BROWNNOSE
BOOTLICKER
338th day of 2010 - 27 remaining
Saturday, December 4, 2010
BOOM BOOM DAY
Cannon’s went off in Lynn, Massachusetts on this day in 1940, when baby Frederick Anthony Picariello arrived on the scene. Little Freddy and his mom got along just fine. They even collaborated in the writing of a song when Freddy was 16. They titled their piece, Rock ’n’ Roll Baby. By this time Freddy was driving a truck while he was trying to make the move to show biz. The first thing he did was take on the stage name of Freddy Karmon.
Then he made a demo of the song and presented it to Philly DJ, Jack McDermott. What happened next made rock ’n’ roll history. Producers Frank Slay and Bob Crewe heard the song, took Freddy under their wings, changed his stage name to Freddy Cannon and the title of the song to Tallahassee Lassie. Freddy Cannon exploded onto the music charts and on June 29, 1959, he had a #6 hit. From that day on, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when you’d turn on a rock station, you could count on hearing jocks introducing Freddy ‘Boom Boom’ Cannon and hits like Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (#3 on January 11, 1960), Palisades Park (#3 on June 23, 1962), and Transistor Sister.
After recording several hit LPs in the mid-1960s, Freddy, no longer a teenage idol, promoted other singers’ recordings for Buddah Records, and participated in an oldies revival; having some success with his 1981 recording, Let’s Put the Fun Back in Rock ’n’ Roll.
Happy Birthday, Boom Boom.
Events December 4
1867 - The National Grange of Husbandry was founded. The organization of farmers was known, typically, as the Grange. The group contributed to agriculture and served as a focus for rural social life in America. How many of you remember going to a Sweet 16 party at the local Grange Hall? Just another piece of Americana for your memory banks...
1927 - Duke Ellington’s big band opened the famed Cotton Club in Harlem. It was the first appearance of the Duke’s new and larger group. He played the club until 1932.
1932 - “Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. North and South America and all the ships at sea. Let’s go to press!” The Walter Winchell Show, later The Jergens Journal and still later, Kaiser-Frazer News, was first heard on the NBC Blue network. Winchell kept that gossip show going on the radio for 23 years. It was sponsored at first by Jergens lotion and, later, by Dryad deodorant, Kaiser-Frazer cars and Richard Hudnut shampoo.
1933 - Tobacco Road, a play based on Erskine Caldwell’s book, premiered at the Masque Theatre in New York City. The play ran for eight years and 3,182 shows.
1933 - One of America’s great radio shows made the leap to the big time. Ma Perkins moved from WLW in Cincinnati, OH to the NBC-Red network. The show proved to be so popular that it was later carried on both CBS and NBC radio.
1934 - Ethel Merman recorded I Get a Kick Out of You, from Cole Porter’s musical, Anything Goes. She was backed by the Johnny Green Orchestra. The tune was recorded for Brunswick Records.
1942 - The U.S. 9th Air Force, stationed in French North Africa, launched its first raid against the Italian mainland as it hit the Italian port of Naples.
1947 - There were rave reviews for the Tennessee William play A Streetcar Named Desire. The play, starring starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy, had premiered the previous evening at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway.
1952 - More than 4,000 people perished in three weeks as the ‘Killer Fog’ covered London, England. London residents had burned excessive amounts of coal to keep their houses warm. As normal wind currents ceased, stagnant air set in and the dense fog layered the city.
1955 - As part of an NBC-TV special, mime artist Marcel Marceau appeared on television for the first time. In a rare speaking role, Marceau was heard to deliver the memorable line, “ .” Pretty funny stuff for a mime...
1956 - The Million Dollar Session was held at Sun Records in Memphis, TN. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis gathered for an impromptu jam session. Six songs by the artists were recorded at this session. None of the songs was released for nearly three decades.
1957 - In St. John’s, England 92 people were killed and 187 injured when one commuter train crashed into another in heavy fog.
1962 - James Caan made his TV acting debut in A Fist of Five, an episode of The Untouchables on ABC-TV, starring Robert Stack, today’s Unsolved Mysteries host.
1965 - Composer, lyricist, and singer, Jacques Brel made his American debut in concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Brel composed Jackie, You’re Not Alone, If You Go Away and more.
1965 - The United States launched the Gemini 7 spacecraft. Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Commander James A. Lovell, Jr. were aboard. Their primary mission was to prove that humans could live in weightlessness for 14 days, a space endurance record that stood until 1970.
1969 - Police raided a West Side Chicago apartment, killing Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark and wounding four others.
