Frank Beacham's Journal

Tim Considine, former actor, is 81 years old today

Tim Considine, former actor, is 81 years old today.

Born in Los Angeles, Considine is a former American child actor and young adult actor who was popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He later became a writer, photographer and automotive historian.

Considine was born to a show business family. His maternal grandfather was theater magnate Alexander Pantages and he is the grandson of Pantages' rival vaudeville impresario, John Considine. His older brother is actor John Considine. His uncle, Bob Considine, was a King Features Syndicate columnist.

Considine's most famous acting roles were in the 1955–1957 Disney TV serials, Spin and Marty (he played Spin) and The Hardy Boys (he played older brother, Frank, opposite Tommy Kirk as Joe). Both shows appeared in 15-minute segments on the Mickey Mouse Club.

He was also in the Disney show, Swamp Fox, as Gabriel Marion, nephew of Francis Marion; the Disney motion picture, The Shaggy Dog; and as the eldest son, "Mike Douglas," in the first years of the long-running television series, My Three Sons, when it aired on ABC. In both The Shaggy Dog and My Three Sons, he starred with Fred MacMurray.

On December 31, 1959, his 19th birthday and before My Three Sons debuted, Considine appeared as Jamie Frederick in the episode, "Bound Boy," on CBS's Johnny Ringo western television series, starring Don Durant in the title role. In the story line, a rancher is investigated for turning orphaned boys into virtual slaves.

The following year, Considine played the role of Franklin D. Roosevelt's eldest son James between ages 14–17, in the 1960 feature film, Sunrise at Campobello. He also had a notable role in the 1970 film, Patton, as one of two shell-shocked soldiers slapped by General George S. Patton, Jr., who believes them to be cowards.

As an adult, Considine is an automobile historian, photographer and writer who specializes in motor sports. He is the author of The Photographic Dictionary of Soccer (1979, ISBN 0-446-87953-3), The Language of Sport (1982, ISBN 0-87196-653-0) and American Grand Prix Racing: A Century of Drivers and Cars (1997, ISBN 0-7603-0210-3).

He has also filled in for the late William Safire as writer of the "On Language" column in The New York Times Magazine.

In 2000, Considine and David Stollery, his co-star in the Spin and Marty serials, made cameo appearances in The New Adventures of Spin and Marty: Suspect Behavior, a made-for-TV movie on the ABC network. A DVD version of the Adventures of Spin & Marty was released in December, 2005 as part of the fifth wave of the Walt Disney Treasures series.

On June 19, 2010, he participated in the My Three Sons 50th Anniversary Reunion at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills.

Most surviving cast members appeared at the event except for Dawn Lyn who was living in Germany at the time and Don Grady, who prior to his death in 2012 was in Europe for that summer receiving treatment for cancer.

Here, Tim Considine and David Stollery look back at Spin and Marty

 

Woody Guthrie's New Year's Resolutions

Woody Guthrie's New Year's Resolutions found in a journal dated January 1, 1943

Cityscape by Aeon Videos

Ellas Otha Bates, better known as Bo Diddley, was born 93 years ago today

Ellas Otha Bates, better known as Bo Diddley, was born 93 years ago today.

A rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter (usually as Ellas McDaniel), Diddley was a rock and roll pioneer. He was also known as The Originator because of his key role in the transition from the blues to rock, influencing a host of acts.

Among those he influenced were Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, The Who, The Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, Elvis Presley and the The Beatles.

He introduced more insistent, driving rhythms and a hard-edged electric guitar sound on a wide-ranging catalog of songs, along with African rhythms and a signature beat (a simple, five-accent rhythm) that remains a cornerstone of rock and pop. He was also known for his technical innovations, including his trademark rectangular guitar.

Born in McComb, Mississippi as Ellas Otha Bates, he was adopted and raised by his mother's cousin, Gussie McDaniel, whose surname he assumed, becoming Ellas McDaniel.

In 1934, the McDaniel family moved to the largely black South Side area of Chicago, where the young man dropped the name Otha and became known as Ellas McDaniel, until his musical ambitions demanded that he take on a more catchy identity.

In Chicago, he was an active member of his local Ebenezer Baptist Church. There he studied the trombone and the violin, becoming proficient enough on the latter for the musical director to invite him to join the orchestra. He performed there until the age of 18.

