Frank Beacham's Journal

Now available, order here

Thirty years ago tonight, on David Letterman’s 10th Anniversary show at Radio City Music Hall, Bob Dylan and a host of musicians performed “Like a Rolling Stone

Thirty years ago tonight, on David Letterman’s 10th Anniversary show at Radio City Music Hall, Bob Dylan and a host of musicians performed “Like a Rolling Stone.”

In addition to Dylan, the musicians included Chrissie Hynde (guitar, harmony vocals), Sid Mcginnsss (guitar), Steve Vai (guitar), Carole King (piano), Paul Schaffer (Hammond organ), Edgar Winter (saxophone), Doc Severinsen (trumpet), Jim Horn (baritone saxophone), Maceo Parker (alto saxophone), Fred Wesley & Pee Wee Ellis (trombone), Will Lee (bass), Anton Fig (drums), Jim Keltner (drums), Rosanne Cash, Nancy Griffith, Emmylou Harris, Michelle Shocked and Mavis Staples on backup vocals.

Here's is Dylan's performance.

Girl and elephant

Photograph by John Drysdale

David Ruffin, one of the lead singers of the Temptations, was born 81 years ago today

The Temptations with (L-R) Otis Williams, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin and Paul Williams, 1965

Photo by Echoes

David Ruffin was born 81 years ago today.

A soul singer and musician, Ruffin is most famous for his work as one of the lead singers of the Temptations from 1964 to 1968 (or the group's "Classic Five" period as it was later known). He was the lead voice on such famous songs as "My Girl" and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg."

Known for his unique raspy and anguished tenor vocals, Ruffin was ranked as one of the great singers of his generation. Fellow Motown recording artist Marvin Gaye once said admiringly of Ruffin that, "I heard in [his voice] a strength my own voice lacked."

After a successful month-long tour of England, Ruffin died on June 1, 1991, in a Philadelphia hospital of "an adverse reaction to drugs" — cocaine.

Although the cause of death was ruled an accident, Ruffin's family and friends suspected foul play, claiming that a money belt containing the proceeds from the tour ($300,000) was missing from his body. He had just finished recording the single "Hurt the One You Love" for Motorcity Records.

Ruffin was 50 when he died.

Here, Ruffin performs with Eddie Kendricks, “My Girl”

Ruffin on a break between shows

Danny Kaye was born 111 years ago today

Danny Kaye was born 111 years ago today.

An actor, singer, dancer and comedian, Kaye’s performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes and rapid-fire nonsense songs. He starred in 17 movies, notably The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), The Inspector General (1949), Hans Christian Andersen (1952), White Christmas (1954) and The Court Jester (1956).

Kaye’s films were popular, especially his bravura performances of patter songs and favorites such as "Inchworm" and "The Ugly Duckling." He was the first ambassador-at-large of UNICEF in 1954 and received the French Legion of Honor in 1986 for his years of work with the organization.

Kaye died in 1987 at 74 years old.

Here, Kaye and Gene Kelly dance and sing on the Danny Kaye Show

Charles Ponzi, inventor of the Ponzi Scheme, died 72 years ago today

Double your money in just 90 days!

That’s what Charles Ponzi, who died 72 years ago today, promised investors. In the end, Ponzi swindled more than $15 million in 1920 — the equivalent of about $190 million today.

The trickery took Ponzi’s name, as the headlines noted 10 years ago when Bernard Madoff defrauded clients of more than $50 billion.

Ponzi’s original scheme centered on postal notes. He took advantage of international postal reply coupons, which allowed customers in one country to buy a voucher redeemable for stamps in another country.

The idea was that Ponzi’s company would take investors’ dollars, use them to buy foreign postal coupons, convert each coupon into a five-cent stamp and convert the stamps into cash.

In reality, Ponzi was paying earlier investors using the investments of later investors. Millions of dollars began arriving every week. While this type of fraudulent investment scheme was not originally invented by Ponzi, it became so identified with him that it now is referred to as a Ponzi scheme.

Before he was caught, Ponzi lived luxuriously. He bought a mansion in Lexington, Massachusetts and he maintained accounts in several banks across New England. He bought a Locomobile, the finest car of that time.

Ponzi bought a macaroni company and part of a wine company in an attempt to gain profits that could be used to repay the investors of his IRC scheme.

His rapid rise naturally drew suspicion. When a Boston financial writer suggested there was no way Ponzi could legally deliver such high returns in a short period of time, Ponzi sued for libel and won $500,000 in damages. As libel law at the time placed the burden of proof on the writer and the paper, this effectively neutralized any serious probes into his dealings for some time.

On July 24, 1920, the Boston Post printed a favorable article on Ponzi and his scheme that brought in investors faster than ever. At that time, Ponzi was making $250,000 a day. Ponzi's good fortune was increased by the fact that just below this favorable article, which seemed to imply that Ponzi was indeed returning 50 percent return on investment after only 45 days, was a bank advertisement that stated that the bank was paying five percent returns annually.

The next business day after this article was published, Ponzi arrived at his office to find thousands of Bostonians waiting to give him their money.

Ponzi’s scheme ran for over a year before it collapsed. When it fell due to investigations, it took down six banks and wiped out his investors, who received less than 30 cents to the dollar. His investors lost about $20 million in 1920 dollars ($225 million in 2011 dollars). Ponzi completely annihilated their finances.

As a comparison, Bernard Madoff's similar scheme that collapsed in 2008 cost his investors about $18 billion — 53 times the losses of Ponzi's scheme.

In two federal indictments, Ponzi was charged with 86 counts of mail fraud and faced a lifetime in prison. At the urging of his wife, Ponzi pleaded guilty on November 1, 1920 to a single count before Judge Clarence Hale. Ponzi was sentenced to five years in federal prison.

He was released after three and a half years and was almost immediately indicted on 22 Massachusetts state charges of larceny. He was eventually sentenced to an additional seven to nine years in prison as "a common and notorious thief."

Remarkably, during his various prison terms, Ponzi continued to receive Christmas cards from some of his more gullible investors, as well as requests from others to invest their money — from his prison cell.

After word got out that Ponzi had never obtained American citizenship (despite having lived in the United States for most of the time since 1903), federal officials initiated efforts to have him deported as an undesirable alien in 1922. Ponzi later died in a charity hospital in Brazil, with only $75 to his name.

Thanks New York Times

Cary Grant was born 118 years ago today

Archibald Alexander Leach — better known as Cary Grant — was born 118 years ago today.

An English stage and Hollywood film actor, he became an American citizen in 1942. Known for his transatlantic accent, debonair demeanor and "dashing good looks," Grant is considered one of classic Hollywood's definitive leading men.

Grant was named the second Greatest Male Star of All Time (after Humphrey Bogart) by the American Film Institute. He was known for both comedic and dramatic roles.

Grant’s best-known films include The Awful Truth (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Gunga Din (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940), His Girl Friday (1940), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Notorious (1946), The Bishop's Wife (1947), To Catch a Thief (1955), An Affair to Remember (1957), North by Northwest (1959) and Charade (1963).

Nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor (Penny Serenade and None But the Lonely Heart) and five times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, Grant was continually passed over.

In 1970, he was presented an Honorary Oscar at the 42nd Academy Awards by Frank Sinatra "for his unique mastery of the art of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues.”

Grant died in 1986 at age 82.

Here, Frank Sinatra presents Grant his Honorary Oscar in 1970

On this day in 1971 — 51 years ago — Sen. George McGovern announced his candidacy for president during a televised speech from the studios of KELO-TV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

On this day in 1971 — 51 years ago — Sen. George McGovern announced his candidacy for president during a televised speech from the studios of KELO-TV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

At the time of his announcement, McGovern was ranked fifth among Democrats in a presidential preference Gallup Poll.

He won the nomination at the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami, but was defeated by Richard Nixon.

Above, Frank Beacham with McGovern, 2008.

Photo by Margo Re

Oliver "Ollie" Hardy was born 130 years ago today

William A. Seiter directs Oliver Hardy (left) and Stan Laurel (right) in Sons of the Desert, 1933

Oliver "Ollie" Hardy was born 130 years ago today.