1970 - Frank Reynolds was seen co-hosting the ABC Evening News with Howard K. Smith for the final time this night. Reynolds commented on the switch to a new co-host (Harry Reasoner) saying, “Due to circumstances beyond my control, the unemployment statistics rose yesterday.”
1972 - Billy Paul from Philadelphia received a gold record for his smash hit, Me and Mrs. Jones.
1974 - A Dutch Martinair DC-8 carrying Moslems to Mecca crashed on its landing approach to Colombo, Sri Lanka. All 191 persons aboard were killed.
1976 - Actress Elizabeth Taylor married soon-to-be U.S. Senator John Warner of Virginia.
1977 - Jean-Bédel Bokassa crowned himself emperor of the Central African Empire in a ceremony costing more than $100 million. The money didn’t get him very far as Bokassa was deposed in 1979. (He died Nov. 3 1996 at age 75.)
1978 - City Supervisor Dianne Feinstein became San Francisco’s first female mayor. Feinstein was named to replace the assassinated George Moscone.
1982 - Running back Herschel Walker of the University of Georgia received the Heisman Trophy as the nation’s finest college football player. Walker was only the seventh junior to receive the award.
1984 - The discovery of a Bronze Age shipwreck off the southern coast of Turkey was announced by the National Geographic Society. The find dated back to when King Tutankhamen (Tut, to you) ruled Egypt.
1986 - Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound premiered at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City.
1988 - Former Venezuelan president Carlos Andrés Pérez was declared re-elected on this day.
1991 - Pan American World Airways flew its last flight this day. After years of sacrifices by their employees to save the airline, Pan Am filed for bankruptcy and went out of business. (Pan Am was reincarnated by new owners as a discount carrier in 1996, but went bankrupt again in 1998.)
1993 - Frank Zappa died at his Los Angeles home, shortly before his 53rd birthday (he was born Dec 21, 1940). Zappa led The Mothers of Invention in the 1960s. With that band and/or as a solo performer, he released some 50 albums. Zappa had battled prostate cancer for several years.
1995 - The first rush of a 60,000-strong NATO force surged into Bosnia and Croatia in a peacekeeping mission in the Balkans. The troops arrival came two days after Serb military leader Gen. Ratko Mladic rejected the Dayton peace accord. He demanded a reconsideration of the accord’s transfer of control over Serb areas around Sarajevo to a new Muslim-Croat federation.
1996 - The Mars Pathfinder was launched from Cape Canaveral on a 310 million-mile odyssey to explore the planet’s surface. It had a remote-controlled 22-pound, 6-wheel, roving vehicle to sample Martian soil and rock and send data back beginning on July 4, 1997.
1997 - The National Basketball Association suspended all-star Latrell Sprewell of the Golden State Warriors for one year for choking and threatening to kill his coach, P.J. Carlesimo.
1998 - The remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho opened in U.S. theatres. Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche starred. By 2001, the film had grossed $21.486 million in the U.S. Considering it cost $25 million (plus a heafty marketing campaign), the bottom line is pretty scary for this flick. The original has brought in some $16 million, but cost just $800,000 to make in 1960.
1999 - NASA scientists waited in vain for a signal from the Mars Polar Lander, wondering about the whereabouts of the $165-million probe. (It was later believed that the spacecraft was destroyed after it plunged toward the Red Planet.)
2000 - PepsiCo agreed to pay $13.4 billion to acquire the Quaker Oats Company.
2000 - In a pair of legal setbacks for Al Gore, a Florida state judge refused to overturn George W. Bush’s certified victory in Florida and the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a ruling that had allowed manual recounts.
2001 - The United States froze the financial assets of organizations linked to Hamas, the group that claimed responsibility for deadly suicide attacks in Israel.
2001 - Stepping up reprisals for suicide bombings by Palestinian militants, Israel unleashed air strikes. Three missiles hit near Yasser Arafat’s office as the Palestinian leader worked inside.
2002 - Jesus Antonio Nunez, mayor of the Colombian town of Ambalema, was assassinated, after attending a meeting with the country’s main rebel group. He was the thirteenth Ambalema mayor to be killed that year.
2003 - U.S. President George Bush (II) lifted tariffs on imported steel to averted a trade war with Europe.
2003 - A U.S. poll reported that some 29 million Americans selected ‘none’ for their religious affiliation. The ranks of those shedding organized religion had more than doubled in a decade. (The American Religious Identification Survey of 2001, a telephone survey of 50,000 Americans, was also conducted in 1990.)
