Archive for the ‘History’ Category

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Obit watch: January 10, 2022.

Monday, January 10th, 2022

Playing catch-up from the weekend:

Dwayne Hickman. THR.

His most famous role was as the title character on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis”. Other roles included “Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis?”, “Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis”, “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini”, and “Sergeant Orkin” in “The Youth Killer” episode of “Kolchak: The Night Stalker”.

Bob Saget. THR.

Marilyn Bergman. She and her husband Alan were Hollywood lyricists.

The Bergmans and Mr. Hamlisch won the 1974 best-song Academy Award for “The Way We Were,” from the Robert Redford-Barbra Streisand romance of the same name. (The album of that movie’s score also won the Bergmans their only Grammy Award.) Their other best-song winner, “The Windmills of Your Mind” (“Round, like a circle in a spiral/Like a wheel within a wheel”), was written with Mr. Legrand for the 1968 film “The Thomas Crown Affair.” Their third Oscar was for the score of Ms. Streisand’s 1983 film “Yentl,” also written with Mr. Legrand.

…

But their lyrics were probably heard far more often by viewers of popular late-20th-century television series. They wrote the words to the bouncy theme songs for the hit sitcoms “Maude,” “Alice” and “Good Times,” as well as the themes for the nostalgic comedy series “Brooklyn Bridge” and the drama series “In the Heat of the Night.” Their hit “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” best known as a duet by Neil Diamond (who wrote the music) and Ms. Streisand, was originally written for Norman Lear’s short-lived series “All That Glitters.”

NYT obit for Max Julien, for the record.

Lani Guinier, historical footnote. Bill Clinton nominated her for the post of “assistant attorney general for civil rights” in 1993, but was forced to withdraw her nomination after some of her views came to light.

She argued, for example, that the principle of “one person, one vote” was insufficient in a system where the interests of minorities, racial or otherwise, were inevitably trampled by those of the majority, and that alternatives needed to be considered to give more weight to minority interests.

(Hattip: Lawrence.)

Posted in History, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 6, 2022.

Thursday, January 6th, 2022

Lawrence N. Brooks. He was 112 years old, and, at the time of his death, was the oldest surviving veteran of WWII.

Assigned to the mostly Black 91st Engineer General Service Regiment stationed in Australia — an Army unit that built bridges, roads and airstrips — Private Brooks served as a caretaker to three white officers, cooking, driving and doing other chores for them.

…

Mr. Brooks said he considered himself fortunate to have been spared combat duty when later in the war troop losses forced the military to send more African American troops to the front lines. In 1941, fewer than 4,000 African Americans were serving in the military; by 1945, that number had increased to more than 1.2 million.
“I got lucky,” he said. “I was saying to myself, ‘If I’m going to be shooting at somebody, somebody’s going to be shooting at me, and he might get lucky and hit.’”

By way of Lawrence: Willie Siros, noted Austin SF fan, book collector, book dealer, and a personal friend. (Apologies if that Facebook link is wonky: for some reason, I can view it on my phone, but I can’t view it on the big computer even in incognito mode. At least, not without logging into my non-existent Facebook account.)

Peter Bogdanovich. Ordinarily I would wait until tomorrow, but it looks like they had this one in the can. (And it has already been corrected once.) THR. Variety.

Before the end of the ’70s, however, Mr. Bogdanovich had been transformed from one of the most celebrated directors in Hollywood into one of the most ostracized. His career would be marred for years to come by critical and box-office failures, personal bankruptcies, the raking of his romantic life through the press and, as it all unspooled, an orgy of film-industry schadenfreude.
“It isn’t true that Hollywood is a bitter place, divided by hatred, greed and jealousy,” the director Billy Wilder once observed. “All it takes to bring the community together is a flop by Peter Bogdanovich.”

I wouldn’t mind seeing “Paper Moon”. I saw “What’s Up, Doc?” many many years ago, and would welcome seeing it again. And we’ve watched “Last Picture Show” recently. I’d also like to read those MoMA monographs.

Though Mr. Bogdanovich repeatedly disavowed the connection, critics liked to point out affinities between Welles’s career and his own: Both men began as directorial wunderkinds. (“Citizen Kane,” released in 1941, was Welles’s first full-length feature.) Both were later expelled from the Eden of A-list directors. (In the 1970s, a down-and-out Welles lived for a time in Mr. Bogdanovich’s mansion in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles.)

