylan in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, 1973

Sam Peckinpah was born 96 years ago today.

Peckinpah was a film director and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic, The Wild Bunch (1969). He was known for the innovative and explicit depiction of action and violence, as well as his revisionist approach to the Western genre.

Peckinpah's films generally deal with the conflict between values and ideals, and the corruption of violence in human society. He was given the nickname, "Bloody Sam," because of the violence in his films. His characters are often loners or losers who desire to be honorable, but are forced to compromise in order to survive in a world of nihilism and brutality.

Peckinpah's combative personality, marked by years of alcohol and drug abuse, affected his professional legacy. Many of his films were noted for behind-the-scenes battles with producers and crew members, damaging his reputation and career during his lifetime.

Some of his films, including Straw Dogs (1971), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), remain controversial.

Here’s a scene from Peckinpah’s “Pat Garett and Billy the Kid” featuring Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan

Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan in Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, 1973

Larry Campbell, multi-instrumentalist, is 66 years old today

Photo by Frank Beacham

Larry Campbell, the multi-instrumentalist, is 66 years old today.

Born in New York City, Campbell plays many stringed instruments (including guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar, slide guitar and violin) in genres including country, folk, blues and rock. He was part of Bob Dylan's Never Ending Tour band from 1997 to 2004 and played for Levon Helm’s band until Helm’s death.

Campbell also has extensive experience as a studio musician and music producer.

Over the past years, he has recorded with artists including Helm, Judy Collins, Lucy Kaplansky, Richard Shindell, Linda Thompson, Sheryl Crow, Chris Castle, Paul Simon, B. B. King, Willie Nelson, Eric Andersen, Buddy and Julie Miller, Kinky Friedman, Little Feat, Hot Tuna, Cyndi Lauper, k.d. lang, Anastasia Barzee, Rosanne Cash and Ayọ.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Campbell performed regularly on New York City's burgeoning country music scene, at well-known venues such as Greenwich Village's legendary Lone Star Cafe, City Limits, The Rodeo Bar and O'Lunney's, near the United Nations.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Campbell was also a member of The Woodstock Mountains Revue, a unique folk group that featured Artie & Happy Traum, Pat Alger, Jim Rooney, Bill Keith, John Herald, Eric Andersen and John Sebastian. The Revue recorded five classic albums for Rounder Records and is widely considered one of the premier folk groups.

In 1982, Campbell performed in the orchestra for Alaska — The Musical, playing fiddle, acoustic and electric guitar, pedal steel and banjo. Campbell also performed in the orchestra for the plays, Big River, in 1985 and, Rhythm Ranch, in 1989.

In addition, he played pedal steel guitar, banjo, fiddle and guitar for the entire run of The Will Rogers Follies, which opened on Broadway in New York City on May 1, 1991.

Campbell was a member of Bob Dylan's "Never Ending Tour" band from March 31, 1997 until November 21, 2004. Through his association with Dylan's bass player, Tony Garnier, Larry joined the band, replacing John Jackson as a guitarist.

He expanded the role to multi-instrumentalist — playing instruments such as cittern, violin/fiddle, pedal steel guitar, lap steel guitar, mandolin, banjo and slide guitar. He also contributed vocals. When introducing Larry and the rest of the band, Bob Dylan often referred to them as some of the finest musicians in the country.

Campbell was felt to have contributed heavily to Dylan's 2001 album, Love and Theft, with its expansion into the realm of Western Swing and other groundbreaking areas for Dylan. He also was perceived as having a profound effect on the tightness and well-rounded sound of that period's live performances, in part due to his years of experience producing, arranging and freelancing with a rich variety of styles.

In 2003, Campbell appeared in the Dylan-penned film, Masked and Anonymous.

Since Campbell's departure from Dylan's band, he has continued to make guest appearances with various artists and live acts including Peter Wolf, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, Furthur and Phil and Friends.

He has also produced albums for many artists, including Jorma Kaukonen. Campbell toured regularly with Levon Helm, in addition to producing Helm's albums, Dirt Farmer and Electric Dirt, and acting as the musical director for Levon's Midnight Ramble concerts.

Campbell is credited with playing banjo, fiddle, and pedal steel on The Black Crowes 2009 album, Before the Frost...Until the Freeze.