Hardy was a comic actor famous as half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted 25 years from 1927 to 1951.

Hardy was credited with his first film, Outwitting Dad, in 1914. In some of his early works, he was billed as Babe Hardy, using his nickname.

In 1927, Laurel and Hardy began sharing screen time together in Slipping Wives, Duck Soup (no relation to the 1933 Marx Brothers’ film of the same name) and With Love and Hisses.

Roach Studios’ supervising director, Leo McCarey, realizing the audience reaction to the two, began intentionally teaming them together, leading to the start of a Laurel and Hardy series later that year. With this pairing, he created one of the most famous double acts in movie history.

They began producing a huge body of short silent movies, including The Battle of the Century (1927) (with one of the largest pie fights ever filmed), Should Married Men Go Home? (1928), Two Tars (1928) and Unaccustomed As We Are (1929).

Marking their transition to talking pictures, they did, among others, Berth Marks (1929), Blotto (1930), Brats (1930), Another Fine Mess (1930) and Be Big! (1931).

In 1929, they appeared in their first feature, in one of the revue sequences of Hollywood Revue of 1929, and the following year they appeared as the comic relief in a lavish all-color (in Technicolor) musical feature entitled The Rogue Song. This film marked their first appearance in color.

In 1931, they starred in their first full-length movie, Pardon Us. They continued to make features and shorts until 1935. The Music Box, a 1932 short, won them an Academy Award for best short film — their only such award.

Hardy suffered a major stroke on September 14, 1956, which left him confined to bed and unable to speak for several months. He suffered two more strokes in early August, 1957, and slipped into a coma from which he never recovered.

He died from cerebral thrombosis on August 7, 1957 at the age of 65.

Here is Laurel and Hardy in a scene from Block-Heads, 1938

Gainesville, Georgia, 1992

Photo by by Todd Robertson

This powerful image of a young boy in a KKK robe seeing his reflection in a riot shield held by an African-American state trooper brings back memories of the South in 1950s.

In my hometown of Honea Path, S.C., the KKK would try to sign up people Saturday afternoons on Main Street. When I was young kid they even tried to get me to sign. Fortunately I said no, though I didn’t really understand why at the time.

The story of this image was published by the Poynter Organization. Here is a reprint:

How KKK rally image found new life 20 years after it was published

by David Griner

Buried on Page B1, alongside the hum-drum headline “KKK march calm,” a powerful image of race relations in the southern United States was nearly lost. In fact, it almost wasn’t published at all.

And in the 20 years since, this emotionally complex photograph of a Klan-robed toddler playfully touching the riot shield of a bemused African-American state trooper has gone uncelebrated and largely unknown.

Now, thanks to a few twists of fate, the photo has been granted a second life through social media, where each viewer seems to read something different into the image. Is it disturbing? Hopeful? Humorous? Touching? Heartbreaking?

Many who have shared the photo online admit they know little about its origins, which is understandable. Aside from a few basic details, such as the photographer’s name and a rough guess on the year, the full story behind this photo has never appeared online until today.

After first seeing the photo shared on Facebook a month ago, I decided to track down the photographer, who now describes himself as “a 45-year-old cabinet designer who has nothing to do with pictures.” In a recent phone interview, Todd Robertson shared the full story, which proved even more interesting than I’d imagined.

The Ku Klux Klan was holding a rally in the northeast Georgia community of Gainesville, where the white supremacist group hoped to breathe some life into its flagging revival campaign of the late 1980s and early ’90s.

Assigned as a backup photographer for the local daily, The Gainesville Times, was Robertson, a 1991 graduate of the University of Georgia’s Grady School of Journalism. He had a few recurring gigs, including shooting high school football for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but a full-time photojournalism job had proved elusive.

At the Klan rally, there wasn’t a tremendous amount of action for Robertson to record. According to news reports from the day, there were 66 KKK representatives, encircled by three times as many law enforcement personnel. The downtown square was otherwise empty, with about 100 observers at the fringe, mostly there to demonstrate against the Klan.

The white supremacists were out-of-towners with no real local support in Gainesville. “Many people who came to these Klan events were not from here,” recalls Gainesville Times new media editor Michael Beard in an email to me about the photo’s history. “I’ve lived here all my life and can only recall seeing someone in a Klan outfit one single time, standing alone at an intersection trying to hand out papers.”

While reporters and the staff photographer focused on the speakers at the rally and watched for potential signs of conflict, Robertson chose to follow a mother and her two young boys, dressed in white robes and the KKK’s iconic pointy hats.

One of the boys approached a black state trooper, who was holding his riot shield on the ground. Seeing his reflection, the boy reached for the shield, and Robertson snapped the photo. Almost immediately, the mother swooped in and took away the toddler, whom she identified to Robertson as “Josh.” The moment was fleeting, and almost no one noticed it, but Robertson had captured it on film.

And a roll of film seemed to be where it was destined to stay. Back at the newspaper office, Robertson was told his photos weren’t worth developing because the staff photographer had come back with plenty of good images from the rally. A photograph of a Klan leader was selected to be the primary shot for the Local section cover.

On his own initiative, Robertson took his film to a local one-hour photo developer and brought a stack of 4×6 prints back to the newspaper office. He was showing the photo of the young boy and the trooper to a few reporters when the managing editor walked by.

“He grabbed it up, walked directly to the photo guy and said, ‘This picture’s running in the paper,’” Robertson says. “That staff photographer and I are still friends, but we weren’t that day.”

While it only appeared in black-and-white on Page B1 of a small community newspaper, the photo also hit the Associated Press wire, where it sparked some unexpected attention.

Robertson was soon contacted by producers for “The Sally Jessy Raphael Show,” which wanted to feature the young boy and his mother. As with many such requests since then, Robertson wasn’t able to provide any contact information for the family, which he guessed lived in or around Winder, Ga., because of their affiliation with the Klan’s Winder Knights sect.

It’s hard to know where else the photograph ran in those initial days, though Robertson heard of it appearing in several European tabloids.

Gainesville Times editors submitted the shot for a state Associated Press award, which it won in the Feature Photo category. But that, Robertson says, was the photo’s only official recognition.

By all logic, the photo’s legacy should have ended there. The newspaper wasn’t yet posting content to the Internet, so the photo would only live on microfilm. (As recently as December 2012, the newspaper’s editors said they were unsure where to find the original article because the exact date of the rally had been forgotten. Luckily, the Hall County Library was able to help me dig up the scan of the photo’s original appearance in print.)

As for Robertson, he soon decided to give up his dream of being a professional photographer and join his father’s local cabinetry business, Area Decor, where he is now a project manager. He got married, had twins, kept himself plenty busy. When the family travels, he refuses to take along any camera larger than a point-and-shoot, to keep himself from “going overboard and crawling around on the ground trying to get a shot.”

But fate still had plans for Robertson’s photography. In 1999, seven years after the Klan rally photograph was captured, the Southern Poverty Law Center decided to feature it prominently in a new pamphlet called “Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide.”

Even those involved with the original publication don’t remember why or how they dug up Robertson’s photo, but once it was unearthed from the anti-hate organization’s extensive archive of news clippings, everyone knew it was a perfect fit for the publication, where it appears in full color across the booklet’s second page.

“I don’t know who found it or where it came up,” says Penny Weaver, longtime public affairs coordinator for the Alabama-based SPLC, in a phone interview for this story. “But that’s how it’s gotten wide distribution, because we have given away lots and lots of that handbook over the years.”

The nonprofit licensed the photo with Robertson for publication, and he provided them an uncropped color version, which is now prominently displayed in the group’s office. As the pamphlet circulated through multiple printings over the years, Weaver says her group was often contacted by admirers of the photo who wanted to order a poster version or learn more about it. She would refer all inquiries to Robertson, who says he responded to some but not all of the requests.

