Frank Beacham's Journal

The hallucinogenic effects of LSD were discovered 79 years ago today

The hallucinogenic effects of LSD were discovered 79 years ago today.

In Basel, Switzerland, Albert Hoffman, a Swiss chemist working at the Sandoz pharmaceutical research laboratory, accidentally consumed LSD-25, a synthetic drug he had created in 1938 as part of his research into the medicinal value of lysergic acid compounds.

After taking the drug, formally known as lysergic acid diethylamide, Dr. Hoffman was disturbed by unusual sensations and hallucinations. In his notes, he related the experience:

"Last Friday, April 16, 1943, I was forced to interrupt my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and proceed home, being affected by a remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness. At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant, intoxicated-like condition characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination.

In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this condition faded away."

After intentionally taking the drug again to confirm that it had caused this strange physical and mental state, Dr. Hoffman published a report announcing his discovery. LSD made its entry into the world as a hallucinogenic drug.

Widespread use of the "mind-expanding" drug did not begin until the 1960s, when counterculture figures such as Albert M. Hubbard, Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey publicly expounded on the benefits of using LSD as a recreational drug.

The manufacture, sale, possession and use of LSD, known to cause negative reactions in some of those who took it, were made illegal in the United States in 1965.

Image of Hoffman by Alex Gray

Thanks History.com

Harry Houdini was born 148 years ago today

Harry Houdini was born 148 years ago today.

A Hungarian-American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts, Houdini first attracted notice as "Harry Handcuff Houdini" on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up.

Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water and having to hold his breath inside a sealed milk can. In 1904, thousands watched as he tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour.

Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown. While many suspected that these escapes were faked, Houdini presented himself as the scourge of fake magicians and spiritualists.

As President of the Society of American Magicians, he was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent artists. He was also quick to sue anyone who pirated his escape stunts.

Houdini made several movies, but quit acting when it failed to bring in money. He was also a keen aviator, and aimed to become the first man to fly a plane in Australia.

Houdini died of peritonitis, secondary to a ruptured appendix, on October 31, 1926 in Detroit at age 52.

Eyewitnesses to an incident at Houdini's dressing room in the Princess Theatre in Montreal gave rise to speculation that Houdini's death was caused by a McGill University student, J. Gordon Whitehead, who delivered a surprise attack of multiple blows to Houdini's abdomen.

The eyewitnesses, students named Jacques Price and Sam Smilovitz, offered accounts of the incident. Price describes Whitehead asking Houdini "if he believed in the miracles of the Bible" and "whether it was true that punches in the stomach did not hurt him." He then delivered "some very hammer-like blows below the belt."

Houdini was reclining on a couch at the time, having broken his ankle while performing several days earlier. Price states that Houdini winced at each blow and stopped Whitehead suddenly in the midst of a punch, gesturing that he had enough, and adding that he had no opportunity to prepare himself against the blows.

Throughout the evening, Houdini performed in great pain. He was unable to sleep and remained in constant pain for the next two days, but did not seek medical help. When he finally saw a doctor, he was found to have a fever of 102 and acute appendicitis, and was advised to have immediate surgery. He ignored the advice and decided to go on with the show.

Despite the diagnosis, Houdini took the stage. He was reported to have passed out during the show, but was revived and continued. Afterwards, he was hospitalized at Detroit's Grace Hospital.

It is not entirely clear what relationship the encounter in the dressing room had on Houdini's eventual death. One theory suggests that Houdini was unaware that he was suffering from appendicitis, which would have been clearer to him had he not received blows to the abdomen.

After taking statements from Price and Smilovitz, Houdini's insurance company concluded that the death was due to the dressing-room incident and paid double indemnity. To this day, rumors persist that Houdini was murdered by his enemies. The truth is lost to the ages.

Owsley Stanley was born 87 years ago today

Owsley Stanley was born 87 years ago today.

Stanley played a pivotal role in the San Francisco counterculture of the 1960s. As a crafts-person, he became best known simply as “Owsley” – the LSD "cook" (underground chemist).

Under the professional name of "Bear," he worked with the Grateful Dead's international fan "family."

Bear was an early soundman for The Grateful Dead, a band he met when Ken Kesey invited them to an Owsley Acid test party. As their sound engineer, Bear frequently recorded live tapes behind his mixing board and helped "The Dead" become the first performers since Les Paul to custom-develop high-fidelity audio components and sound systems.

Stanley was the first private individual to manufacture mass quantities of LSD. Between 1965 and 1967, Stanley produced more than 1.25 million doses of LSD.

Stanley died in an automobile accident in Australia on March 12, 2011 at age 76.

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.

Bob Dylan and the Band began a history making tour on January 3, 1974 in Chicago — 48 years ago today

One of the greatest rock and roll tours in history began January 3, 1974 in Chicago — 48 years ago today.

It combined Bob Dylan, who had been absent from touring for more than seven years, with The Band — his friends and neighbors from Woodstock, New York. What happened inside that basement at Big Pink would be unleashed on the world.