He also appears on Whitey Morgan and the 78's recorded at Levon Helm's studio in December, 2009 and January, 2010 by the Outlaw Country band Whitey Morgan and the 78's and Last Bird Home by Chris Castle, also recorded at Helm’s studio in 2011.

Campbell is married to singer Teresa Williams. The couple now regularly perform and tour together.

Here, Campbell and Williams perform “Did You Love Me At All” at Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch

Larry Campbell with Teresa Williams and Amy Helm, Beacon Theatre, New York City, 2009

Photo by Frank Beacham

The Tetons and the Snake River (1942)

Photo by Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams, the pioneering photographer, was born 119 years ago today

Ansel Adams, the pioneering photographer, was born 119 years ago today.

Adams was a photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West — especially Yosemite National Park.

With Fred Archer, Adams developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs and the work of those to whom he taught the system.

Adams primarily used large-format cameras despite their size, weight, setup time and film cost because their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images. He founded the Group f/64 along with fellow photographers, Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston.

Adams's photographs are reproduced on calendars, posters and in books, making his images widely distributed.

Born in the Western Addition of San Francisco to distinctly upper-class parents, Adams was an only child and was named after his uncle, Ansel Easton. His mother's family came from Baltimore and his maternal grandfather had a successful freight-hauling business, but squandered his wealth in failed mining and real estate ventures in Nevada.

The Adams family came from New England, having migrated from the north of Ireland in the early 18th century. His grandfather founded and built a prosperous lumber business, which his father later ran, though his father's natural talents lay more with sciences than with business. Later in life, Adams would condemn that very same industry for cutting down many of the great redwood forests.

Adams first visited Yosemite National Park in 1916 with his family. He wrote of his first view of the valley: "the splendor of Yosemite burst upon us and it was glorious... One wonder after another descended upon us... There was light everywhere... A new era began for me."

His father gave him his first camera, a Kodak Brownie box camera, during that stay and he took his first photographs with his "usual hyperactive enthusiasm.“ He returned to Yosemite on his own the following year with better cameras and a tripod.

In the winter, he learned basic darkroom technique working part-time for a San Francisco photo finisher. Adams avidly read photography magazines, attended camera club meetings and went to photography and art exhibits.

With retired geologist and amateur ornithologist, Francis Holman, whom he called "Uncle Frank," he explored the High Sierra, in summer and winter, developing the stamina and skill needed to photograph at high elevation and under difficult weather conditions.

His first photographs were published in 1921. His early photos already showed careful composition and sensitivity to tonal balance. In letters and cards to his family, he expressed his daring to climb to the best view points and brave the worst elements.

At this point, however, Adams was planning a career in music. It took seven more years for Adams to finally concede that at best he might become a concert pianist of limited range, an accompanist or a piano teacher.

In the mid-1920s, Adams experimented with soft-focus, etching, Bromoil Process and other techniques of the pictorial photographers, such as Photo-Secession leader, Alfred Stieglitz, who strove to put photography on an equal artistic plane with painting by trying to mimic it.

In 1927, Adams produced his first portfolio, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras, in his new style, which included his famous image — Monolith, the Face of Half Dome — taken with his Korona view camera using glass plates and a dark red filter to heighten the tonal contrasts.

On that excursion, he had only one plate left and he "visualized" the effect of the blackened sky before risking the last shot. "I had been able to realize a desired image: not the way the subject appeared in reality but how it felt to me and how it must appear in the finished print,” he said.

As he wrote confidently in April, 1927, "My photographs have now reached a stage when they are worthy of the world's critical examination. I have suddenly come upon a new style which I believe will place my work equal to anything of its kind."

Between 1929 and 1942, Adams's work matured and he became more established. In the course of his 60-year career, the 1930s were a particularly productive and experimental time. He expanded his works, focusing on detailed close-ups as well as large forms from mountains to factories.

In New Mexico, he was introduced to notables from Alfred Stieglitz's circle, including painter Georgia O'Keeffe, artist John Marin and photographer Paul Strand, all of whom created famous works during their stays in the Southwest.

Adams's talkative, high-spirited nature combined with his excellent piano playing made him a hit within his enlarging circle of elite artist friends.

Strand especially proved influential, sharing secrets of his technique with Adams, and finally convincing Adams to pursue photography with all his talent and energy.

Following Stieglitz's example, in 1933 Adams opened his own art and photography gallery in San Francisco which eventually became the Danysh Gallery after Adams's commitments grew too burdensome. He also began to publish essays in photography magazines and wrote his first instructional book, Making a Photograph, in 1935.