As online photo sharing exploded in 2011, the photograph appeared (with no caption other than “Awwwww”) on a popular photo blog called The Meta Picture. Right away, commenters began to have a debate that’s now a standard byproduct of the image: Is it cute, sad or disturbing?

“Not *awww*, this kid is the next white supremacist generation,” notes the first commenter.

“You’re completely missing the point,” responds another. “This kid has no idea how to hate yet. It’s cute. If he becomes ‘the next white supremacist generation’ it won’t be his fault.”
Other bloggers shared the photo and added what little context they could find. Robertson noticed the spike in activity and, in July 2012, even posted his first-ever statement about the photograph as a comment on the blog 22 Words. “I will never be able to live without someone finding this picture,” Robertson wrote, then gave a few reflections on the events of that day.

The slow burn of the photo’s digital rebirth continues to flare up in seemingly random places. On Dec. 10, 2012, the image was shared on Facebook by a gay-rights page called “Have a Gay Day.” The image sparked 1,700 likes and 850 shares in one day.

“I have stared at this picture and wondered what must have been going through that Trooper’s mind,” wrote the gay-rights advocate who posted it to Facebook. “Before the Trooper is an innocent child who is being taught to hate him because of the color of his skin. The child doesn’t understand what he is being taught, and at this point he doesn’t seem to care.”

This comment captures what makes Robertson’s photo so compelling. It’s a fleeting moment, but one that you could spend hours reflecting on, finding different nuances and interpretations. It becomes a sort of Rorschach test for each commenter’s worldview. It might leave you hopeful that hate isn’t a trait we’re born with. Or it might make you depressed about the fact that many children are destined to be corrupted and psychologically misshapen.

Ball State University even built a one-hour lesson plan around the photograph for high school educators as part of the college’s “Learning from a Legacy of Hate” teacher toolkit. Called the “Kiddie Klan Exercise,” it includes questions such as “What do you think is going on in the officer’s head at this moment? What are his facial expressions saying?” and “Would you feel differently about this picture if the officer that ‘Josh’ is interacting with was not African-American?”

“The whole key to that picture is the expression on that trooper’s face,” says the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Penny Weaver. “I think that expression is … what’s the word to describe it? It’s like a sort of sadness.”

Robertson himself interprets the trooper’s reaction as a mix of “disgust and sorrow.”

“They felt sorry for the kid,” he says. “You could tell that kid did not know the difference between that day and Halloween.”

The photo’s online revival has had a complicated effect on Robertson, who thought he had moved past his photojournalism life many years ago. He enjoys seeing the comments and wishes he could help the many viewers who want to know what ever happened to “Josh.” But at the same time, it can feel strange reflecting back on one moment two decades ago.

“I just really don’t even know what to say about it. It seems like it was a whole world ago. It’s almost like another life that I lived 20 years ago.

”I was looking in the right direction, I guess.”

(David Griner is a contributing editor for Adweek.com and VP/Director of Digital Content for Alabama-based marketing agency, Luckie & Company. He previously served as city editor for a community newspaper in Northern California and as a reporter and political columnist in Fort Wayne, Indiana.)

Steve Earle is 67 years old today

Steve Earle, New York City, 2010

Photo by Frank Beacham

Steve Earle is 67 years old today.

A singer-songwriter, record producer, author and actor, Earle grew up near San Antonio, Texas, and began learning the guitar at age 11. He started his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982.

Earle’s breakthrough album was Guitar Town in 1986. Since then, Earle has released 15 other studio albums. His songs have been recorded by Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Shawn Colvin and Emmy Lou Harris. He has appeared in film and television, has written a novel, a play and a book of short stories.

Earle is reported to have run away from home at age 14 to follow his idol, singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt around Texas. He was "rebellious" as a kid and dropped out of school at the age of 16.

He moved to Houston with his 19-year-old uncle, who was also a musician, where he married and worked odd jobs. While in Houston, Earle finally met Van Zandt, who became his hero and role model.

In 1974, at the age of 19, Earle moved to Nashville and began working blue-collar jobs during the day and playing music at night.

During this period, he wrote songs and played bass guitar in Guy Clark's band and on Clark's 1975 album, Old No. 1.

Earle appeared in the 1975 film, Heartworn Highways, a documentary on the Nashville music scene which included Guy Clark, Townes van Zandt and Rodney Crowell.

He lived in Nashville for several years and obtained a job as a staff songwriter for a publishing company called Sunbury Dunbar.

In the 1980s, Earle worked as a songwriter for the publishers Roy Dea and Pat Clark. A song he co-wrote, "When You Fall in Love," was recorded by Johnny Lee and made #14 on the country charts in 1982.

Carl Perkins recorded Earle's song, "Mustang Wine," and two of his songs were recorded by Zella Lehr. Later, Dea and Clark created an independent record label called LSI and invited Earle to began recording his own material on their label. Earle released an EP called, Pink & Black, in 1982 featuring his band, the Dukes.

Acting as Earle's manager, John Lomax sent the EP to Epic Records and they signed Earle to a recording contract in 1983. In 1983, Earle signed a record deal with CBS and recorded a "neo-rockabilly album.”

Earle released his first full length album, Guitar Town, on MCA Records. The title track became a Top Ten single in 1986 and his song "Goodbye's All We've Got Left" reached the Top Ten in 1987.

That same year, he released a compilation of earlier recordings entitled, Early Tracks, and an album with the Dukes, called Exit 0, which received critical acclaim for its blend of country and rock.

Earle's songs have been recorded by Joan Baez, The Pretenders, The Proclaimers, Eddi Reader, The Highwaymen, Waylon Jennings, Levon Helm, Emmylou Harris, Percy Sledge and Johnny Cash.

Here, Earle performs “Guitar Town” in 1985

Heartworn Highways

In 1976, in Heartworn Highways, producer Graham Leader and director James Szalapski documented the outlaw singer/songwriter scene that extended from Austin and Nashville.

Included were then relative unknowns Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell and John Hiatt, plus their musical mentors Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark.

Born was Heartworn Highways, a cult classic film among fans of the genre. In the relaxed manner of the handmade documentary, we're given a tour of Townes Van Zandt's backyard, where we see dogs running loose while he is chugging whiskey and shooting guns.

Townes picks up a guitar and sings the poignant "Waitin' Around To Die" in his kitchen, an elderly neighbor breaks down in tears. The film follows David Allan Coe to the Tennessee State Prison to watch a performance. Charlie Daniels is shown on a small stage in front of a crowd of near-riotous fans.

A gang of buddies, including Rodney Crowell, gathers around a table at Christmas time to sing and pick guitars, showing some very early work by Steve Earle. The structure of the film is very loose; at times almost surreal, especially viewed through the fish-eye lens of time.

There is no real story to the movie, only the tales which are told in the lives of people who love music and make it not for a living.

Here’s the entire film

Muhammad Ali was born 80 years ago today

Muhammad Ali on the Chicago River, 1966

Photo by Thomas Hoepker

Muhammad Ali was born 80 years ago today.

A former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist, Ali was considered an American cultural icon.

Originally known as Cassius Clay, he won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston at the age of 22. Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964, subsequently converting to Sunni Islam in 1975.

In 1967, three years after Ali had won the heavyweight championship, he was publicly vilified for his refusal to be conscripted into the U.S. military, based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War.

Ali was eventually arrested and found guilty on draft evasion charges. He was stripped of his boxing title, and his boxing license was suspended. Ali was not imprisoned, but did not fight again for nearly four years while his appeal worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was eventually successful.

Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the war made him an icon for the larger counterculture generation. Ali would go on to become the first and only three-time lineal World Heavyweight Champion.

Nicknamed "The Greatest," Ali was involved in several historic boxing matches.

Notable among these were three with rival Joe Frazier, which are considered among the greatest in boxing history, and one with George Foreman, where he finally regained his stripped titles seven years later.

Ali was well known for his unorthodox fighting style, epitomized by his catchphrase "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee," and employing techniques such as the Ali Shuffle and the rope-a-dope.