The concert on this tour hit South Florida on Jan. 19, 1974 at the Sportatorium in Hollywood. I bought a ticket for $9.50 and went to the concert.

By today’s standards, the “Sporto” was a terrible venue. It was a hangar-like building made of concrete with a steel roof. It seated 14,000 people and had no air conditioning. When it rained, the roof leaked on the performers and the audience. Robert Plant once said it was the only venue where he was rained out inside of a building.

The sound was atrocious — like being inside of a large metal garbage can — which is essentially what it was. Billy Joel, after performing there, once called it “an acoustical nightmare.” But on the night Dylan and the Band played there, somehow it didn’t matter.

After attending nearly 50 years of Dylan concerts myself, this was one of the very best I ever witnessed. The sound was new, fresh and different. It holds up to this day. Dylan would tour the next few years before taking a break in 1981. Then, he began what’s called the “never-ending” tour in 1988, which continues today.

(A footnote: the Sportatorium, South Florida’s only rock venue for many years, saw a who’s who of major groups in it’s time. It was torn down in 1993, after several years of disuse and damage from Hurricane Andrew. A supermarket now stands in its place.)

The Sportatorium

Jerry Butler, the “Iceman,” is 82 years old today

Jerry Butler, the “Iceman,” is 82 years old today.

Born in Sunflower, Mississippi, Butler is a soul singer and songwriter who was the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions. He is also a former politician and served as a Commissioner for Cook County, Illinois from 1985 to 2018.

The mid-1950s had a profound impact on Butler's life. He grew up poor, having lived in Chicago's Cabrini–Green housing complex. Music and the church provided solace from racial discrimination and inequality. He performed in a church choir with Curtis Mayfield.

As a teenager, Butler sang in a gospel quartet called Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers, along with Mayfield. Mayfield, a guitar player, became the lone instrumentalist for the six-member Roosters group, which later became The Impressions. The group was inspired by Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi and the Pilgrim Travelers.

Butler's younger brother, Billy Butler, also had a career in the music industry. Today, Billy plays guitar with Jerry's band, which tours throughout the country.

Butler wrote the song, "For Your Precious Love," and wanted to record it. Looking for recording studios, The Impressions (the original members of which were Butler, Curtis Mayfield, Sam Gooden, Fred Cash (who left early on, and later returned), and brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks, auditioned for Chess Records and Vee-Jay Records.

The group eventually signed with Vee-Jay, where they released "For Your Precious Love" in 1958. It became The Impressions' first hit and a gold record.

Butler was dubbed the "Iceman" by WDAS Philadelphia disc jockey, Georgie Woods, while performing in a Philadelphia theater. He co-wrote, with Otis Redding, the song "I've Been Loving You Too Long" in 1965.

Butler’s solo career had a string of hits, including the Top 10 successes "He Will Break Your Heart," "Find Another Girl," "I'm A-Telling You" (all written by Curtis Mayfield and featuring Mayfield as harmony vocal), the million selling "Only the Strong Survive," "Moon River," "Need To Belong" (recorded with the Impressions after he went solo), "Make It Easy On Yourself," "Let It Be Me" (with Betty Everett), "Brand New Me," "Ain't Understanding Mellow" (with Brenda Lee Eager), "Hey, Western Union Man" and "Never Give You Up."

In recent years, he has served as host of PBS TV music specials such as Doo Wop 50 and 51, Rock Rhythm and Doo Wop and Soul Spectacular: 40 years of R&B. He has also served as Chairman of the Board of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.

In 1991, Butler was inducted, along with the other original members of the Impressions (Curtis Mayfield, Sam Gooden, Fred Cash, and Arthur and Richard Brooks) into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Here, Butler performs “Only the Strong Survive” in 2008

Harry Houdini, the most celebrated magician and escape artist of the 20th century, died of peritonitis in a Detroit hospital on this day in 1926 — 95 years ago

Harry Houdini, the most celebrated magician and escape artist of the 20th century, died of peritonitis in a Detroit hospital on this day in 1926 — 95 years ago.

Twelve days before, Houdini had been talking to a group of students after a lecture in Montreal when he commented on the strength of his stomach muscles and their ability to withstand hard blows.

Suddenly, one of the students punched Houdini twice in the stomach. The magician hadn't had time to prepare, and the blows ruptured his appendix.

He fell ill on the train to Detroit. After performing one last time, he was hospitalized. Doctors operated on him, but to no avail. The burst appendix poisoned his system. On October 31, Houdini died.

Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest in 1874, the son of a rabbi. At a young age, he immigrated with his family to Appleton, Wisconsin, and soon demonstrated a natural acrobatic ability and an extraordinary skill at picking locks.

When he was nine, he joined a traveling circus and toured the country as a contortionist and trapeze performer. He soon was specializing in escape acts and gained fame for his reported ability to escape from any manacle. He went on his first international tour in 1900 and performed all over Europe to great acclaim.

In executing his escapes, he relied on strength, dexterity and concentration — not trickery — and was a great showman.