During the 1930s, many photographers, including Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, believed they had a social obligation to reveal the harsh times of the Depression through their art. Mostly resistant to the "art for life's sake" movement, Adams did begin in the 1930s to deploy his photographs in the cause of wilderness preservation.

In part, he was inspired by the increasing desecration of Yosemite Valley by commercial development, including a pool hall, bowling alley, golf course, shops and automobile traffic. He created a limited-edition book in 1938, Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail, as part of the Sierra Club's efforts to secure the designation of Sequoia and Kings Canyon as national parks.

This book and his testimony before Congress played a vital role in the success of the effort, and Congress designated the area as a National Park in 1940. In 1945, Adams was asked to form the first fine art photography department at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Adams invited Dorothea Lange, Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston to be guest lecturers and Minor White to be lead instructor. The photography department produced numerous notable photographers, including Philip Hyde, Benjamen Chinn, Charles Wong, Bill Heick, Ira Latour, C. Cameron Macauley and Gerald Ratto.

In 1952, Adams was one of the founders of the magazine, Aperture, which was intended as a serious journal of photography showcasing its best practitioners and newest innovations.

Adams was elected in 1966 a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1980, Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Adams's photograph, The Tetons and the Snake River, has the distinction of being one of the 115 images recorded on the Voyager Golden Record aboard the Voyager spacecraft. His lasting legacy includes helping to elevate photography to an art comparable with painting and music, and equally capable of expressing emotion and beauty.

As he reminded his students, "It is easy to take a photograph, but it is harder to make a masterpiece in photography than in any other art medium."

Adams died on April 22, 1984, in Monterey, California, at the age of 82 from a heart attack.

Here, Ansel Adams is interviewed by Roy Firestone

Sidney Poitier is 94 years old today

Sidney Poitier was the first African-American man to win an Academy Award. He was nominated for the best actor award, and he won for his role in Lilies of the Field (1963).

He also received a lifetime achievement award on the same night Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won their Oscars in 2002.

(AP Photo)

Sidney Poitier is 94 years old today.

An American-born Bahamian actor, film director, author and diplomat, in 1963 Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field.

The significance of this achievement was later bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three successful films: To Sir, with Love, In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. They made him the top box-office star of that year. In all three films, issues revolve around the race of the characters Poitier portrays.

In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 22nd on the list of 25.

Poitier has directed a number of popular movies, such as A Piece of the Action, Uptown Saturday Night, Let's Do It Again (with friend, Bill Cosby) and Stir Crazy (starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder).

In 2002, thirty-eight years after receiving the Best Actor Award, Poitier was chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Honorary Award, designated "To Sidney Poitier in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being."

From 1997 to 2007, he served as the Bahamian ambassador to Japan. On August 12, 2009, Sidney Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.

Here, Poitier in the classic, “They call me Mr. Tibbs” scene, from 1967’s “In the Heat of the Night”

Buffy Sainte-Marie is 80 years old today

Buffy Sainte-Marie is 80 years old today.

A Canadian-American Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist and social activist, throughout her career in all of these areas, Sainte-Marie’s work has focused on issues of indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Her singing and writing repertoire also includes subjects of love, war, religion and mysticism. She founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project, an educational curriculum devoted to better understanding Native Americans.

Sainte-Marie has won recognition and many awards and honors for both her music and her work in education and social activism.

Here Buffy Sainte-Marie performs “Universal Soldier” in 1970

One hundred concert-goers died in the Station nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island on this day in 2003—18 years ago

The best known contract rider in rock-and-roll history may be the one Van Halen used that stipulated that "There will be no brown M&M's in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation."

The most tragic contract rider in history, on the other hand, was the one sent ahead to the small bars and nightclubs on the 2003 tour of "Jack Russell's Great White," the touring remnant of the group behind late-80s hits like, "Once Bitten, Twice Shy."

That rider led, in a very direct way, to the deaths of 100 concert-goers in The Station nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island on this day in 2003—18 years ago.

Even in its heyday, Great White was no Van Halen. Yet one can be sure that the contract rider enumerating their onstage and backstage needs circa 1988 must have looked rather different from the one they were using 15 years later.

The latter document was a model of restraint. Beverages? Bottled water, orange juice, coffee, tea and a few Red Bulls. Lunch? Something from the venue kitchen, or sandwiches from Subway.