2003 - Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants star, told a grand jury that he used a clear substance and a cream supplied by BALCO, but he never thought they were steroids.
2004 - Aspiring high school teacher Maria Julia Mantilla Garcia, Miss Peru, was crowned Miss World in Southern China.
2005 - British news reports claimed that the CIA’s use of Scotland’s airports was part of an alleged CIA operation to transfer terrorist suspects to secret prison camps in Europe. The three airports allegedly involved were Glasgow International, Glasgow Prestwick, and Edinburgh Airport.
2006 - German-born artist Tomma Abts won the Turner Prize. She was the first female painter in the 22-year history of Britain’s controversial modern-art award.
2006 - Bank of New York Co. agreed to take over Mellon Financial Corp. It was a $16.5-billion all-stock deal that created the largest securities servicing company in the world.
2006 - Rescuers found Kati Kim and her two daughters near Grants Pass, OR. They, along with their husband/father James Kim, had been missing for nine days while on a road trip from their home in San Francisco. James, who had set out on foot looking for help on Dec 2, was nowhere to be found. (James Kim, an editor for CNET, was found dead Dec 6, 2006. His body was found less than a mile, separated by a sheer cliff, from where his family’s station wagon was stuck in the snow.)
2007 - The governors of the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon declared emergencies after hurricane-force winds and several inches of rain hit the states. At least four people were killed by the Great Coastal Gale of 2007.
2007 - Census data reported one in five people in Canada in 2006 was born in another country -- the highest proportion since the 1930s.
2008 - Rioting by Jewish settlers spread in the West Bank after Israeli soldiers forcibly removed about 250 extremists from a disputed house in the center of Hebron. Banks in the Gaza Strip shut down to count their dwindling cash.
2008 - Armed robbers (some disguised as women) snatched €85 million ($108 million) worth of diamond rings, necklaces and luxury watches from a posh boutique in Paris. (In June 2009, French police arrested 25 suspects in connection with the robbery and recovered some of the jewelry.)
2009 - Opening in U.S. movie theatres: Across the Hall, with Mike Vogel, Brittany Murphy and Danny Pino; Armored, starring Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne, Skeet Ulrich, Amaury Nolasco, Andre Jamal Kinney, Milo Ventimiglia, Fred Ward and Columbus Short; Brothers, with Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sam Shepard, Mare Winningham, Bailee Madison and Taylor Grace Geare; Everybody’s Fine, starring Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell; Paa, with Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan and Paresh Rawal; The Last Station, starring Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti and Anne-Marie Duff; Transylmania, starring Patrick Cavanaugh, James DeBello, Tony Denman, Paul H. Kim, Jennifer Lyons, Oren Skoog, Irena A. Hoffman, David Steinberg, Musetta Vander, Natalie Garza and Nicole Garza; Until the Light Takes Us, with Varg Vikernes, Fenriz, Harmony Korine and Hellhammer; and Up in the Air, starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Tamala Jones and Chris Lowell.
2009 - Amsterdam City councilwoman Marijke Vos planted a sapling in the Amsterdamse Bos park. It was a descendant of the 150-year-old chestnut tree that once cheered up Anne Frank as her family hid from the Nazis. 149 others trees were to be planted around the world and named for Anne Frank.
2009 - GM and its Chinese partner SAIC announced a joint venture to produce small cars in India.
Birthdays December 4
1795 - Thomas Carlyle
writer: Critical and Miscellaneous Essays; historian; died Feb 5, 1881
1835 - Samuel Butler
author: Erewhon, The Way of All Flesh; died June 18, 1902
1858 - Chester Greenwood
inventor: ear muffs; died Jul 5, 1937
1861 - Lillian Russell (Helen Louise Leonard)
singer, actress: Wild Fire; burlesque: The Great Mogul [1881]; died Jun 6, 1922
1914 - Claude Renoir
cinematographer: The Spy Who Loved Me, The River; son of artist Pierre Renoir; died Sep 5, 1993
1912 - Pappy (Gregory) Boyington
aviator: USMC: commanding officer of WWII Black Sheep Squadron [VMF 214]; received Congressional Medal of Honor; died Jan 11, 1988
1915 - Eddie Heywood Jr.
