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Welcome once more to The Spark, your source for a deep dig
into the week's events. Let's begin, shall we?
Monday:
The week begins with the anniversaries of the deaths of a couple of prominent
Southerners. It's hard to determine which was the more notable, though. Obviously, Elvis Presley dying in 1977 got more ink (and the good people at FTD
had more orders for flowers to be delivered to Graceland than for any other event or place), and his effect on pop
culture is incalculable, but in 1888, John Pemberton died in Atlanta, three years after inventing Coca-Cola. Memphians will note the anniversary with Elvis Week, but we don’t think Atlantans will be celebrating
Pemberton Week, so Mr. Presley may get the nod.
Don't get the idea that Elvis and Dr. Pemberton were the only prominent folks who died on this
date, though. In 1956, Bela Lugosi died. Lugosi was so identified with Count Dracula that he resented the way the role had typecast him, so it
was odd that he chose to be buried in the Dracula cape he had worn on stage
and screen. In 1948, baseball legend Babe Ruth died. Had he lived another six years, he might have made
the cover of Sports Illustrated, the first issue of which hit the newsstands in
1954.
In birthdays today, we note two creators and an icon (of sorts). In 1884, writer and magazine editor Hugo Gernsback was born. Gernsback is all but unknown today, but in the
1920s, he nurtured not only the genre of science fiction (which he called "scientifiction"), but also created
what has come to be known as fandom by printing the names and addresses of
readers in his science fiction magazines. (Coincidentally, the World Science Fiction
Convention opens tomorrow in Reno, NV.) In 1892, Otto Messmer
was born. Messmer was an artist and animator who may or may not have created Felix the Cat,
who was, until the advent of Mickey Mouse in the late 1920s, the biggest animated star in
movies. The icon is actor Fess Parker, who was born in 1924. In the 1950s, he played
frontiersman and Congressman Davy Crockett (whose own birth in 1786 we note tomorrow) on television,
causing a mania for coonskin caps. In the 60s, he played frontiersman and
legislator Daniel Boone.
In the oddity file, we see that Chang and Eng Bunker, the original "Siamese Twins," arrived in Boston in 1829. Though they were joined at the sternum, the
Bunkers married sisters and fathered 21 children between them. ("Between them?" We needn't
dwell on the details ... )
And it's the 90th birthday of bohemian writer Charles Bukowski, who managed to turn a life of dissipation and alcohol
into fame, fortune, and poetry.
Tuesday:
Last week, we mentioned that The Wizard of Oz had had its world premiere in Oconomowoc, WI. Well, on August 17, 1939, it finally reached New York, opening at the Capitol Theatre on Broadway. Speaking of things reaching the Big Apple,
it was on this day in 1790, that the U.S. capital moved from New York to Philadelphia (the government wouldn't open shop in Washington DC until 1800.) Conversely, when it comes to things leaving New York, Robert Fulton's steamboat, The Clermont, left New York for Albany in 1807. (That route later became notorious in the early
20th century, as philandering husbands and wives used that boat to follow through on
trysts. "Taking the night boat to Albany" became shorthand for having an affair.)
On the subject of illicit affairs, how could we forget that Mae West was born on this day in
1893? West was an actor and playwright who traded in
the power of sex to scandalize, so much so that a number of her plays were
shut down for their scandalous plots and she herself was arrested more than once.
Some musical events of note today. In 1954, Billy Murray died.
Murray is all but unknown today, but he was a staggeringly popular recording
artist in the first quarter of the 20th century, becoming the first person to
sell a million records. In 1959, Miles Davis's album Kind of Blue was released. It marked a new type of cool jazz
that hadn't been widely heard before, and Davis struck gold, with the album
being generally considered to be the best-selling jazz album of all time. Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson will release an album of his arrangements of songs by George Gershwin today. It’s also the 27th anniversary of the death of
George’s brother Ira, though we don't know if the thought of Wilson messing
with the Gershwin songbook is what killed him.
Wednesday:
Today is a day for all types of women's events. In 1587, Virginia Dare became the first child of European parents to be born on
American soil. She was born in the Roanoake Colony in North Carolina, an outpost from which every resident
mysteriously vanished soon after. In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing women the right to vote. And
today, the Miami Dolphins cheerleaders will release a swimsuit calendar. Whether
this is a step forward or backward, well, we leave that decision to you, dear reader.