Ali brought beauty and grace to the most uncompromising of sports and through his personal excesses of skill and character, he became the most famous athlete in the world. He was also known for his pre-match hype, where he would "trash talk" opponents — often with rhymes.

In 1999, Ali was crowned "Sportsman of the Century" by Sports Illustrated and "Sports Personality of the Century" by the BBC. In his later years, Ali kept a lower profile as he continued his long-running battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Ali was hospitalized in Scottsdale, Arizona on June 2, 2016, with a respiratory illness. Though his condition was initially described as "fair," it worsened and he died the following day, at the age of 74, from septic shock.

Here is a short film on the champ done on his 70th birthday

Mack Sennett, director and actor known as the innovator of slapstick comedy, was born 142 years ago today

Mack Sennett, director and actor known as the innovator of slapstick comedy, was born 142 years ago today.

During his lifetime, Sennett was known at times as the "King of Comedy." His short — "Wrestling Swordfish" — was awarded the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1932 and he earned an Academy Honorary Award in 1937.

Here is segment of Sennett’s Keystone Comedies

Mick Taylor is 73 years old today

Mick Taylor is 73 years old today.

An English musician, Taylor is best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1966–69) and The Rolling Stones (1969–74).

He is regarded by many Stones aficionados as the best musician ever to play with the band, and appeared on some of their classic albums including Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St.

Since resigning from the Rolling Stones in December, 1974, Taylor has worked with numerous other artists and released several solo albums.

Louis Comfort Tiffany, who died 89 years ago today, was most famous as a designer of stained glass

Louis Comfort Tiffany made this window for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago

“Color,” said Louis Comfort Tiffany, “is to the eye what music is to the ear.”

Tiffany, who died on this day 89 years ago, was the son of the founder of Tiffany & Co., the famous jeweler. But the younger Tiffany found his own success as an artist and designer, most famous for his work with stained glass.

Tiffany is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements. He was affiliated with a prestigious collaborative of designers known as the Associated Artists, which included Lockwood de Forest, Candace Wheeler, and Samuel Colman.

Tiffany designed stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, ceramics, jewelry, enamels and metalwork.

In 1881, Tiffany helped redesign the interior of a house in Hartford, Conn., owned by Mark Twain, who was making his name after the publication of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”

The work was followed a year later by a commission with a much higher profile: redecorating the White House. Chester Arthur had been thrust into office after the assassination of President James Garfield in 1881. He hired Tiffany to remodel the mansion to suit his refined tastes.

Tiffany redecorated several rooms, and he also installed a large stained-glass screen in the Entrance Hall. But his mark on the White House did not last. Twenty years later, in 1902, Theodore Roosevelt ordered a major renovation that swept away the building’s Victorian touches — including Tiffany’s screen.

Thanks New York Times

James Earl Jones is 91 years old today

James Earl Jones as “Big Daddy” with Phylicia Rashad in Tennessee Williams’ “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof”

James Earl Jones is 91 years old today.

In a career of more than 50 years, Jones has become known as one of America's most distinguished and versatile actors. Since his Broadway debut in 1957, Jones has won many awards, including a Tony Award and Golden Globe Award for his role in The Great White Hope.

He has won three Emmy Awards, including two in the same year in 1991, and he also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in the film version of The Great White Hope.

He is also known for his voice acting, most notably as Darth Vader in the Star Wars film series and Mufasa in Disney's The Lion King, as well as in many other film, stage and television roles.

As a child Jones overcame a stutter that lasted for several years. A pre-med major in college, he went on to serve as a U.S. Army Ranger during the Korean War, before dedicating his career to acting.

On November 12, 2011, Jones received an Honorary Academy Award.

On meeting Helene Hanff...

On meeting Helene Hanff...

In the fall, 1996, my mother visited me in New York. Besides taking her to my favorite haunts, I had arranged a surprise for her: a visit to meet Helene Hanff, the author of “84, Charing Cross Road,” one of my mother’s favorite books.

Truth be told, it was a surprise for me too. After thinking up the idea on a whim, I had not expected that Helene Hanff would be listed in the phone book, answer my call and invite us to her apartment.

The Columbus Day Parade was in full swing as we left the subway at 72nd Street that day and made our way to Ms. Hanff’s cluttered Upper East Side studio apartment, where she lived by herself.

She expressed incredulity that my mother had read her books in India and had wanted to meet her. While the two of them chatted and Ms. Hanff autographed my own much-loved copies of her books, I offered to tidy up her little space, turning her bed back into a sofa, emptying ashtrays, folding clothes and fetching her a cup of coffee.

On the wall outside her tiny kitchen, Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins stared down from a poster for the movie version of “84, Charing Cross Road.”

Ms. Hanff passed away six months later, in April 1997.

— Vidya Shenoi Madiraju

Thanks New York Times

On this day in 1961 — 61 years ago — President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the American people to keep a careful eye on what he called the "military-industrial complex" that began developing in the post-World War II years

In his farewell address to the nation on this day in 1961 — 61 years ago — President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the American people to keep a careful eye on what he called the "military-industrial complex" that began developing in the post-World War II years.

A fiscal conservative, Eisenhower had been concerned about the growing size and cost of the American defense establishment since he became president in 1953. In his last presidential address to the American people, he expressed those concerns in terms that shocked some of his listeners.

Eisenhower began by describing the changing nature of the American defense establishment since World War II. No longer could the U.S. afford the "emergency improvisation" that characterized its preparations for war against Germany and Japan. Instead, the United States was "compelled to create a permanent armaments industry" and a huge military force.

He admitted that the Cold War made clear the "imperative need for this development," but he was gravely concerned about "the acquisition of unwarranted influence...by the military-industrial complex." In particular, he asked the American people to guard against the "danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."

Eisenhower's blunt language stunned some of his supporters. They believed that the man who led the country to victory in Europe in World War II and guided the nation through some of the darkest moments of the Cold War was too negative toward the military-industrial complex that was the backbone of America's defense.

For most listeners, however, it seemed clear that Eisenhower was merely stating the obvious. World War II and the ensuing Cold War resulted in the development of a large and powerful defense establishment.

The outgoing President warned that this new military-industrial complex could weaken or destroy the very institutions and principles it was designed to protect. Only now can we be begin to appreciate the truth of Eisenhower’s words.

Here, Eisenhower issues his infamous warning.

Eartha Kitt was born 95 years ago today

Eartha Kitt was born 95 years ago today.

A singer, actress, dancer and cabaret star, Kitt was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash, "Santa Baby."

Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the world."

She took over the role of Catwoman for the third and final season of the 1960s Batman television series, replacing Julie Newmar, who was unavailable due to other commitments.

She also voiced Yzma on Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and its television spinoff, The Emperor's New School, earning five Emmy Awards in the process — the last shortly before her death.

Kitt died in 2008 at the age of 81.

Here is Kitt performing "C'est Si Bon"

In 1967, David Mason, 40, recorded the piccolo trumpet solo for The Beatle's “Penny Lane” at Abbey Road Studios in London

In 1967, David Mason, 40, recorded the piccolo trumpet solo for The Beatle's “Penny Lane” at Abbey Road Studios in London.

He was paid the equivalent of $42 for his performance.

In August, 1987, the trumpet he used was sold at a Sotheby's auction for $10,846.

Mason also contributed to several other Beatles songs, including "A Day in the Life," "Magical Mystery Tour," "All You Need Is Love" and "It's All Too Much.”

He died of leukemia in April, 2011 at the age of 85.

Benjamin Franklin was born 316 years ago today

In this painting by Jason Heuser, Franklin battles Zeus for lightning

Benjamin Franklin was born 316 years ago today.

One of the founding fathers of the United States and in many ways was "the First American," Franklin was a renowned polymath. He was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman and diplomat.

As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity.

As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove, among other inventions.

Franklin facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and a university. He earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity. He was an author and spokesman in London for several colonies and the first United States Ambassador to France.

Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment.

In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, "In Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat."

To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become."

Franklin, always proud of his working class roots, became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies. With two partners, he published the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the British policies.