The rider specified gel colors for the lights and dimensions for the merchandise table, but in the detailed stage diagram it made no mention of three pyrotechnic devices — spark fountains called "gerbs" — that the band's tour manager liked to set off just as Jack Russell's Great White tore into their opening number.

Those devices would start the fourth deadliest fire in American history — killing 100 patrons of The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, on the night of February 20, 2003.

It was an awful combination of bad decisions by multiple parties that led to the disastrous loss of life at The Station, from the local fire authorities' decision not to require sprinklers at the club, to the club owners' dangerous and illegal decision to use cheap, flammable packing foam around the stage area rather than fire-retardant soundproofing.

Nevertheless, if there had been no sparks from the unplanned-for pyrotechnic devices, there would have been no fire in the first place.

This highlights the importance of strict adherence to contract riders by performers and concert venues — the very point Van Halen was making with their famous M&M provision.

As David Lee Roth explained in his autobiography, "When I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl...we'd line-check the entire production. Guaranteed you're going to arrive at a technical error. They didn't read the contract. Guaranteed you'd run into a problem. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show. Something like, literally, life-threatening."

Thanks History.com

J. Geils was born 75 years old today

J. Geils was born 75 years old today.

A blues-rock and jazz guitarist, Geils was the lead guitarist and founder of the J. Geils Band. He has also recorded with several other jazz musicians.

Born in New York City, Geils grew up in Far Hills, New Jersey, where he graduated from Bernards High School. He moved to Massachusetts in 1964 and studied engineering at Northeastern University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

After his band dissolved, Geils founded KTR Motosports in Carlisle, Massachusetts, to service vintage sports cars. He sold the company in 1996, but remained active in the business the rest of his life.

Since 1982, Geils resided in Groton, Massachusetts. On April 11, 2017, Groton Police conducted a well-being check on Geils and found him unresponsive at his home. He was pronounced dead from natural causes at age 71.

Here, the Geils band performs a set at the Boston Garden in 1979

John Glenn was successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut 59 years ago today

From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Glenn was successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut 59 years ago today.

Glenn, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 to become America's first astronauts.

A decorated pilot, he flew nearly 150 combat missions during World War II and the Korean War. In 1957, he made the first nonstop supersonic flight across the United States, flying from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes.

Glenn was preceded in space by two Americans, Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, and two Soviets, Yuri A. Gagarin and Gherman S. Titov.

In April 1961, Gagarin was the first man in space, and his spacecraft Vostok 1 made a full orbit before returning to Earth. Less than one month later, Shepard was launched into space aboard Freedom 7 on a suborbital flight. In July, Grissom made another brief suborbital flight aboard Liberty Bell 7.

In August, with the Americans still having failed to make an orbital flight, the Russians sprinted further ahead in the space race when Titov spent more than 25 hours in space aboard Vostok 2, making 17 orbits.

As a technological power, the United States was looking very much second-rate compared with its Cold War adversary. If the Americans wanted to dispel this notion, they needed a multi-orbital flight before another Soviet space advance arrived.

It was with this responsibility in mind that John Glenn lifted off from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral at 9:47 a.m. on February 20, 1962. Some 100,000 spectators watched on the ground nearby and millions more saw it on television.

After separating from its launching rocket, the bell-shaped Friendship 7 capsule entered into an orbit around Earth at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour. Smoothing into orbit, Glenn radioed back, "Capsule is turning around. Oh, that view is tremendous."

During Friendship 7's first orbit, Glenn noticed what he described as small, glowing fireflies drifting by the capsule's tiny window. It was some time later that NASA mission control determined that the sparks were crystallized water vapor released by the capsule's air-conditioning system.

Before the end of the first orbit, a more serious problem occurred when Friendship 7's automatic control system began to malfunction, sending the capsule into erratic movements. At the end of the orbit, Glenn switched to manual control and regained command of the craft.

Toward the end of Glenn's third and last orbit, mission control received a mechanical signal from the spacecraft indicating that the heat shield on the base of the capsule was possibly loose. Traveling at its immense speed, the capsule would be incinerated if the shield failed to absorb and dissipate the extremely high reentry temperatures.

It was decided that the craft's retrorockets, usually jettisoned before reentry, would be left on in order to better secure the heat shield. Less than a minute later, Friendship 7 slammed into Earth's atmosphere.