pianist, composer: Canadian Sunset; died Jan 2, 1989
1921 - Deanna Durbin
actress: Summer Stock, Lady on a Train, 100 Men and a Girl, It Started with Eve, Can’t Help Singing
1928 - Dena Dietrich
actress: The Ropers, The Practice, Karen, Adam’s Rib
1930 - Harvey (Edward) Kuenn
baseball: Detroit Tigers [American League Rookie of the Year: 1953/all-star: 1953-1959], Cleveland Indians [all-star: 1960], SF Giants [World Series: 1962], Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies; manager: Milwaukee Brewers: American League Manager of the Year [1982]; died Feb 28, 1988
1931 - Alex Delvecchio
Hockey Hall of Famer: Detroit Red Wings: Lady Bing Trophy-winner [1959, 1966, 1969]
1933 - Horst Buchholz
actor: Faraway, So Close!, Avalanche Express, Raid on Entebbe, The Savage Bees, Fanny, The Magnificent Seven; died Mar 3, 2003
1934 - Victor French
actor: Choices, Little House on the Prairie, The Other, Spencer’s Mountain, Highway to Heaven, The Hero, Get Smart, Carter Country; died June 15, 1989
1934 - Wink (Winston Conrad) Martindale
TV host: Tic Tac Dough, Can You Top This?; singer?: Deck of Cards
1937 - Max Baer Jr.
actor: The Beverly Hillbillies, Macon County Line; producer: Ode to Billy Joe; son of boxing great Max Baer, Sr.
1940 - John Cale
musician: bass, keyboard, viola, singer: group: The Velvet Underground: The Gift, Sister Ray; solo: Half Past France, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Streets of Laredo
1940 - Freddy Cannon (Frederick Anthony Picariello)
singer: see Boom Boom Day [above]
1941 - Marty Riessen
tennis champion: shares record for most US Open mixed doubles, won by an individual male [4]
1942 - Bob Mosley
musician: bass: group: Moby Grape
1942 - Chris Hillman
musician: guitar, bass, mandolin: groups: The Byrds: Turn! Turn! Turn!; Golden State Boys, Hillmen, Green Grass Group, Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas, Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, Desert Rose Band; solo: LPs: Slippin’ Away, Clear Sailin’, The Hillman, Morning Sky, Desert Rose, Ever Call Ready
1943 - Gary Sabourin
hockey: NHL: SL Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, California Seals, Cleveland Barons
1944 - Dennis Wilson
musician: drums, keyboard; singer: group: The Beach Boys: I Get Around, Help Me Rhonda, Good Vibrations, California Girls, Surfin’ USA, Little Deuce Coupe, Surfer Girl, Be True to Your School; died in drowning accident Dec 28, 1983
1946 - Skip Vanderbundt
football: SF 49ers LB
1948 - Southside Johnny (Lyon)
singer: group: Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes: I Don’t Wanna Go Home, The Fever, This Time It’s for Real, Hearts of Stone
1948 - Randy Vataha
football: Stanford Univ., New England Patriots WR; sports consultant
1949 - Jeff Bridges
actor: White Squall, Wild Bill, Blown Away, The Vanishing, American Heart, The Fisher King, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Starman, Against All Odds, The Last Picture Show, The Company She Keeps, Fearless, Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, Sea Hunt; songwriter; son of actor Lloyd Bridges; brother of actor Beau Bridges
1949 - Pamela Stephenson
Saturday Night Live, Lost Empires, Funny Man, Those Dear Departed, Finders Keepers, Superman III, The Comeback, McManus, Private Collection
1951 - Gary Rossington
musician: guitar: group: Lynyrd Skynyrd: Freebird, Sweet Home Alabama; Rossington Collins band: LPs: Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere, This is the Way
1951 - Patricia Wettig
Emmy Award-winning actress: thirtysomething [1987-88, 1989-90, 1990-91]; Stephen King’s The Langoliers, City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly’s Gold, City Slickers
1955 - Brian Prout
musician: drums: group: Diamond Rio: Meet in the Middle, Mirror Mirror, Mama Don’t Forget to Pray for Me, Norma Jean Riley, Nowhere Bound, In a Week or Two, Oh Me, Oh My Sweet Baby
1956 - Bernard King
basketball: New Jersey Nets, Utah Jazz, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks: led NBA in scoring [32.9 points per game, 1984-85], Washington Bullets; actor: Fast Break, Miami Vice, Ryan’s Hope
1964 - Jonathan Goldstein
actor: Drake & Josh, The Guru Singh-Cinderelli, Tube, The Auteur Theory, Shock Television, Body of Influence 2, Target of Suspicion
1964 - Marisa Tomei
Academy Award-winning actress: My Cousin Vinny [1993]; Chaplin, Oscar, The Paper, Untamed Heart, A Different World, The Flamingo Kid, As the World Turns
1966 - Fred Armisen
comedian, actor: Saturday Night Live, The Post Grad Survival Guide, The Rocker, Baby Mama, Fast Track, Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, Like Mike
1969 - Jay-Z
rapper: Young Forever, Empire State of Mind, Run This Town, Show Me What You Got, Hard Knock Life [Ghetto Anthem], Wishing on a Star; business mogul: co-owner of The 40/40 Club, part-owner of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, creator of the clothing line Rocawear, former CEO of Def Jam Recordings