He became wealthy publishing Poor Richard's Almanack and The Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin was also the printer of books for the Moravians of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (1742 on).

Franklin's printed Moravian books (printed in German) are preserved, and can be viewed, at the Moravian Archives located in Bethlehem. Franklin visited Bethlehem many times and stayed at the Moravian Sun Inn. He played a major role in establishing the University of Pennsylvania and was elected the first president of the American Philosophical Society.

Franklin became a national hero in America when as agent for several colonies he spearheaded the effort to have Parliament in London repeal the unpopular Stamp Act.

An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a major figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts to secure support for the American Revolution by shipments of crucial munitions proved vital for the American war effort.

For many years, he was the British postmaster for the colonies, which enabled him to set up the first national communications network. From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. Toward the end of his life, he freed his own slaves and became one of the most prominent abolitionists.

His colorful life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and status as one of America's most influential founding fathers, have seen Franklin honored on coinage and the $100 bill; warships; the names of many towns; counties; educational institutions; corporations and countless cultural references.

Betty White was born 100 years ago today

Betty White was born 100 years ago today.

White was an actress, comedian, presenter, singer, author and television personality. In 2013, she was awarded by the Guinness World Records with having the longest television career for a female entertainer.

To contemporary audiences, White was best known for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls.

Regarded as a television pioneer for being one of the first women in television to have creative control in front of and behind the camera, White won six Emmy Awards (five for acting), receiving 20 Emmy nominations over her career, including being the first woman to receive an Emmy for game show hosting (for the short-lived, Just Men!) and is the only woman to have won an Emmy in all performing comedic categories.

In May, 2010, White became the oldest person to guest-host Saturday Night Live, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award.

White also holds the record for longest span between Emmy nominations for performances — her first was in 1951 and her last was in 2012, a span of 61 years. She was the oldest nominee at age 91. The actress is also the oldest winner of a competitive Grammy Award, which she won in 2012.

Due to her legacy in the entertainment industry, The American Comedy Awards, The Screen Actor Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts all awarded White with Lifetime achievement awards recognizing her contribution to television.

A 2011 poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos revealed that White was considered to be the most popular and most trusted celebrity among Americans, beating out the likes of Denzel Washington, Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks.

White died on Dec. 31, 2021, only days before her 100th birthday.

Planet Waves, the fourteenth studio album by Bob Dylan, was released on this day in 1974 — 48 years ago

Planet Waves, the fourteenth studio album by Bob Dylan, was released on this day in 1974 — 48 years ago.

Dylan is supported on the album by the Band, with whom he embarked on a major reunion tour following its release (documented on the live album, Before the Flood).

With a successful tour, Planet Waves was a hit, enjoying a brief stay at #1 on the U.S. Billboard charts — a first for Dylan — and #7 in the UK.

The album was originally set to be titled Ceremonies of the Horsemen, a reference to the song "Love Minus Zero/No Limit," from the 1965 album, Bringing It All Back Home.

The release was delayed two weeks when Dylan decided to change the title at the last minute.

The aftermath of a flood in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Photo by Ales Komovec

Ethel Merman, the “undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage," was born 114 years ago today

Ethel Merman, the “undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage," was born 114 years ago today.

Merman was known for her belting voice. Among the many standards she introduced in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm," "Everything's Coming Up Roses," "Some People," "Rose's Turn," "I Get a Kick Out of You," "It's De-Lovely," "Friendship," "You're the Top," "Anything Goes" and "There's No Business Like Show Business."

She was born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann in her maternal grandmother's house located at 265 4th Street in Astoria, Queens, in New York City. On Friday nights, the Zimmermann family would take the subway into Manhattan to see the vaudeville show at the Palace Theatre, where Merman discovered Blossom Seeley, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker and Nora Bayes.

At home, she tried to emulate their singing styles, but her own distinct voice was difficult to disguise. After graduating from Bryant High School in 1924, Merman began appearing in nightclubs, first hired by Jimmy Durante's partner, Lou Clayton. It was at this time she decided that the name Ethel Zimmermann was too long for a theater marquee.

She considered combining Ethel with Gardner or Hunter, which was her grandmother's maiden name. These considerations got her father's "German" worked up. Finally, she abbreviated Zimmermann to Merman to appease her father.

During a two-week engagement at Little Russia, a club in midtown Manhattan, Merman met agent Lou Irwin, who arranged for her to audition for Archie Mayo, a film director under contract at Warner Bros. He offered her an exclusive six-month contract, starting at $125 per week, and Merman quit her day job, only to find herself idle for weeks while waiting to be cast in a film.

She finally urged Irwin to try to cancel her agreement with Mayo. Instead, he negotiated her a better deal allowing her to perform in clubs while remaining on the Warners' payroll.

Merman was hired as a torch singer at Les Ambassadeurs, where the headliner was Jimmy Durante. The two became lifelong friends. She caught the attention of columnists such as Walter Winchell and Mark Hellinger, who began giving her publicity.

Soon after Merman underwent a tonsillectomy she feared might damage her voice, but after recovering she discovered it was more powerful than ever.

While performing on the prestigious Keith Circuit, Merman was signed to replace Ruth Etting in the Paramount film, Follow the Leader (1930), starring Ed Wynn and Ginger Rogers. Following a successful seven-week run at the Brooklyn Paramount, she was signed to perform at the Palace for $500 per week.

During the run, theatre producer, Vinton Freedley, saw her perform and invited her to audition for the role of San Francisco café singer, Kate Fothergill, in the new George and Ira Gershwin musical, Girl Crazy. Upon hearing her sing, "I Got Rhythm," the Gershwins immediately cast her. Merman began juggling daytime rehearsals with her matinee and evening performance schedule at the Palace.

Girl Crazy opened on October 14, 1930 at the Alvin Theatre, where it ran for 272 performances.

The New York Times noted Merman sang "with dash, authority, good voice and just the right knowing style," while The New Yorker called her "imitative of no one." She was known for her powerful, belting mezzo-soprano voice, precise enunciation and pitch.

Because stage singers performed without microphones when Merman began singing professionally, she had a great advantage, despite the fact that she never took any singing lessons. Broadway lore holds that George Gershwin advised her never to take a singing lesson after she opened in his Girl Crazy.

Merman was notorious for her love of dirty jokes. She delighted in telling vulgar jokes and stories at public parties. For instance, she once shouted a dirty joke across the room at José Ferrer during a formal reception.

Merman also enjoyed sending out greeting cards with obscene jokes in them. She was well known for swearing during rehearsals and meetings.

While rehearsing a guest appearance on NBC's The Loretta Young Show, she was told she had to pay $1 each time she swore since Young opposed foul language.

As she was being shoehorned into an ill fitting gown for the next number Merman exclaimed, "Oh shit, this damn thing's too tight." Young advanced on her waving her curse box and said, "Come on Ethel, put a dollar in. You know my rules." Merman's retort reportedly was, "Ah, honey, how much will it cost me to tell you to go fuck yourself?!"

Early on the morning of February 15, 1984, Merman died in her sleep at age 76.

Here, Merman performs “Everything is Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy, 1960

Lucy teaches Ethel Merman to sing

On this day in 1942 — 80 years ago — the actress Carole Lombard, famous for her roles in screwball comedies, was killed when the TWA DC-3 plane she was traveling in crashed en route from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. She was 33 years old

The blanket-wrapped body of Lombard was removed from the airliner on Mount Potosi, southwest of Las Vegas on Jan. 16, 1942

On this day in 1942 — 80 years ago — the actress Carole Lombard, famous for her roles in screwball comedies, was killed when the TWA DC-3 plane she was traveling in crashed en route from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. She was 33 years old.

Lombard was known for films like My Man Godfrey and To Be or Not to Be and for her marriage to the actor, Clark Gable. She and Gable met in 1932 during the filming of No Man of Her Own.

He was just starting out on his trajectory as one of Hollywood’s top leading men and she was a talented comedic actress trying to prove herself in more serious roles.