During Glenn's fiery descent back to Earth, the straps holding the retrorockets gave way and flapped violently by his window as a shroud of ions caused by excessive friction enveloped the spacecraft, causing Glenn to lose radio contact with mission control.

As mission control anxiously waited for the resumption of radio transmissions that would indicate Glenn's survival, he watched flaming chunks of retrorocket fly by his window.

After four minutes of radio silence, Glenn's voice crackled through loudspeakers at mission control, and Friendship 7 splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

He was picked up by the USS destroyer Noa, and his first words upon stepping out of the capsule and onto the deck of the Noa were, "It was hot in there." He had spent nearly five hours in space.

Glenn was hailed as a national hero, and on February 23 President John F. Kennedy visited him at Cape Canaveral. He later addressed Congress and was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City. Out of a reluctance to risk the life of an astronaut as popular as Glenn, NASA essentially grounded the "Clean Marine" in the years after his historic flight.

Frustrated with this uncharacteristic lack of activity, Glenn turned to politics and in 1964 announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Ohio and formally left NASA. Later that year, however, he withdrew his Senate bid after seriously injuring his inner ear in a fall.

In 1970, following a stint as a Royal Crown Cola executive, he ran for the Senate again, but lost the Democratic nomination to Howard Metzenbaum. Four years later, he defeated Metzenbaum, won the general election, and went on to win reelection three times. In 1984, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president.

In early 1998, NASA announced it had approved Glenn to serve as a payload specialist on the space shuttle, Discovery. On October 29, 1998, nearly four decades after his famous orbital flight, the 77-year-old Glenn became the oldest human ever to travel in space. During the nine-day mission, he served as part of a NASA study on health problems associated with aging.

In 1999, he retired from his U.S. Senate seat after four consecutive terms in office, a record for the state of Ohio.

Glenn was in good health for most of his life. He retained a private pilot's license well into his 80s, eventually quitting flying when he and his wife found it too difficult to get into the cockpit due to knee problems.

Glenn died on December 8, 2016, at the OSU Wexner Medical Center. He lived to be 95. No cause of death was disclosed.

He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery after lying in state at the Ohio Statehouse and a memorial service at Mershon Auditorium at Ohio State University.

Thanks History.com

After the flight

Nancy Wilson was born 84 years old today

Nancy Wilson was born 84 years old today.

A singer with more than 70 albums, Wilson was a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop. She was known as a "consummate actress" and "the complete entertainer."

The title she preferred, however, was song stylist. She received many nicknames including "Sweet Nancy," "The Baby," "Fancy Miss Nancy" and "The Girl With the Honey-Coated Voice."

When she met Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, he suggested that she should move to New York City from Ohio, believing that the big city would be the venue in which her career could bloom.

In 1959, she relocated to New York with a goal of obtaining Cannonball’s manager, John Levy, as her manager and Capitol Records as her label. Within four weeks of her arrival in New York, she got her first big break. She got a call to fill in for Irene Reid at "The Blue Morocco" club.

The club booked Wilson on a permanent basis. She was singing four nights a week and working as a secretary for the New York Institute of Technology during the day. John Levy sent demos of "Guess Who I Saw Today," "Sometimes I’m Happy" and two other songs to Capitol. Capitol Records signed her in 1960.

Wilson’s debut single, "Guess Who I Saw Today," was so successful that between April, 1960 and July, 1962 Capitol Records released five Nancy Wilson albums. Her first album, Like in Love, displayed her talent in Rhythm and Blues, with the hit R&B song, "Save Your Love for Me."

Adderley suggested that she should steer away from her original pop style and gear her music toward jazz and ballads.

In 1962, they collaborated, producing the album, Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley, which propelled her to national prominence. Wilson would later appear on Adderley's live album, In Person (1968). Between March, 1964 and June, 1965, four of Wilson's albums hit the Top 10 on Billboard's Top LPs chart.

In 1963, "Tell Me The Truth" became her first truly major hit, leading up to her performance at the Coconut Grove in 1964 — the turning point of her career, garnering critical acclaim from coast to coast.

TIME Magazine said of her, "She is, all at once, both cool and sweet, both singer and storyteller."

On December 13, 2018, Wilson died at her home in Pioneertown, California after a long battle with kidney cancer. She was 81 years old.