He was more impressed, however, by the pulsating, rhythmic music he heard at a local Pentecostal Church, as well as an interest in the guitar.

Inspired by a concert where he saw John Lee Hooker perform, he supplemented his work as a carpenter and mechanic with a developing career playing on street corners with friends, including Jerome Green (c. 1934–1973), in a band called The Hipsters. During the summer of 1943–44, he played for tips at the Maxwell Street market in a band with Earl Hooker.

By 1951, he was playing on the street with backing from Roosevelt Jackson (on washtub bass) and Jody Williams (whom he had taught to play the guitar). Williams later played lead guitar on "Who Do You Love?" (1956). That year he also landed a regular spot at the 708 Club on Chicago's South Side, with a repertoire influenced by Louis Jordan, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters.

In late 1954, he teamed up with harmonica player Billy Boy Arnold, drummer Clifton James and bass player Roosevelt Jackson. They recorded demos of "I'm A Man" and "Bo Diddley." They then re-recorded the songs at Chess Studios with a backing ensemble comprising Otis Spann (piano), Lester Davenport (harmonica), Frank Kirkland (drums) and Jerome Green (maracas).

The record was released in March, 1955, and the A-side, "Bo Diddley," became a #1 R&B hit.

McDaniel adopted the stage name Bo Diddley. The origin of the name is somewhat unclear, as several differing stories and claims exist. Diddley claims that his peers gave him the nickname, which he first suspected to be an insult. Bo Diddley himself said that the name first belonged to a singer his adoptive mother was familiar with.

Harmonicist Billy Boy Arnold said in an interview that the name was originally of a local comedian that Leonard Chess borrowed for the song title and artist name for Bo Diddley's first single. Guitar craftsman Ed Roman reported that another (unspecified) source says it was his nickname as a Golden Gloves boxer.

A "diddley bow" is a typically homemade American string instrument of African origin, probably developed from instruments found on the coast of west Africa. The American slang phrase bo diddly meaning "absolutely nothing" goes back possibly to the early 20th century or earlier. Diddly is a truncation of diddly-squat, retaining the same meaning of "nothing" and bo is an intensifier.

On November 20, 1955, he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, a popular television variety show, where he infuriated the host. "I did two songs and he got mad," Bo Diddley later recalled. "Ed Sullivan said that I was one of the first colored boys to ever double-cross him. Said that I wouldn't last six months."

The show had requested that he sing the Merle Travis-penned Tennessee Ernie Ford hit "Sixteen Tons," but when he appeared on stage, he sang "Bo Diddley" instead. This substitution resulted in his being banned from further appearances.

In 1963, he starred in a UK concert tour with the Everly Brothers and Little Richard. The Rolling Stones, still barely known outside London at that time, appeared as a supporting act on the same bill.

Bo Diddley was one of the first American male musicians to include women in his band, including "The Duchess" Norma-Jean Wofford, Peggy Jones (aka "Lady Bo"), Cornelia Redmond (aka Cookie) and Debby Hastings, who led his band for the final 25 years of his performing career.

Over the decades, Bo Diddley's venues ranged from intimate clubs to stadiums. On March 25, 1972, he played with The Grateful Dead at the Academy of Music in New York City. The Grateful Dead released part of this concert as Volume 30 of the band's Dick's Picks concert album series.

Bo Diddley spent from 1971 to 78 living in Los Lunas, New Mexico while continuing his musical career. He served for two and a half years as Deputy Sheriff in the Valencia County Citizens' Patrol. During that time, he personally purchased and donated three highway patrol pursuit cars.

In the late 1970s, Diddley left Los Lunas and moved to Hawthorne, Florida where he lived on a large estate in a custom made log-cabin home, which he helped to build. For the remainder of his life, he spent time between Albuquerque, New Mexico and Florida, living the last 13 years of his life in Archer, Florida, a small farming town near Gainesville.

On May 13, 2007, Bo Diddley was admitted to intensive care in Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, following a stroke after a concert in Council Bluffs, Iowa on May 12.

Starting the show, he had complained that he did not feel well. He referred to smoke from the wildfires that were ravaging South Georgia and blowing south to the area near his home in Archer, Florida. Nonetheless, he delivered an energetic performance to an enthusiastic crowd. The next day, as Diddley was heading back home, he seemed dazed and confused at the airport.