Both were married at the time — Gable to a wealthy Texas widow 10 years his senior and Lombard to the actor William Powell — and neither showed much interest in the other. When they met again, three years later, Lombard had divorced Powell and Gable was separated from his wife, and things proceeded quite differently.

Much to the media’s delight, the new couple was open with their affection, calling each other Ma and Pa and exchanging quirky, expensive gifts. In early 1939, Gable’s wife finally granted him a divorce, and he married Lombard that April.

In January, 1942, shortly after America’s entrance into World War II, Howard Dietz, the publicity director of the MGM film studio, recruited Lombard for a tour to sell war bonds in her home state of Indiana.

Gable, who had been asked to serve as the head of the actors’ branch of the wartime Hollywood Victory Committee, stayed in Los Angeles, where he was set to begin filming Somewhere I’ll Find You with Lana Turner.

Dietz advised Lombard to avoid airplane travel, because he feared for its reliability and safety, and she did most of the trip by train, stopping at various locations on the way to Indianapolis and raising some $2 million for the war effort.

On the way home, however, Lombard didn’t want to wait for the train, and instead boarded the TWA DC-3 in Las Vegas with her mother, Elizabeth Peters, and a group that included the MGM publicity agent, Otto Winkler, and 15 young Army pilots.

Shortly after takeoff, the plane veered off course. Warning beacons that might have helped guide the pilot had been blacked out because of fears about Japanese bombers. The plane smashed into a cliff near the top of Potosi Mountain.

Search parties were able to retrieve Lombard’s body, and she was buried next to her mother at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California, under a marker that read, “Carole Lombard Gable.”

Hysterical with grief and adrift in the empty house he had shared with Lombard, Gable drank heavily and struggled to complete his work on Somewhere I’ll Find You. He was comforted by worried friends, including the actress Joan Crawford.

That August, Gable decided to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Forces. He spent most of the war in the United Kingdom, and flew several combat missions (including one to Germany), earning several decorations for his efforts.

He would remarry twice more, but when he died in 1960 Gable was interred at Forest Lawn, next to Lombard.

Carole Lombard eats watermelon with her husband, Clark Gable

Jill Sobule is 61 years old today

Jill Sobule is 61 years old today.

Sobule is a singer-songwriter best known for the 1995 single, "I Kissed a Girl," and "Supermodel" from the soundtrack of the 1995 film, Clueless.

Her folk-inflected compositions alternate between ironic, story-driven character studies and emotive ballads, a duality reminiscent of such 1970s American songwriters as Warren Zevon, Harry Nilsson, Loudon Wainwright III, Harry Chapin and Randy Newman.

Autobiographical elements, including Sobule's Jewish heritage and her adolescent battles with anorexia and depression, frequently occur in her writing.

An appreciable percentage of her work is also dedicated to detailed accounts of both her own fictional female creations and such troubled but celebrated women as Joey Heatherton and Mary Kay Letourneau, whose stories are usually used to make ironic comments about fame and celebrity.

Here Sobule performs “I Kissed a Girl” in 1995

Benny Goodman brought jazz to Carnegie Hall on this evening in 1938 — 84 years ago

Benny Goodman brought jazz to Carnegie Hall on this evening in 1938 — 84 years ago.

Jazz has been called "America's classical music," a label that does more than just recognize its American origins. It also makes the case that jazz is worthy of aesthetic consideration alongside music usually thought of as "classical."

In the current era, when programs of Duke Ellington and J.S. Bach often draw the same highbrow crowds, that argument hardly seems controversial. In the 1930s, however, the notion was almost laughable, which is what made Benny Goodman's January 16, 1938 concert at New York City's Carnegie Hall so revolutionary.

Goodman and his supporting cast claimed a new place for jazz on the American cultural scene that night, in what has come to be seen as the most important jazz concert in history. Goodman was at the absolute height of his career when his publicist first suggested they book Carnegie Hall.

He was a star on radio, on stage and on film, and the label "King of Swing" was already attached permanently to his name. So outlandish was the suggestion that a jazz band might play inside the citadel of American high culture, however, that Goodman is said to have laughed the idea off at first.

Once he warmed to the notion, however, Goodman threw himself into the task with characteristic passion. In addition to numbers from the regular repertoire of his own band — which included the Harry James on trumpet, Lionel Hampton on vibraphone and Gene Krupa on drums — Goodman planned a program featuring a brand-new "Twenty Years of Jazz" piece and an extended jam session featuring stars of the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras.

The concert sold out weeks in advance, with the best seats fetching $2.75. It would be another decade before anyone who was not in the audience or listening on the radio that night would hear the famed concert. All recordings of the show were presumed lost until Goodman's sister-in-law came across a set of acetates in 1950.

By then, the performance had already become the stuff of legend — particularly the stunning, unplanned piano solo by Jess Stacy on "Sing, Sing, Sing," the evening's final number. The album made from the recovered acetates became one of the first 33 1/3 LPs to sell over a million copies.

The eventual discovery of the aluminum studio master recordings led to high-quality CD reissues in 1998, 2002 and 2006 of the legendary Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert.

Thanks History.com

John Backlund designed retro-futuristic guitars that live on today...

50’s era photo of J. Backlund Fine Ass Guitars, with curb service. Perhaps in Rapid City, S.D.

Entirely self-taught as an artist/designer, John Backlund was influenced by retro-futuristic design concepts that are reminiscent of the period from the mid-late 1930's to the early 1960's.

The terms "Aero," "Rocket," "Streamline," and even "Atomic" are often used to describe his design work. Backlund often found himself involved in pursuits besides art and design.

He did stints as a reluctant motorcycle salesman, a terrible guitar salesman, a very young and inept Nebraska sandhills ranch hand and a fairly good flatbed semi-driver running a worn-out Freightliner FLD throughout the Midwest.

Reflecting on guitars and design, John observed, "I like color in my designs. I like bright things. I like two-tones that compliment each other. I like a splash of chrome for contrast, and I like it all integrated into a flowing form that is 'balanced,' well-proportioned and pleasing to the eye.

“Solid body electric guitars are a tempting and wonderful candidate for my style of design, and being a guitar player for many decades, it's only natural that they figure prominently in my efforts.”

J. Backlund Design is in business today as Retronix.

Rob Glaser, the father of streaming media, is 60 years old today

Rob Glaser, the father of streaming media, is 60 years old today.

In 1995, Glaser introduced a new technology called RealAudio, the first streaming audio over the Internet. Two years later, he introduced RealVideo, the first streaming video over the Internet.

At first it hiccuped and sputtered, but it was clear from the beginning that video had a future over the Internet. Before founding RealNetworks, his streaming media company, Glaser he had become a millionaire by working for Microsoft for ten years.

I was the first person to interview Glaser about his new technology. The idea of delivering audio programming over the internet was so new to me at the time that it took a lot to wrap my head around this totally new concept.

Interestingly, in later years, Glaser called on me first at press conferences because he felt I brought him good luck due that first interview he did with me in the beginning days of his company.

At the time, his PR person was Katie Cotton, who would go on to head Apple PR. His head of marketing was Maria Cantwell, now the U.S. Senator from Washington.

Later, Glaser became a major contributor to pro-Democratic organizations. He was the leading creditor to Air America Radio, loaning at least $9.8 million according to its bankruptcy filing.

Photo by Frank Beacham

Ronnie Milsap is 79 years old today

Ronnie Milsap is 79 years old today.

A country music singer and pianist, he was one of country music's most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s.

He became country music's first well-known blind singer, and one of the most successful and versatile country "crossover" singers of his time, appealing to both country and pop music music markets with successful songs that incorporated elements from pop, R&B and rock and roll.

Milsap’s biggest crossover hits include "It Was Almost Like a Song," "Smoky Mountain Rain," "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me," "I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World," "Any Day Now" and "Stranger in My House."

He had 40 #1 country hits, third to George Strait and Conway Twitty.

In November 2014, Milsap announced he would embark on a final concert tour. "You get to a place where you still have your health, but you know it's not given," said Milsap. "I've been blessed with so many great songs, so many wonderful memories and stories -- and some of the very best fans in the business. Before I get to a place where it's not a celebration of the music, I want to go out and play all these hits for the people who love them as much as I do."