…

In the late 1990s, after declaring bankruptcy again, the down-and-out Mr. Bogdanovich lived for a time in the guesthouse of the young director Quentin Tarantino.

Posted in Books, History, Movies, Obits | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: December 27, 2021.

Monday, December 27th, 2021

Man, you take some time off for Christmas, and Death decides to be even busier than usual.

Edward O. Wilson.

As an expert on insects, Dr. Wilson studied the evolution of behavior, exploring how natural selection and other forces could produce something as extraordinarily complex as an ant colony. He then championed this kind of research as a way of making sense of all behavior — including our own.
As part of his campaign, Dr. Wilson wrote a string of books that influenced his fellow scientists while also gaining a broad public audience. “On Human Nature” won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1979; “The Ants,” which Dr. Wilson wrote with his longtime colleague Bert Hölldobler, won him his second Pulitzer in 1991.
Dr. Wilson also became a pioneer in the study of biological diversity, developing a mathematical approach to questions about why different places have different numbers of species. Later in his career, Dr. Wilson became one of the world’s leading voices for the protection of endangered wildlife.

Jean-Marc Vallée. THR. Credits include “Dallas Buyers Club” and the “Big Little Lies” series. (Hattip: Lawrence.)

Desmond Tutu, for the historical record.

Sarah Weddington, attorney in the Roe v Wade case. (Hattip: Lawrence.)

Wanda Young, of the Marvelettes.

Ms. Young (who was also known as Wanda Rogers) and Gladys Horton shared lead singer duties. “Don’t Mess With Bill,” which rose to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1966, was one of several hits written by Smokey Robinson on which Ms. Young sang lead. (Ms. Horton was the lead singer on “Please Mr. Postman,” “Beechwood 4-5789” and other songs.)

Richard “Demo Dick” Marcinko.

Commander Marcinko climbed the ranks to command Team 6 and wrote a tell-all best seller that cemented the SEALs in pop culture as heroes and bad boys. Though the highly decorated Vietnam veteran led Team 6 for only three years, from 1980 to 1983, he had an outsize influence on the group’s place in military lore.

I’ve read (and thoroughly enjoyed) Rogue Warrior and, believe it or not, Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior and The Real Team: Rogue Warrior (affiliate links). Oddly enough, though, I never met Mr. Marcinko. I say “oddly” because he was actually one of the guests of honor at a convention Lawrence and I went to years back, but I never sought him out. Both of us were busy hanging out with one of the other guests.

Bruce Todd, former Austin mayor.

Todd served two terms as mayor, first elected in June 1991 and retired in June 1997. In his time as mayor, he and the council considered issues such as airport relocation, wilderness preservation and transferring the city-run hospital to Seton. He also helped recruit major employers to the city, like Samsung, AMD and Applied Materials.
He also helped pass the city’s no-smoking law, banning cigars and cigarettes in all restaurants and bars.
Todd also led the effort to get the U.S. Airforce to transfer then-Bergstrom Air Force Base to the city when the base was being decommissioned. He succeeded and also worked to pass a $600 million bond election to transform the base into Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

(Hattip: Lawrence.)

This is a little old, and has been touched on by other folks, but I did not find a good obit until now: Edward D. Shames.

Mr. Shames’s Easy Company, Second Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division parachuted behind Utah Beach in the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. It fought the Germans in France, jumped into the German-occupied Netherlands in Operation Market Garden and held off Hitler’s troops in their prolonged siege of the Belgian town of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.

…

Entering combat as a sergeant with Easy Company, he was among its many paratroopers who found themselves scattered and lost upon hitting the ground behind Utah Beach before dawn on D-Day.
“I landed in a bunch of cows in a barn,” he recalled in a July 2021 interview with the American Veterans Center. “I had no idea where I was.”
He rounded up his men and found a farmhouse. The farmer didn’t speak English and he didn’t speak French, but he took out his maps and, through the farmer’s gestures, found that he was in the town of Carentan, some five miles from a bridge where he was supposed to have touched down. When he got there with his men, he received a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant for his resourcefulness.