His manager, Margo Lewis, called 911 and airport security and Bo was immediately taken by ambulance to Creighton University Medical Center and admitted to the intensive-care unit, where he stayed for several days.

After numerous tests, it was confirmed that Bo Diddley had suffered a stroke. He had a history of hypertension and diabetes, and the stroke affected the left side of his brain, causing receptive and expressive aphasia (speech impairment).

The stroke was followed by a heart attack, suffered in Gainesville, Florida, on August 28, 2007. While recovering from the stroke and heart attack, Diddley came back to his home town of McComb, Mississippi, in early November, 2007 for the unveiling of a plaque devoted to him on the National Blues Trail stating that he was "acclaimed as a founder of rock and roll."

He was not supposed to perform, but as he listened to the music of local musician Jesse Robinson who sang a song written for this occasion, Robinson sensed that he wanted to perform and handed him a microphone. That was the first and last time that Bo Diddley performed publicly after suffering a stroke.

Bo Diddley died at age 79 on June 2, 2008 of heart failure at his home in Archer, Florida.

Here, Bo Diddley performs “Bo Diddley” in 1965

Del Shannon, performer of “Runaway” in the 1960s, was born 87 years ago today

Del Shannon, performer of “Runaway” in the 1960s, was born 87 years ago today.

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as a young man Shannon learned ukulele and guitar and listened to country and western music, including Hank Williams, Hank Snow and Lefty Frizzell. He was drafted into the Army in 1954, and while in Germany played guitar in a band called The Cool Flames.

When his service ended, he returned to Michigan and worked in a furniture factory as a truck driver and carpet salesman.

Runaway was originally called "Little Runaway," using the Musitron as lead instrument. In 1961, "Runaway" was released as a single and soared to #1 in the Billboard chart in April. Shannon followed with "Hats Off to Larry," which peaked at #5 on Billboard. The two songs were recorded in one day.

In 1963, Shannon became the first American to record a cover version of a song by The Beatles. "From Me to You" charted in the U.S. before The Beatles' version.

Suffering from depression, Shannon committed suicide on February 8, 1990, with a .22-caliber rifle at his home in Santa Clarita, California, while on a prescription dose of the anti-depressant drug, Prozac. Following his death, The Traveling Wilburys honored him by recording a version of "Runaway."

Here, Shannon performs “Runaway” on the Letterman show in 1986

Jeff Lynne is 74 years old today

Jeff Lynne is 74 years old today.

An English songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer, Lynne gained fame as the leader and sole constant member of Electric Light Orchestra. He was later a co-founder and member of the Traveling Wilburys together with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty.

Lynne has produced recordings for artists such as the Beatles, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, Randy Newman, Roy Orbison, Dave Edmunds, Del Shannon and Tom Petty. He has co-written songs with Petty and also with George Harrison, whose 1987 album, Cloud Nine, was co-produced by Lynne and Harrison.

Among the many compositions to his credit are such well-known hits as "Livin' Thing," "Evil Woman," "Turn to Stone," "Do Ya," "Strange Magic," "Sweet Talkin' Woman," "Telephone Line," "Mr. Blue Sky," "Hold on Tight," "Don't Bring Me Down," "I Won't Back Down," "Free Fallin'," "Handle with Care" and "End of the Line."

Here, Lynne performs “Living Thing” in 2013

John Hartford was born 84 years ago today

John Hartford was born 84 years ago today.

A folk, country and bluegrass composer and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and banjo, Hartford was also well known for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style and extensive knowledge of Mississippi River lore.

Hartford performed with a variety of ensembles throughout his career, and would often interchange the guitar, banjo and fiddle from song to song. He invented his own shuffle tap dance move, and clogged on an amplified piece of plywood while he played and sang.

Spending his childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, Hartford was exposed to the influence that would shape much of his career and music — the Mississippi River. From the time he got his first job on the river, at age 16, Hartford was on, around or singing about the river. His early musical influences came from the broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and included Earl Scruggs, inventor of the three-finger bluegrass style of banjo playing.