Here, Milsap performs “Smoky Mountain Rain”

Susan Sontag, writer, filmmaker, professor, literary icon and political activist, was born 89 years ago today

Susan Sontag, writer, filmmaker, professor, literary icon and political activist, was born 89 years ago today.

Beginning with the publication of her 1964 essay, "Notes on 'Camp'," Sontag became an international cultural and intellectual celebrity. Her best known works include On Photography, Against Interpretation, Styles of Radical Will, The Way We Live Now, Illness as Metaphor, Regarding the Pain of Others, The Volcano Lover and In America.

Sontag was active in writing and speaking about, and traveling to areas of conflict including during the Vietnam War and the Siege of Sarajevo. She wrote extensively about photography, culture and media, AIDS and illness, human rights, communism and leftist ideology.

Her often provocative essays and speeches sometimes drew criticism. The New York Review of Books called her "one of the most influential critics of her generation."

Sontag died in New York City on December 28, 2004 at the age of 71 from complications of myelodysplastic syndrome which had evolved into acute myelogenous leukemia. She is buried in Paris at Cimetière du Montparnasse.

Foggy Night, Land’s End, San Francisco, 1953

Photo by Fred Lyon

Fred Lyon on the photo:

“In those early days, I lived in Sausalito. I had a new bride. We’d been invited upstairs for a cocktail. But earlier in the day, I’d spoken with an editor of a story I was doing on San Francisco and he said, ‘Fred, we’re trying to close this story but we need a fog picture.’ I said, ‘You cannot queue the fog here, we haven’t had a foggy night.’

He said, ‘We‘re holding a space for it, but you better get it soon and you better get it good.’

My wife and I went upstairs to our landlord and he was just about to pour the drink and I looked out the window and I saw the fog snaking in through the Golden Gate. I said, ‘Don’t pour, we got to take a picture.’ My landlord and my wife said, ‘What do you mean? We’re dying of thirst, we’re ready to drink.’

I said, ‘I promise, we’ll go to the nearest bar if I just get this fog picture. But we’ve got to go right now.’

We went out to where Sutro Baths was…We parked the car there. We got out and it was wonderful, thick fog. That’s an idyllic picture of a couple, very romantic. It’s my landlord and my wife. And what they’re saying: ‘Fred, for Christ’s sake take the goddamn picture, we’re dying of thirst and we’re freezing.’”

On January 15, 1929 — 93 years ago today — Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, the son of a Baptist minister

On January 15, 1929 — 93 years ago today — Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, the son of a Baptist minister.

King received a doctorate degree in theology and, in 1955, helped organized the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott, the first major protest of the African-American civil rights movement.

Influenced by Mohandas Gandhi, he advocated civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance to segregation in the South. The peaceful protests he led throughout the American South were often met with violence, but King and his followers persisted and the movement gained momentum.

A powerful orator, King appealed to Christian and American ideals and won growing support from the federal government and Northern whites.

In 1963, Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph led the massive March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The event's grand finale was King's famous, "I Have a Dream," address. Two hundred and fifty thousand people gathered outside the Lincoln Memorial to hear the stirring speech.

In 1964, the civil rights movement achieved two of its greatest successes: the ratification of the 24th Amendment, which abolished the poll tax, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public facilities.

Later that year, King became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the late 1960s, King openly criticized U.S. involvement in Vietnam and turned his efforts to winning economic rights for poor Americans. He was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968 at age 39.

Here is Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963

Thanks History.com

Martin Luther King mugshot

King was photographed by Alabama cops following his February, 1956 arrest during the Montgomery bus boycotts. The historic mug shot, taken when King was 27, was discovered in July, 2004 by a deputy cleaning out a Montgomery County Sheriff's Department storage room.

On this day in 1762 — 260 years ago — an innkeeper named Samuel Fraunces bought a brick house near the southern tip of Manhattan. He opened the Queen’s Head tavern there. The inn is still open

On this day in 1762 — 260 years ago — an innkeeper named Samuel Fraunces bought a brick house near the southern tip of Manhattan. He opened the Queen’s Head tavern there. The inn is still open.

But nowadays it is known as Fraunces Tavern, former headquarters of George Washington and one of the city’s preeminent landmarks. Over the centuries, the tavern endured fires, periodic closings and two bombings — one by the British in 1775 and one by Puerto Rican nationalists 200 years later.

Little of the original 1719 structure remains, following a 1907 reconstruction, but a few fragments can still be seen.

The tavern, at 54 Pearl Street, also houses a historical museum whose relics include a piece of one of Washington’s teeth.

Thanks New York Times!

Don Van Vliet — known better as Captain Beefheart — was born 81 years ago today

Don Van Vliet — known better as Captain Beefheart — was born 81 years ago today.

A musician, singer-songwriter, artist and poet, his musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982. He recorded 13 studio albums with the group.

Noted for his powerful singing voice with its wide range, Beefheart also played the harmonica, saxophone and numerous other wind instruments. His music blended rock, blues and psychedelia with avant-garde and contemporary experimental composition.

Beefheart was also known for exercising an almost dictatorial control over his supporting musicians, and for often constructing myths about his life.

During his teen years in Lancaster, California, he developed an eclectic musical taste and formed "a mutually useful but volatile" friendship with Frank Zappa, with whom he sporadically competed and collaborated.

He began performing with his Captain Beefheart persona in 1964 and joined the original Magic Band line-up, initiated by Alexis Snouffer, in 1965. The group drew attention with their cover of Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy," which became a regional hit. It was followed in 1967 by the acclaimed debut of Safe as Milk, an album released on Buddah Records.

After being dropped by two consecutive record labels, they signed to Zappa's Straight Records. As producer, Zappa granted Beefheart unrestrained artistic freedom in making 1969's, Trout Mask Replica.

Captain Beefheart has been described as "one of modern music's true innovators" with "a singular body of work virtually unrivaled in its daring and fluid creativity.“

Although he achieved little commercial or mainstream critical success, he sustained a cult following as a "highly significant" and "incalculable" influence on an array of New Wave, punk, post-punk, experimental and alternative rock musicians.

Known for his enigmatic personality and relationship with the public, he made few public appearances after his retirement from music (and from his Beefheart persona) in 1982. He pursued a career in art, an interest that originated in his childhood talent for sculpture, and a venture which proved to be his most financially secure.

His expressionist paintings and drawings command high prices, and have been exhibited in art galleries and museums across the world.

He died in 2010 at age 69, having suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years.

Here, Captain Beefheart performs on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1974

Gene Krupa was born 113 years ago today

Photo by Gjon Mili

Gene Krupa was born 113 years ago today.

A jazz and big band drummer, actor and composer, Krupa was known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.

Born in Chicago, Krupu studied with Sanford A. Moeller and began playing drums professionally with bands in Wisconsin in the mid 1920s. He broke into the Chicago scene in 1927, when he was picked by MCA to become a member of "Thelma Terry and Her Playboys," the first notable American Jazz band to be led by a female musician.

The Playboys were the house band at The Golden Pumpkin nightclub in Chicago and also toured extensively throughout the eastern and central United States.

Krupa made his first recordings in 1927, with a band under the leadership of Eddie Condon and Red McKenzie. He also made other recordings beginning in 1927 by musicians known in the "Chicago" scene such as Bix Beiderbecke. These sides are examples of "Chicago Style" jazz.

Krupa's big influences during this time were Tubby Hall and Zutty Singleton. The drummer who probably had the greatest influence on Krupa in this period was Baby Dodds, whose use of press rolls was highly reflected in Krupa’s playing.

As the 1940s ended, large orchestras fell by the wayside. Count Basie closed his large band and Woody Herman reduced his to an octet.

Krupa gradually cut down the size of the band in the late 1940s, and from 1951 on led a trio or quartet. He often featured the multi-instrumentalist Eddie Shu on tenor sax, clarinet and harmonica.