In 1908, Houdini began performing more dangerous and dramatic escapes. In a favorite act, he was bound and then locked in an ironbound chest that was dropped into a water tank or thrown off a boat.

In another, he was heavily bound and then suspended upside down in a glass-walled water tank. Other acts featured Houdini being hung from a skyscraper in a straitjacket, or bound and buried — without a coffin — under six feet of dirt.

In his later years, Houdini campaigned against mediums, mind readers and frauds who claimed supernatural talents but depended on tricks.

At the same time, he was deeply interested in spiritualism and made a pact with his wife and friends that the first to die was to try and communicate with the world of reality from the spirit world.

Several of these friends died, but Houdini never received a sign from them. Then, on Halloween 1926, Houdini himself passed on at the age of 52.

His wife waited for a communiqué from the spirit world but it never came. She declared the experiment a failure shortly before her death in 1943.

Houdini shown in 1912

Ben E. King, soul singer and former lead singer of the Drifters, was born 83 years ago today

Ben E. King, Russian Tea Room, New York City, 2008

Photo by Joe Kohen

Ben E. King, soul singer and former lead singer of the Drifters, was born 83 years ago today.

King is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me," a U.S. Top 10 hit in both 1961 and 1986. He was one of the principal lead singers of the R&B vocal group, The Drifters.

Born in Henderson, North Carolina, King moved to Harlem at age nine. In 1958, King joined a doo wop group called The Five Crowns. Later in 1958, The Drifters' manager, George Treadwell, fired the members of the original Drifters and replaced them with The Five Crowns.

King had a string of R&B hits with the group on Atlantic Records. He co-wrote and sang lead on the first Atlantic hit by the new version of the Drifters, "There Goes My Baby" (1959).

He also sang lead on a succession of hits by the team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, including "Save the Last Dance for Me," "This Magic Moment" and "I Count the Tears."

King only recorded thirteen songs with The Drifters — eleven lead vocal performances and three backing other lead singers — including a non-single called "Temptation" (later redone by Drifters vocalist, Johnny Moore).

Due to a dispute over his contract, including a salary increase and a fair share of royalties, King was never again given a chance by Drifters manager, George Treadwell, to perform with the group on tour or on television. After the dispute settled, King was hired only to sing until a replacement for him was found.

On television, fellow Drifters member, Charlie Thomas, usually lip synched the songs that King had recorded with the Drifters. This end gave rise to a new beginning.

In May, 1960, King left the Drifters, assuming the more memorable stage name Ben E. King in preparation for a successful solo career. Remaining on Atlantic Records’ Atco imprint, King scored his first solo hit in 1961 with the ballad, "Spanish Harlem."

His next single, "Stand by Me," written with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, would become a classic hit.

King died of coronary problems on April 30, 2015 at the age of 76.

Here, King performs “Stand by Me”

Arnold Schoenberg, composer and painter, was born 147 years ago today

Arnold Schoenberg, composer and painter, was born 147 years ago today.

Schoenberg was an Austrian composer and painter, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School. With the rise of the Nazi Party, Schoenberg's works — by 1938 — were labelled as degenerate music because he was Jewish. He moved to the United States in 1934.

Schoenberg's approach, both in terms of harmony and development, has been one of the most influential of 20th century musical thought. Many European and American composers from at least three generations have consciously extended his thinking, whereas others have passionately reacted against it.

Schoenberg was known early in his career for simultaneously extending the traditionally opposed German Romantic styles of Brahms and Wagner. Later, his name would come to personify innovations in atonality (although Schoenberg himself detested that term) that would become the most polemical feature of the period’s art music.

In the 1920s, Schoenberg developed the twelve-tone technique, an influential compositional method of manipulating an ordered series of all twelve notes in the chromatic scale. He also coined the term “developing variation” and was the first modern composer to embrace ways of developing motifs without resorting to the dominance of a centralized melodic idea.

Schoenberg was also a painter, an important music theorist and an influential teacher of composition. His students included Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Hanns Eisler, Egon Wellesz, and later John Cage, Lou Harrison, Earl Kim and Leon Kirchner.

Many of Schoenberg's practices, including the formalization of compositional method and his habit of openly inviting audiences to think analytically, are echoed in avant-garde musical thought.

His views of music history and aesthetics were crucial to many significant musicologists and critics, including Theodor W. Adorno, Charles Rosen and Carl Dahlhaus, as well as the pianists Artur Schnabel, Rudolf Serkin, Eduard Steuermann and Glenn Gould.

Schoenberg's archival legacy is collected at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna. He died in July, 1951.

Above, Schoenberg in 1938

The Cyclone, the historic wooden roller coaster at Coney Island, opened on June 26, 1927 — 94 years ago today

The Cyclone, the historic wooden roller coaster at Coney Island, opened on June 26, 1927 — 94 years ago today.

Despite original plans by the city to scrap the ride in the early 1970s, the roller coaster was refurbished in the 1974 off-season and reopened on July 3, 1975. Astroland Park has continued to invest millions over the years in the upkeep of the Cyclone.

The Cyclone was declared a New York City landmark on July 12, 1988, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 26, 1991.