Hartford said often that the first time he heard Earl Scruggs pick the banjo changed his life. By age 13, Hartford was an accomplished old-time fiddler and banjo player, and he soon learned to play guitar and mandolin as well. He formed his first bluegrass band while still in high school at John Burroughs School.

In 1965, he moved to Nashville, the center of the country music industry. In 1966, he signed with RCA Victor and produced his first album, Looks at Life, in the same year. In 1967, Hartford's second album, Earthwords & Music, spawned his first major hit, "Gentle On My Mind."

His recording of the song was only a modest success, but it caught the notice of Glen Campbell, who recorded his own version, which gave the song much wider publication. At the 1968 Grammys, the song netted four awards, two of which went to Hartford.

It became one of the most widely recorded country songs of all time, and the royalties it brought in allowed Hartford great financial independence. Hartford would later say that the song bought his freedom.

In live performances, Hartford was a true "one-man band." He utilized not only a multitude of stringed instruments, but also a variety of props such as plywood squares and boards with sand and gravel on which to stomp, kick and scrape to create natural and organic background noises.

During the years 1968-1970, Hartford recorded four more albums for RCA: The Love Album, Housing Project, John Hartford and Iron Mountain Depot. In 1971, he moved over to Warner Bros. Records, where he was given more freedom to record in his untraditional style.

There, fronting a band that included Vassar Clements, Tut Taylor and Norman Blake, he recorded several extraordinary albums that set the tone of his later career, including the acclaimed Aereo-Plain and Morning Bugle. Of the former, Sam Bush said "Without Aereo-Plain (and the Aereo-Plain band), there would be no newgrass music."

Switching several years later to the Flying Fish label, Hartford continued to participate in the experimentation with nontraditional country and bluegrass styles that he and artists such as Bush were engaging in at the time. Among his recordings were two albums in 1977 and 1980 with Doug and Rodney Dillard from The Dillards, with Bush as a backing musician, and featuring a diversity of songs that included "Boogie On Reggae Woman" and "Yakety Yak."

He recorded several songs for the soundtrack to the movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou, winning another Grammy for his performance, and made his final tour in 2001 with the Down from the Mountain tour that grew out of that movie and its accompanying album.

While performing in Texas in April that year, he found he could no longer control his hands due to non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. His career was finished.

Though Hartford is considered a co-founder in the newgrass movement, he remained deeply attached to traditional music as well. His last band and last few albums reflect his love for pre-bluegrass old-time music. According to an interview with Don Swain, he described his love for the rare and nearly forgotten fiddle tunes of the Appalachians and Missouri foothills.

The culture of the Mississippi River and its steamboats captivated Hartford from an early age. He said that it would have been his life's work "but music got in the way," so he intertwined them whenever possible. In the 70s, Hartford earned his steamboat pilot's license, which he used to keep close to the river he loved.

For many years, he worked as a pilot on the steamboat Julia Belle Swain during the summers. He also worked as a towboat pilot on the Mississippi, Illinois and Tennessee rivers.

From the 1980s onwards, Hartford had Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. On June 4, 2001, at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, he died of the disease at age 63.

Here, Hartford sings several of his songs in the studio without an audience

The humble beginning of Led Zeppelin

Within a year, they'd be big. Within two, they'd be huge. And within three, they'd be one of the biggest bands in the world.

But on December 30, 1968 — 53 years ago today — the quartet of British rockers preparing for their fifth-ever gig in the United States were using propane heaters to keep themselves and their equipment warm while they waited to go on as the opening act for Vanilla Fudge at a concert in a frigid college gymnasium in western Washington State.

A few serious rock fans in attendance had at least heard about the new band formed around the former guitarist from the now-defunct Yardbirds, but if those fans even knew the name of this new group, they might not have recognized it in the ads that ran in the local newspaper.

The Spokesman-Review of Spokane ran an advertisement on this day in 1968 for a concert at Gonzaga University featuring "The Vanilla Fudge, with Len Zefflin" — a concert of which a bootleg recording would later emerge that represents the first-ever live Led Zeppelin performance captured on tape.

At the end of the now widely available recording known as Gonzaga '68, Robert Plant can be heard introducing himself and his bandmates — John Paul Jones on bass, Jimmy Page on guitar and John Bonham on drums — to a smattering of applause.