Wilson performs “I Can’t Make You Love Me” in 1994

Gale Gordon — the longtime comedic foil to Lucille Ball — was born 115 years ago today

Gale Gordon — the longtime comedic foil to Lucille Ball — was born 115 years ago today.

Gordon played the cantankerously combustible, tightfisted bank executive, Theodore J. Mooney, on Ball's second television situation comedy, The Lucy Show. He also had starring roles in Ball's third series, Here's Lucy and her short-lived fourth series, Life with Lucy. Gordon was also a respected American radio actor.

The widely acknowledged master of the "slow-burn" temper explosion in character, Gordon was the first pick to play Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy, but he was committed to Our Miss Brooks and declined the offer in favor of William Frawley.

The somewhat portly Gordon was adept at physical comedy and could do a perfect cartwheel. He did this on The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, and again as a guest on The Dean Martin Show.

Gordon died of lung cancer on June 30, 1995 at age 89.

Here, Gordon explains what it was like working with Lucille Ball

On this day in 1958 — 63 years ago — Gerald Holtom designed the peace symbol

On this day in 1958 — 63 years ago — Gerald Holtom designed the peace symbol.

Holtom, from Great Britain, was in “deep despair” when he created the famous symbol. “I drew myself,” said Holtom, a World War II conscientious objector who was alarmed by the nuclear arms race.

“The representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outward and downward in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad.”

The symbol also combined the semaphores, or flag-signaling codes, for the letters “N” and “D,” or “Nuclear Disarmament.” The circle around it represented the earth.

Later that spring, the symbol appeared on buttons and signs in an antinuclear march to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, a warhead factory in Aldermaston, England. The march became an annual event.

The symbol, which isn’t trademarked, was embraced by the broader antiwar movement and disparaged by critics as anti-Christian.

Holtom is said to have later expressed a desire that the symbol be inverted so that it resembled hands reaching to the sky. Such a symbol, in addition to being more celebratory of peace, would also evoke the semaphore for the letter “U” — as in “Unilateral Disarmament.”

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which still uses the symbol as its logo, is taking it on an anniversary tour around Britain this year.

Thanks New York Times!

This is an early sketch of the peace symbol designed by Gerald Holtom at the Imperial War Museum in London

Photo by Yui Mok

Robert Altman was born 96 years ago today

Robert Altman was born 96 years ago today.

Altman, a film director and screenwriter, was a five time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era. He was considered a "maverick" in making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective unlike most Hollywood films.

His style of filmmaking was unique among directors in that his subjects covered most genres, but with a "subversive" twist — typically relying on satire and humor to express his personal vision.

Altman developed a reputation for being "anti-Hollywood" and non-conformist in both his themes and directing style. However, actors especially enjoyed working under his direction because he encouraged them to improvise, thereby inspiring their own creativity.

He preferred large casts for his films, and developed a multitrack recording technique which produced overlapping dialogue from multiple actors. This produced a more natural, more dynamic and more complex experience for the viewer.

He also used highly mobile camera work and zoom lenses to enhance the activity taking place on the screen. Critic Pauline Kael, writing about his directing style, says "he can make film fireworks out of next to nothing."

In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award. His films MASH (1970), McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) and Nashville (1975) have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Altman died at age 81 in 2006.

Here, Ronee Blakley performs “Dues” in Robert Altman’s 1975 film, Nashville

Walter Becker, member of Steely Dan, was born 71 years ago today

Walter Becker checks the lighting before performing with Steely Dan, San Diego, 2013

Photo by John Gastaldo

Walter Becker, a member of Steely Dan, was born 71 years ago today.

A musician, songwriter and record producer, Becker was the co-founder, guitarist, bassist and co-songwriter in Steely Dan. He met his future songwriting partner, Donald Fagen, while studying at Bard College.

After a brief period of activity in New York, the two relocated to California in 1971 and formed the nucleus of Steely Dan, who enjoyed a critically and commercially successful ten-year career. Following the group's disbanding, Becker relocated to Hawaii and reduced his musical activity, working primarily as a record producer.

Becker and Fagen reformed Steely Dan in 1993 and remained active until the end of Becker’s life. Notable was their 2000 album, Two Against Nature.

Becker also released two solo albums, 1994's, 11 Tracks of Whack, and 2008's, Circus Money.

Born in Queens, New York City, Becker grew up in Westchester County and Forest Hills, Queens. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan in the class of 1967. After starting out on saxophone, he switched to guitar and received instruction in blues technique from neighbor, Randy Wolfe.