Mr. Shames was the last surviving officer of Easy Company.

Posted in Austin, Geek, History, Movies, Obits, Politics | 2 Comments »

’twas the night before Christmas…

Friday, December 24th, 2021

Chartwell Booksellers sent this over, and I thought I’d share it with everyone:

Winston Churchill’s Christmas Eve message, December 24, 1941.

Slightly longer version (Chartwell dropped the opening paragraph) from the International Churchill Society.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

(Ugly Christmas Beanie from Magpul (affiliate link). I don’t know that you’ll be able to get one on or before the 25th: but as all people of goodwill know, the Christmas season runs through January 6th, the Feast of Epiphany, and thus your ugly Christmas beanie (or sweater, if you live someplace that cold) is appropriate wear at least through then.)

Posted in Books, Christmas, Clothing, Hats, History | Comments Closed

Where do we get such men?

Friday, December 17th, 2021

I briefly touched the other day on the story of Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe, who was awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday.

Sgt. Cashe was one of three soldiers who received the Medal of Honor that day. Task and Purpose has a good profile of all three men.

The other two are Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Celiz (who received the medal posthumously, along with Sgt. Cashe), and Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee (who is still alive, and currently serving with the US Army).

Posted in Heroism, History | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 16, 2021.

Thursday, December 16th, 2021

Elfrida von Nardroff, historical footnote.

She kept a low public profile for much of her life, but back in the 1950s, she was on television. Specifically, the quiz show “Twenty-One”.

Over several months in 1958, Ms. von Nardroff charmed television viewers as she defeated one opponent after another on her way to winning $220,500 ($2.1 million in today’s dollars). That dwarfed the $129,000 (nearly $1.3 million) that the show’s most famous contestant, Charles Van Doren, an English instructor at Columbia University, had won in 1956 and 1957.

Of course, you know where this is going, right?

Within months after she took home the $220,500, Frank S. Hogan, the Manhattan district attorney, convened a grand jury to investigate quiz shows. Herbert Stempel, whom Mr. Van Doren had defeated on “Twenty-One,” had revealed that the producers had coached him extensively. An investigation by the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight in 1959 followed. (The scandal became the focus of the 1994 film “Quiz Show,” directed by Robert Redford.)

…

Mr. Stone delved into Ms. von Nardroff’s claims of deep research and found them dubious. He saw little evidence for her claim that she had analyzed “Twenty-One” topics so extensively that she had filled numerous notebooks.
He sent investigators to the main branch of the New York Public Library at 42nd Street, where they showed her picture to see if anyone recognized her from all the time she said she had spent there. They did not. (Ms. von Nardroff said she had taken out books but did not do research at the library, Mr. Stone recounted.) She admitted that the article in This Week was only “impressionistically true.”

…

She, Mr. Van Doren and 12 other contestants were arrested that October and charged with second-degree perjury, a misdemeanor. She and nine other contestants, including Mr. Van Doren, pleaded guilty in early 1962 and received suspended sentences.

For the historical record: bell hooks.

Posted in History, Law, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Responsible use of category tags.

Wednesday, December 15th, 2021

I hate to link to Crimereads two days in a row, but this is another one of those articles I feel like I have to link. Especially since it lets me tick off multiple categories from my list:

“Fireworks at Graceland: How Elvis Spent His Last Christmas Before Boot Camp“.

I’m not going to add it to my wish list yet, but Christmas with Elvis (affiliate link) sounds like it could be a fun book.

Posted in Bagatelle, Books, Christmas, Elvis, Explosives, History, Music | Comments Closed

Tweet of the day.

Tuesday, December 14th, 2021

There’s a backstory to that tweet.

Here it is.

Matthias said he was struck by how well Cashe knew his soldiers — their strengths, weaknesses, and whatever challenges they were facing — and how much he cared for them. He “talked about them like they were his children,” he said. Dodge who was a squad leader under Cashe, recalled once having marital problems while he was deployed to Iraq. While they had some — very rare and brief — down time, Dodge said Cashe “called my wife from Iraq and talked to her at length.” He then came and told Dodge to call her as well.
“‘I know you’re having problems, and I want you to have your head clear while you’re out here doing stuff,’” Dodge recalled Cashe telling him. “At the time I was kind of angry because I was tired, I just wanted to sleep. But he had taken his time when he could have been sleeping … to try to take care of me. And that’s something I’ll never forget.”