1970 - Jeff Blake
football [quarterback]: East Carolina Univ; NFL: New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals, New Orleans Saints, Baltimore Ravens, Arizona Cardinals, Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears
1970 - Kevin Sussman
actor: Ugly Betty, Heavy Petting, For Your Consideration, Funny Money, Hitch, Little Black Book, Changing Lanes, Sweet Home Alabama
1972 - Howard Eisley
basketball [guard]: Boston College; NBA: Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns
1972 - Ted Johnson
football [linebacker]: Univ of Colorado; NFL: New England Patriots
1973 - Tyra Banks
actress: Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Higher Learning; model: Cover Girl cosmetics
1973 - Corliss Williamson
basketball [forward]: Univ of Arkansas; NBA: Sacramento Kings, Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers
1984 - Lindsay Felton
actress: Thunder Alley, Stray Dog, The Metro Chase
Chart Toppers December 4
1948Buttons and Bows - Dinah Shore
On a Slow Boat to China - The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Harry Babbitt & Gloria Wood
Hair of Gold, Eyes of Blue - Gordon MacRae
One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart) - Jimmy Wakely
1957Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley
You Send Me - Sam Cooke
My Special Angel - Bobby Helms
Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley
1966Winchester Cathedral - The New Vaudeville Band
Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
Devil with a Blue Dress On & Good Golly Miss Molly - Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
Somebody Likes Me - Eddy Arnold
1975Fly, Robin, Fly - Silver Convention
The Way I Want to Touch You - Captain & Tennille
Let’s Do It Again - The Staple Singers
It’s All in the Movies - Merle Haggard
1984Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!
Out of Touch - Daryl Hall & John Oates
I Feel for You - Chaka Khan
Your Heart’s Not in It - Janie Fricke
1993I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) - Meat Loaf
Again - Janet Jackson
Shoop - Salt-N-Pepa
American Honky-Tonk Bar Association - Garth Brooks
2002Die Another Day - Madonna
Lose Yourself - Eminem
The Game of Love - Santana featuring Michelle Branch
These Days - Rascal Flatts
Happy Birthday Freddy Cannon
Saturday, December 4, 2010
BOOM BOOM DAY
Cannon’s went off in Lynn, Massachusetts on this day in 1940, when baby Frederick Anthony Picariello arrived on the scene. Little Freddy and his mom got along just fine. They even collaborated in the writing of a song when Freddy was 16. They titled their piece, Rock ’n’ Roll Baby. By this time Freddy was driving a truck while he was trying to make the move to show biz. The first thing he did was take on the stage name of Freddy Karmon.
Then he made a demo of the song and presented it to Philly DJ, Jack McDermott. What happened next made rock ’n’ roll history. Producers Frank Slay and Bob Crewe heard the song, took Freddy under their wings, changed his stage name to Freddy Cannon and the title of the song to Tallahassee Lassie. Freddy Cannon exploded onto the music charts and on June 29, 1959, he had a #6 hit. From that day on, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when you’d turn on a rock station, you could count on hearing jocks introducing Freddy ‘Boom Boom’ Cannon and hits like Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (#3 on January 11, 1960), Palisades Park (#3 on June 23, 1962), and Transistor Sister.
After recording several hit LPs in the mid-1960s, Freddy, no longer a teenage idol, promoted other singers’ recordings for Buddah Records, and participated in an oldies revival; having some success with his 1981 recording, Let’s Put the Fun Back in Rock ’n’ Roll.
Happy Birthday, Boom Boom.
Events December 4
1867 - The National Grange of Husbandry was founded. The organization of farmers was known, typically, as the Grange. The group contributed to agriculture and served as a focus for rural social life in America. How many of you remember going to a Sweet 16 party at the local Grange Hall? Just another piece of Americana for your memory banks...
1927 - Duke Ellington’s big band opened the famed Cotton Club in Harlem. It was the first appearance of the Duke’s new and larger group. He played the club until 1932.
1932 - “Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. North and South America and all the ships at sea. Let’s go to press!” The Walter Winchell Show, later The Jergens Journal and still later, Kaiser-Frazer News, was first heard on the NBC Blue network. Winchell kept that gossip show going on the radio for 23 years. It was sponsored at first by Jergens lotion and, later, by Dryad deodorant, Kaiser-Frazer cars and Richard Hudnut shampoo.