In three completely unrelated events, we note than, in 1227, Genghis Khan, who created the largest empire the world has ever known,
died; that today is International Homeless
Animals Day; and that an expedition to create
the first 3D map of the wreckage site of RMS Titanic will begin.
Thursday:
Not a good day for witches or those suspected of being witches. In 1612, three women
from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury,
England, were put on trial for allegedly practicing witchcraft, and eighty
years later, in 1692 in Salem, MA, one woman and four men were executed after being
convicted of witchcraft.
Following the death of Elvis earlier in the week, the death of Groucho Marx in 1977 didn't cause as much of a ripple, but to fans of
classic comedy, it was a bigger event.
Thanks to the efforts of birthday boy Philo T. Farnsworth (1906), who invented the television,
news travels faster than ever -- or certainly faster than it did in 1848,
when the news of the California Gold Rush finally reached the New York Herald, a mere seven months after gold had been discovered. Had
airplanes been around in those days (and today is National Aviation Day, to commemorate the 1871 birth of Orville Wright), the east coast might have gotten the word sooner,
though.
Friday:
Speaking of getting the word late, it was on this day in 1866 that President Andrew
Johnson formally declared the Civil War to be over, a mere 16 months after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox.
(We might also mention in this context that in 1858, Charles Darwin first published his theory of evolution
in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of
London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's similar theory, though there are still some folks who either haven’t gotten that news, or who choose to
ignore it.)
In musical anniversaries, in 1882, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuted in Moscow and in 1885, W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan’s comic operetta The Mikado
opened in New York.
Some sports stuff today, too. It's the 90th birthday of the National Football
League, founded in Canton, OH, as well as the being the openings of the World Series of
both mah-jongg
and Little League baseball. A less happy reminder of football also occurs today,
when The Tillman Story opens; it's a documentary investigating the life
and the cover-up of the death of NFL star and Army Ranger Pat Tillman.
On a (much) lighter note, a Twilight convention opens today in Parsippany, NJ. Why Parsippany? We have no idea.
Saturday:
In 1878, the American Bar
Association was founded. We'd make a joke
here, but we don't want to get sued.
Speaking of theft, it was on this day in 1911 that the Mona Lisa was stolen by an employee of the Louvre Museum There must be something about art thefts this weekend.
Sunday is the sixth anniversary of the thefts of two paintings by Edvard Munch from the Munch Museum
in Oslo.
And speaking of exaggeration, it's Wilt Chamberlain’s birthday. Chamberlain was born in 1936, and while he was one of
the most prolific scorers in NBA history, he also claimed to be one of the
most prolific scorers off the court, boasting in his autobiography that he
had had sex with more than 20,000 women (nearly as many as his 31,419 career points).
In other birthdays today, piano legend Count Basie, who lead the swingingest big band ever, was born in
1904; Oscar-winning animation director Friz Freleng was born in 1906; Christopher Robin Milne, who inspired (and resented) the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, was born in 1920; and in 1938, country singer Kenny Rogers was born. We're not quite sure when his face was born, however.
And on this day in 1959, Hawaii
became a state -- just in time to either be or not be the birthplace of Barack Obama.
Sunday:
In 1485, King Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field. Shakespeare's play of 100 or so years later painted him as an utter villain,
but contemporary historians have rehabilitated him somewhat. Guess history
will also be written by the victors.
Speaking of writers, we close the week by noting that, in 1893, Dorothy Parker was born. Mrs. Parker was generally considered to be the
wittiest woman in America in the 1920s and '30s, with a pen dipped in poison
and a tongue to match. In her later years, she tried to renounce her fame and
wit, but any woman who could say,
"If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I
wouldn't be a bit surprised" had something going on.
Earlier, we mentioned how Hugo Gernsback more or less created science fiction
fandom, and one of those early fans celebrates his 90th birthday today: Ray Bradbury. Bradbury wrote more than just science fiction, but
that's what he's best known for. "If you enjoy living, it is not
difficult to keep the sense of wonder," he once said. Over nearly a century, that’s a heck of a lot of wonder.
See you next time!
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