…

Once Cashe was loaded onto the medevac with the rest of the wounded, they were flown to the nearest military hospital in Iraq. Dodge recounted the medevac flight to Balad Air Base where the wounded were triaged and treated. “Sgt. Cashe, the whole time there, I could hear him yelling ‘how are my guys? What’s going on with them? Where are they at?’ Kind of refusing, almost, treatment until he knew that we were all being taken care of.”

Posted in Heroism, History, Leadership | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 5, 2021.

Sunday, December 5th, 2021

Bob Dole, for the record. WP. Battleswarm.

I don’t have much to add to any of these, but I am glad he’s getting credit for his honorable service during WWII.

Stonewall Jackson.

That’s Stonewall Jackson, the Grand Ole Opry singer, not the Confederate general.

Posted in History, Music, Obits, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 1, 2021.

Wednesday, December 1st, 2021

This is a couple of days old, but I was waiting for an obit from a reliable source: Jim Warren, one of the early figures in personal computing.

In the 1970s, Mr. Warren was a leading figure in the community that sprung up in the San Francisco Bay Area around the emerging personal computer industry.
He was a regular at monthly meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club, a group of hobbyist who gathered to share ideas, design tips and gossip. He was the editor of Dr. Dobb’s Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia, an irreverent yet influential publication in that nascent field.

…

Computer conferences, where these fledgling companies showed off their wares, were just beginning to emerge when, in 1977, Mr. Warren staged the West Coast Computer Faire (the spelling a playful nod to the medieval spectacles of Elizabethan England). He calculated that the event, a two-day affair at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium, might break even if it could attract 60 exhibitors and perhaps 7,000 people.
But to his surprise nearly 13,000 people showed up, and the lines of people waiting to get in circled the building.

…

His interest in the social and political impact of computer technology continued later in his life. In 1991, Mr. Warren founded and chaired the first Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference, an annual academic gathering.
In 1993, he worked on a California law — a model for other states — that required most computerized public records to be freely available. He conferred with legislators, rallied public support and even drafted some of the law’s language.

Mark Roth, pro bowler. Noted here because:

Roth’s most famous spare — knocking down the remaining pins with the second bowl thrown in a frame — was during a tournament in 1980 in Alameda, Calif. He became the first bowler to convert the notoriously difficult 7-10 split — knocking down the two pins in the opposite corners of the back row — on national television.

Adolfo, Nancy Reagan’s designer.

Posted in Geek, History, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday, November 25th, 2021

Last year, some jerk wrote:

I was hoping that Pan Am would have done “Wings to Turkey”, or something similar. But, alas, no.

From those wonderful folks at Pan Am, by way of Periscope Films, “Wings to Turkey”.

This has a date stamp of January 2018 in the ‘Tube, but I swear it was not there when I went looking last year.

Also, please note that the 707 lands in Istanbul, not Constantinople.

Speaking of Turkish delight:

“C.S. Lewis’s Greatest Fiction Was Convincing American Kids That They Would Like Turkish Delight“.

And I don’t want to skip the significance of this holiday, so:

(Explained.)

Posted in Food, History, Travel | 4 Comments »

Obit watch: November 23, 2021.

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021

Lou Cutell, actor. Other than “Seinfeld” and “Gray’s Anatomy”, he did a few cop shows, including “Hardcastle and McCormick”, “T.J. Hooker”, “Barney Miller”, and the really obscure 1989 “Dragnet”. He also appeared on “Alice” and “The Bob Newhart Show”.

Malikah Shabazz, Malcolm X’s daughter. She was only 56.

Bill Virdon, noted player and manager.

He remained with the Pirates through 1965, managed for the Mets in the minors, then returned to Pittsburgh as a player-coach in 1968, his last playing season. He became the Pirates’ manager in 1972, taking them to the National League East title, but was fired late the following season.

He also managed the Yankees for a time, until he was fired by Steinbrenner (“…though he was not supposed to be involved with running the team”, being under suspension at the time) in favor of…Billy Martin.

Posted in 1970s, History, Obits, Sports, TV | 1 Comment »

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