1933 - Tobacco Road, a play based on Erskine Caldwell’s book, premiered at the Masque Theatre in New York City. The play ran for eight years and 3,182 shows.
1933 - One of America’s great radio shows made the leap to the big time. Ma Perkins moved from WLW in Cincinnati, OH to the NBC-Red network. The show proved to be so popular that it was later carried on both CBS and NBC radio.
1934 - Ethel Merman recorded I Get a Kick Out of You, from Cole Porter’s musical, Anything Goes. She was backed by the Johnny Green Orchestra. The tune was recorded for Brunswick Records.
1942 - The U.S. 9th Air Force, stationed in French North Africa, launched its first raid against the Italian mainland as it hit the Italian port of Naples.
1947 - There were rave reviews for the Tennessee William play A Streetcar Named Desire. The play, starring starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy, had premiered the previous evening at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway.
1952 - More than 4,000 people perished in three weeks as the ‘Killer Fog’ covered London, England. London residents had burned excessive amounts of coal to keep their houses warm. As normal wind currents ceased, stagnant air set in and the dense fog layered the city.
1955 - As part of an NBC-TV special, mime artist Marcel Marceau appeared on television for the first time. In a rare speaking role, Marceau was heard to deliver the memorable line, “ .” Pretty funny stuff for a mime...
1956 - The Million Dollar Session was held at Sun Records in Memphis, TN. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis gathered for an impromptu jam session. Six songs by the artists were recorded at this session. None of the songs was released for nearly three decades.
1957 - In St. John’s, England 92 people were killed and 187 injured when one commuter train crashed into another in heavy fog.
1962 - James Caan made his TV acting debut in A Fist of Five, an episode of The Untouchables on ABC-TV, starring Robert Stack, today’s Unsolved Mysteries host.
1965 - Composer, lyricist, and singer, Jacques Brel made his American debut in concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Brel composed Jackie, You’re Not Alone, If You Go Away and more.
1965 - The United States launched the Gemini 7 spacecraft. Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Commander James A. Lovell, Jr. were aboard. Their primary mission was to prove that humans could live in weightlessness for 14 days, a space endurance record that stood until 1970.
1969 - Police raided a West Side Chicago apartment, killing Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark and wounding four others.
1970 - Frank Reynolds was seen co-hosting the ABC Evening News with Howard K. Smith for the final time this night. Reynolds commented on the switch to a new co-host (Harry Reasoner) saying, “Due to circumstances beyond my control, the unemployment statistics rose yesterday.”
1972 - Billy Paul from Philadelphia received a gold record for his smash hit, Me and Mrs. Jones.
1974 - A Dutch Martinair DC-8 carrying Moslems to Mecca crashed on its landing approach to Colombo, Sri Lanka. All 191 persons aboard were killed.
1976 - Actress Elizabeth Taylor married soon-to-be U.S. Senator John Warner of Virginia.
1977 - Jean-Bédel Bokassa crowned himself emperor of the Central African Empire in a ceremony costing more than $100 million. The money didn’t get him very far as Bokassa was deposed in 1979. (He died Nov. 3 1996 at age 75.)
1978 - City Supervisor Dianne Feinstein became San Francisco’s first female mayor. Feinstein was named to replace the assassinated George Moscone.
1982 - Running back Herschel Walker of the University of Georgia received the Heisman Trophy as the nation’s finest college football player. Walker was only the seventh junior to receive the award.
1984 - The discovery of a Bronze Age shipwreck off the southern coast of Turkey was announced by the National Geographic Society. The find dated back to when King Tutankhamen (Tut, to you) ruled Egypt.
1986 - Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound premiered at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City.
1988 - Former Venezuelan president Carlos Andrés Pérez was declared re-elected on this day.
1991 - Pan American World Airways flew its last flight this day. After years of sacrifices by their employees to save the airline, Pan Am filed for bankruptcy and went out of business. (Pan Am was reincarnated by new owners as a discount carrier in 1996, but went bankrupt again in 1998.)
1993 - Frank Zappa died at his Los Angeles home, shortly before his 53rd birthday (he was born Dec 21, 1940). Zappa led The Mothers of Invention in the 1960s. With that band and/or as a solo performer, he released some 50 albums. Zappa had battled prostate cancer for several years.