Krupa appeared regularly with the Jazz at the Philharmonic shows. Along with Ball of Fire, he made a cameo appearance in the 1946 screen classic, The Best Years Of Our Lives.

His athletic drumming style, timing methods and cymbal technique evolved during this decade to fit in with changed fashions and tastes, but he never quite adjusted to the Be-Bop period.

In 1954, Krupa returned to Hollywood to appear in such films as The Glenn Miller Story and The Benny Goodman Story. In 1959, the movie biography, The Gene Krupa Story, was released. Sal Mineo portrayed Krupa and the film had a cameo appearance by Red Nichols.

Dave Frishberg, a pianist who played with Krupa, was particularly struck by the accuracy of one key moment in the film. "The scene where the Krupa character drops his sticks during the big solo, and the audience realizes that he's ‘back on the stuff.’ I remember at least a couple of occasions in real life when Gene dropped a stick, and people in the audience began whispering among themselves and pointing at Gene."

During the 1950s, he often appeared at the Metropole near Times Square in Manhattan. He continued to perform in famous clubs in the 1960s, including the legendary Show Boat Lounge in suburban Maryland (which burned to the ground in the race riots of 1968).

Increasingly troubled by back pain, he retired in the late 1960s and opened a music school. His pupils included KISS drummer Peter Criss and Jerry Nolan from The New York Dolls. Their styles were apparent in the drumming similarities between KISS's "100,000 years" and The New York Dolls' "Jet Boy."

Norman Granz recruited Krupa and fellow drummer, Buddy Rich, for his Jazz at The Philharmonic concerts. It was suggested that the two perform a “drum battle” at the Carnegie Hall concert in September, 1952. It was recorded and later issued on vinyl (a CD edition called The Drum Battle at JATP appeared courtesy of Verve in 1999).

Further drum battles took place at subsequent JATP concerts. The two drummers also faced off in a number of television broadcasts and other venues.

During the 1950s, Krupa often appeared at the Metropole in these drum battles with Rich, and also played similar duets with drummer Cozy Cole.

In 1943, Krupa was arrested for possession of two marijuana cigarettes and was given a three-month jail sentence.

Krupa died of leukemia and heart failure in Yonkers, New York at the age of 64.

Here, Krupa and Rich perform a “drum battle” on the Sammy Davis Jr. Show in 1966

On Jan. 15, 2009, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger safely ditched his US Airways Airbus A320 in the Hudson River after striking a flock of geese while taking off from New York City

Today is the 13th anniversary of a miracle.

On Jan. 15, 2009, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger safely ditched his US Airways Airbus A320 in the Hudson River after striking a flock of geese while taking off from New York City.

All 155 people aboard a US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson River 10 years ago survived. Everybody worked together, so everybody survived. This was the “Miracle on the Hudson.”

Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot of US Airways Flight 1549, feels we are due for another lesson.

“This lack of civic virtue, this lack of remembering our common humanity, this lack of citizenship, is greatly harmful to our nation, to our democracy, to the world,” Captain Sullenberger, 67, said in an interview.

He added, “I feel that I have yet another mission, to be an advocate for our democracy, be a defender of our democracy, as many others have done.”

As for that flight, he said: “I have even greater appreciation now for what everyone did who pulled together. Especially in light of what’s happening in our nation now.”

Thanks New York Times!

Photo by Steven Day

Ronnie Van Zant, founding member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, was born 74 years ago today

Bill Graham and Ronnie Van Zant

Ronnie Van Zant, founding member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, was born 74 years ago today.

Lead vocalist and primary lyricist for the Southern rock band, Van Zant was the older brother of Donnie Van Zant, the founder and vocalist of 38 Special, and of Johnny Van Zant, the current Lynyrd Skynyrd lead vocalist. He was the father of Tammy Van Zant and Melody Van Zant.

Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Van Zant formed Skynyrd late in the summer of 1964 with friends and schoolmates Allen Collins (guitar), Gary Rossington (guitar), Larry Junstrom (bass) and Bob Burns (drums).

Lynyrd Skynyrd's name is a mock tribute to a gym teacher the boys had in high school, Leonard Skinner, who disapproved of male students with long hair.

The band's national exposure began in 1973 with the release of their debut album, which has a string of hits and fan favorites including: "I Ain't the One," "Tuesday's Gone," "Gimme Three Steps," "Simple Man" and their signature song, "Free Bird," which he later dedicated to the late Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's biggest hit single was "Sweet Home Alabama" from the album Second Helping. "Sweet Home Alabama" was an answer song to Neil Young's "Alabama" and "Southern Man." Young's song, "Powderfinger," on the 1979 album, Rust Never Sleeps, was reportedly written for Skynyrd. Van Zant is pictured on the cover of Street Survivors wearing a T-shirt of Young's Tonight's the Night.

On October 20, 1977, a Convair CV-300 plane carrying the band between shows from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, crashed outside Gillsburg, Mississippi. The passengers had been informed about problems with one of the plane's engines and told to brace for impact.

Van Zant died in the crash on impact, after the aircraft struck a tree. Bandmates Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray were also killed. Remaining band members survived, although all were seriously injured.

According to former bandmate, Artimus Pyle, and family members, Van Zant frequently discussed his mortality. Pyle recalls a moment when Lynyrd Skynyrd was in Japan: "Ronnie and I were in Tokyo and Ronnie told me that he would never live to see thirty and that he would go out with his boots on, in other words, on the road. I said, 'Ronnie, don't talk like that,' but the man knew his destiny."

Van Zant was buried in Orange Park, Florida, in 1977, but was relocated after vandals broke into bandmate Steve Gaines' and Ronnie's tombs on June 29, 2000.

Van Zant's casket was pulled out and dropped on the ground. The bag containing Gaines' ashes was torn open and some scattered onto the grass. Their mausoleums at Orange Park remain as memorials for fans to visit.

According to the cemetery listing website Find-a-Grave, Van Zant was reburied at Riverside Memorial Park in Jacksonville, near the grave of his father Lacy and mother Marion. Both his current resting place and the empty mausoleum in Orange Park are listed.

The following statement was made on the Find-a-Grave entry of his current resting place in Jacksonville: "Due to the June 29th, 2000 vandalization of his original grave site, his casket was moved to this new location and buried in a massive underground concrete burial vault. To open the vault would require a tractor with a lift capacity of several tons. It is also patrolled by security."

Here, Van Zant and the band perform, “Sweet Home Alabama,” 1974

On January 15, 1972 — 50 years ago today — "American Pie," an epic poem in musical form that has long been etched in the American popular consciousness, hit #1 on the Billboard charts

On January 15, 1972 — 50 years ago today — "American Pie," an epic poem in musical form that has long been etched in the American popular consciousness, hit #1 on the Billboard charts.

The story of Don McLean's magnum opus began almost 13 years before its release, on a date with significance well-known to any American who was alive and conscious at the time.

Tuesday, February 3, 1959, was the date of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the J.P. "the Big Bopper" Richardson — a date that would be imbued with transcendent meaning by Don McLean when he labeled it "the Day the Music Died."

One might reasonably point out that the baby-boom generation has since invested its entire rock-and-roll experience with transcendent meaning, but don't blame Don McLean for starting the trend.

"American Pie" wasn't written to be a generation-defining epic. It was written simply to capture McLean's view of "America as I was seeing it and how I was fantasizing it might become." When asked to explain what exactly he was trying to say with some of his more ambiguous lyrics, McLean has generally declined.

Many others have applied themselves to the task, however, and even today the Internet bristles with exhaustively reasoned interpretations of "American Pie" and its web of lyrical references to the youth culture of the 1950s and 60s.

The meaning of the Stolen Crown and Marching Band may be of interest only to the most obsessive of baby boomers, but almost all of us know the chorus of "American Pie" better than we know our own national anthem, and the chances are good that our great-grandchildren will, too.

Which isn't bad for a song that was written and recorded by a struggling folk singer who merely hoped that it would "earn two or three thousand dollars and make survival for another year possible."

Here, McClean performs “American Pie”

Thanks History.com