While at Bard, Becker and Fagen formed and played in a number of groups, including The Leather Canary, which also included their fellow student, Chevy Chase, on drums. At the time, Chase called the group "a bad jazz band."

Becker left the school in 1969 prior to completing his degree and moved with Fagen to Brooklyn, where the two began to build a career as a songwriting duo.

This period included a stint with Jay and the Americans under pseudonyms and the composition of the soundtrack to You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat, a Richard Pryor film released in 1971.

Later in 1971, the duo moved to California and formed Steely Dan. Their initial lineup included guitarists Denny Dias, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Jim Hodder, all of whom the two had met prior to their relocation.

With Becker acting initially as bassist, the group spent the following three years touring and recording before becoming a studio-centered project anchored around Becker and Fagen's songwriting in 1974.

In addition to co-writing all of the band's material, Becker played bass and/or guitar on many of the band's tracks, as well as providing occasional backing vocals and arrangements. Despite the group's success, particularly surrounding Aja in 1977, Becker suffered from numerous personal setbacks during this period, including addiction to drugs.

After the duo returned to New York in 1978, Becker's girlfriend, Karen Stanley, died of a drug overdose, resulting in a large wrongful death suit volleyed against him. Not long after, Becker was hit by a Manhattan taxi while crossing the street and forced to walk with crutches.

His personal exhaustion was exacerbated by commercial pressures and the complicated recording process surrounding the final release of Steely Dan's Gaucho in 1980. This led to the duo suspending their partnership in June, 1981.

Following Steely Dan's breakup, Becker moved to the Hawaiian island of Maui and ceased using drugs. Shortly thereafter, he began a career as a record producer, overseeing records by Rickie Lee Jones, Michael Franks, and Fra Lippo Lippi, including the latter's 1987 Norwegian single, "Angel."

Their partnership resumed in 1993 when they undertook a new tour as Steely Dan, their first in 19 years. Becker also produced Fagen's album, Kamakiriad, in 1993. In turn, Fagen co-produced Becker's belated solo debut album, 11 Tracks of Whack, in 1994.

Steely Dan continued touring, and their work on new material resulted in their first studio album in two decades, Two Against Nature, released in 2000. Becker’s second solo album, Circus Money, was released on June 10, 2008, fourteen years after its predecessor.

The album prominently featured Becker's bass playing, performances by much of the Steely Dan backing band, and work by producer Larry Klein, who received co-composition credits on all but one song. The songs were heavily inspired by reggae and other Jamaican music.

On September 3, 2017, Becker died of esophageal cancer at his home in New York City.

Here, Steely Dan performs “Do It Again”

Sean Wilentz, Princeton University historian and expert on Bob Dylan, is 70 years old today

Photo by Frank Beacham

Sean Wilentz, Princeton University historian and expert on Bob Dylan, is 70 years old today.

Wilentz was born in New York City, where his father, Eli Wilentz, and uncle Theodore "Ted" Wilentz, owned a well-known Greenwich Village bookstore, the Eighth Street Bookshop.

Wilentz earned one B.A. at Columbia University in 1972, before earning another at Oxford University (Balliol College) in 1974 on a Kellett Fellowship. In 1975, he earned an M.A. at Yale University and in 1980 he received his Ph.D. also from Yale, under the supervision of David Brion Davis.

Wilentz' historical scholarship has focused on the importance of class and race in the early national period, especially in New York City. Wilentz has also co-authored books on 19th century religion and working-class life.

A contributing editor at The New Republic, Wilentz has written about music and the arts, as well as history and politics. He contributed the liner notes to the album, The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall.

In 2010, Wilentz published his study, Bob Dylan In America, placing Dylan in the context of American 20th century history and culture. The book contained essays on Dylan's relationship to Aaron Copland, Allen Ginsberg and the Beat generation, and the recording of Blonde on Blonde.

In 2006, he wrote an article denouncing the George W. Bush presidency, titled "The Worst President in History?" which appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.

Wilentz followed up during the 2008 general election with another article in Rolling Stone, describing how the failures of the Bush administration had caused a "political meltdown" of the Republican Party, with potentially enormous long-term effects.

In the wake of the October, 2013 federal government shutdown, he authored another article in Rolling Stone on what he called a "crisis" within the Republican Party, claiming the party was gradually descending into extremism.