1995 - The first rush of a 60,000-strong NATO force surged into Bosnia and Croatia in a peacekeeping mission in the Balkans. The troops arrival came two days after Serb military leader Gen. Ratko Mladic rejected the Dayton peace accord. He demanded a reconsideration of the accord’s transfer of control over Serb areas around Sarajevo to a new Muslim-Croat federation.
1996 - The Mars Pathfinder was launched from Cape Canaveral on a 310 million-mile odyssey to explore the planet’s surface. It had a remote-controlled 22-pound, 6-wheel, roving vehicle to sample Martian soil and rock and send data back beginning on July 4, 1997.
1997 - The National Basketball Association suspended all-star Latrell Sprewell of the Golden State Warriors for one year for choking and threatening to kill his coach, P.J. Carlesimo.
1998 - The remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho opened in U.S. theatres. Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche starred. By 2001, the film had grossed $21.486 million in the U.S. Considering it cost $25 million (plus a heafty marketing campaign), the bottom line is pretty scary for this flick. The original has brought in some $16 million, but cost just $800,000 to make in 1960.
1999 - NASA scientists waited in vain for a signal from the Mars Polar Lander, wondering about the whereabouts of the $165-million probe. (It was later believed that the spacecraft was destroyed after it plunged toward the Red Planet.)
2000 - PepsiCo agreed to pay $13.4 billion to acquire the Quaker Oats Company.
2000 - In a pair of legal setbacks for Al Gore, a Florida state judge refused to overturn George W. Bush’s certified victory in Florida and the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a ruling that had allowed manual recounts.
2001 - The United States froze the financial assets of organizations linked to Hamas, the group that claimed responsibility for deadly suicide attacks in Israel.
2001 - Stepping up reprisals for suicide bombings by Palestinian militants, Israel unleashed air strikes. Three missiles hit near Yasser Arafat’s office as the Palestinian leader worked inside.
2002 - Jesus Antonio Nunez, mayor of the Colombian town of Ambalema, was assassinated, after attending a meeting with the country’s main rebel group. He was the thirteenth Ambalema mayor to be killed that year.
2003 - U.S. President George Bush (II) lifted tariffs on imported steel to averted a trade war with Europe.
2003 - A U.S. poll reported that some 29 million Americans selected ‘none’ for their religious affiliation. The ranks of those shedding organized religion had more than doubled in a decade. (The American Religious Identification Survey of 2001, a telephone survey of 50,000 Americans, was also conducted in 1990.)
2003 - Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants star, told a grand jury that he used a clear substance and a cream supplied by BALCO, but he never thought they were steroids.
2004 - Aspiring high school teacher Maria Julia Mantilla Garcia, Miss Peru, was crowned Miss World in Southern China.
2005 - British news reports claimed that the CIA’s use of Scotland’s airports was part of an alleged CIA operation to transfer terrorist suspects to secret prison camps in Europe. The three airports allegedly involved were Glasgow International, Glasgow Prestwick, and Edinburgh Airport.
2006 - German-born artist Tomma Abts won the Turner Prize. She was the first female painter in the 22-year history of Britain’s controversial modern-art award.
2006 - Bank of New York Co. agreed to take over Mellon Financial Corp. It was a $16.5-billion all-stock deal that created the largest securities servicing company in the world.
2006 - Rescuers found Kati Kim and her two daughters near Grants Pass, OR. They, along with their husband/father James Kim, had been missing for nine days while on a road trip from their home in San Francisco. James, who had set out on foot looking for help on Dec 2, was nowhere to be found. (James Kim, an editor for CNET, was found dead Dec 6, 2006. His body was found less than a mile, separated by a sheer cliff, from where his family’s station wagon was stuck in the snow.)
2007 - The governors of the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon declared emergencies after hurricane-force winds and several inches of rain hit the states. At least four people were killed by the Great Coastal Gale of 2007.
2007 - Census data reported one in five people in Canada in 2006 was born in another country -- the highest proportion since the 1930s.
2008 - Rioting by Jewish settlers spread in the West Bank after Israeli soldiers forcibly removed about 250 extremists from a disputed house in the center of Hebron. Banks in the Gaza Strip shut down to count their dwindling cash.
2008 - Armed robbers (some disguised as women) snatched €85 million ($108 million) worth of diamond rings, necklaces and luxury watches from a posh boutique in Paris. (In June 2009, French police arrested 25 suspects in connection with the robbery and recovered some of the jewelry.)