But some of those who were in attendance that day remember their reaction as being stronger.

In a Spokesman-Review article published 29 years after the night in question, Bob Gallagher, a teenage record-store employee at the time, recalled the show's opening number: "Bonham came out and started drumming on 'Train Kept a-Rollin'," Gallagher said, "and everybody went, 'Holy crap.'"

"What I mostly remember is when Jimmy Page took out a violin bow and began bowing his double-neck guitar," said another concertgoer, Jeff Nadeau. "The house was universally mind-blown. It was the most stunning and awesome sound ever."

There is nothing raw or un-Led Zeppelin-like about the sound captured by an unknown Gonzaga student on a small, portable tape recorder that day. The Gonzaga '68 bootleg features the band performing tight and thrilling versions of some songs that are now considered classics but were then unknown to those in attendance.

Indeed, halfway through the set, Robert Plant introduces one number as follows: "This is off an album that comes out in about three weeks time on the Atlantic label. It's called Led Zeppelin. This is a tune called 'Dazed and Confused.'"

Ah, the magic of recording.

Thanks, History.com

Nancy LaMott, popular cabaret singer in New York City in the 1990s, was born 70 years ago today

Nancy LaMott at WQEW on Dec. 2, 1992 between Adolph Green and Betty Comden. Tony Bennett is on the right with WQEW station personnel in the background.

Photo by Frank Beacham

Nancy LaMott, popular cabaret singer in New York City in the 1990s, was born 70 years ago today.

LaMott performed twice at the White House for President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. In 2008, her posthumously-released album, Ask Me Again, featuring songs she recorded between 1988 and 1995, reached #12 on Billboard magazine's Top Jazz Albums chart.

LaMott was diagnosed with Crohn's disease at age seventeen. She underwent an ileostomy operation in January, 1993 to remove a large portion of the third part of her small intestine. This operation dramatically improved her health. In the same year, she won the MAC Award for "Outstanding Female Vocalist.”

In March, 1995, LaMott was diagnosed with uterine cancer, yet she postponed a hysterectomy in order to record, Listen To My Heart, an album that took only two days to complete. The operation revealed that the cancer had metastasized.

Her last public performance was on December 4, 1995 at a live broadcast on radio station WQEW in New York City. On that same day, she made her last TV appearance on CNBC's The Charles Grodin Show, singing Moon River.

On December 13, 1995, Father Steven Harris blessed the union of Nancy to Peter Zapp, a little more than an hour before she died.

LaMott died at 11:40 PM EST, at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York City of uterine cancer.

Noel “Paul” Stookey, best known as “Paul” in Peter, Paul and Mary, is 84 years old today

Noel Stookey performs at a concert at the Museum for the City of New York on Oct. 5, 2015

Photo by Frank Beacham

Noel “Paul” Stookey, best known as “Paul” in Peter, Paul and Mary, is 84 years old today.

Stookey took the stage name "Paul" as part of the trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, but he has been known as Noel (his first name) otherwise, throughout his life. Since the death of Mary Travers, he has continued to work as a solo singer and activist.

Stookey's family moved to Birmingham, Michigan when he was about 12. Stookey graduated from Birmingham High School (now Seaholm High School) in 1955. He is an alumnus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.

As Paul in the Peter, Paul and Mary trio, he participated in one of the best known mass media ensembles of the 1960s phase of the American folk music revival, and included some of his solo songs and extended monologues in their performances and recordings.

Paul performed as a member of Peter, Paul and Mary until the death of Mary in September, 2009. His post-Peter, Paul and Mary works have emphasized his Christian faith, family life and social concerns.

In January, 2011, Stookey participated in several events at Dartmouth College that celebrated the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., including "Music for Social Change with Noel Paul Stookey and Company."

His best-known composition is "The Wedding Song (There is Love)," which charted in 1971 and remains popular for performance during wedding services. He wrote the song as a wedding gift for Peter Yarrow, and refused to perform it for the public until Yarrow requested it at a concert where his wife was present. Stookey assigned the copyright to this song to the Public Domain Foundation.

Stookey and his wife, Betty, live in Blue Hill, Maine, where he records in a studio that was previously a chicken coop.

Here, Stookley performs “The Wedding Song (There is Love)”