2009 - Opening in U.S. movie theatres: Across the Hall, with Mike Vogel, Brittany Murphy and Danny Pino; Armored, starring Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne, Skeet Ulrich, Amaury Nolasco, Andre Jamal Kinney, Milo Ventimiglia, Fred Ward and Columbus Short; Brothers, with Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sam Shepard, Mare Winningham, Bailee Madison and Taylor Grace Geare; Everybody’s Fine, starring Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell; Paa, with Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan and Paresh Rawal; The Last Station, starring Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti and Anne-Marie Duff; Transylmania, starring Patrick Cavanaugh, James DeBello, Tony Denman, Paul H. Kim, Jennifer Lyons, Oren Skoog, Irena A. Hoffman, David Steinberg, Musetta Vander, Natalie Garza and Nicole Garza; Until the Light Takes Us, with Varg Vikernes, Fenriz, Harmony Korine and Hellhammer; and Up in the Air, starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Tamala Jones and Chris Lowell.
2009 - Amsterdam City councilwoman Marijke Vos planted a sapling in the Amsterdamse Bos park. It was a descendant of the 150-year-old chestnut tree that once cheered up Anne Frank as her family hid from the Nazis. 149 others trees were to be planted around the world and named for Anne Frank.
2009 - GM and its Chinese partner SAIC announced a joint venture to produce small cars in India.
Birthdays December 4
1795 - Thomas Carlyle
writer: Critical and Miscellaneous Essays; historian; died Feb 5, 1881
1835 - Samuel Butler
author: Erewhon, The Way of All Flesh; died June 18, 1902
1858 - Chester Greenwood
inventor: ear muffs; died Jul 5, 1937
1861 - Lillian Russell (Helen Louise Leonard)
singer, actress: Wild Fire; burlesque: The Great Mogul [1881]; died Jun 6, 1922
1914 - Claude Renoir
cinematographer: The Spy Who Loved Me, The River; son of artist Pierre Renoir; died Sep 5, 1993
1912 - Pappy (Gregory) Boyington
aviator: USMC: commanding officer of WWII Black Sheep Squadron [VMF 214]; received Congressional Medal of Honor; died Jan 11, 1988
1915 - Eddie Heywood Jr.
pianist, composer: Canadian Sunset; died Jan 2, 1989
1921 - Deanna Durbin
actress: Summer Stock, Lady on a Train, 100 Men and a Girl, It Started with Eve, Can’t Help Singing
1928 - Dena Dietrich
actress: The Ropers, The Practice, Karen, Adam’s Rib
1930 - Harvey (Edward) Kuenn
baseball: Detroit Tigers [American League Rookie of the Year: 1953/all-star: 1953-1959], Cleveland Indians [all-star: 1960], SF Giants [World Series: 1962], Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies; manager: Milwaukee Brewers: American League Manager of the Year [1982]; died Feb 28, 1988
1931 - Alex Delvecchio
Hockey Hall of Famer: Detroit Red Wings: Lady Bing Trophy-winner [1959, 1966, 1969]
1933 - Horst Buchholz
actor: Faraway, So Close!, Avalanche Express, Raid on Entebbe, The Savage Bees, Fanny, The Magnificent Seven; died Mar 3, 2003
1934 - Victor French
actor: Choices, Little House on the Prairie, The Other, Spencer’s Mountain, Highway to Heaven, The Hero, Get Smart, Carter Country; died June 15, 1989
1934 - Wink (Winston Conrad) Martindale
TV host: Tic Tac Dough, Can You Top This?; singer?: Deck of Cards
1937 - Max Baer Jr.
actor: The Beverly Hillbillies, Macon County Line; producer: Ode to Billy Joe; son of boxing great Max Baer, Sr.
1940 - John Cale
musician: bass, keyboard, viola, singer: group: The Velvet Underground: The Gift, Sister Ray; solo: Half Past France, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Streets of Laredo
1940 - Freddy Cannon (Frederick Anthony Picariello)
singer: see Boom Boom Day [above]
1941 - Marty Riessen
tennis champion: shares record for most US Open mixed doubles, won by an individual male [4]
1942 - Bob Mosley
musician: bass: group: Moby Grape
1942 - Chris Hillman
musician: guitar, bass, mandolin: groups: The Byrds: Turn! Turn! Turn!; Golden State Boys, Hillmen, Green Grass Group, Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas, Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, Desert Rose Band; solo: LPs: Slippin’ Away, Clear Sailin’, The Hillman, Morning Sky, Desert Rose, Ever Call Ready
1943 - Gary Sabourin
hockey: NHL: SL Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, California Seals, Cleveland Barons
1944 - Dennis Wilson
musician: drums, keyboard; singer: group: The Beach Boys: I Get Around, Help Me Rhonda, Good Vibrations, California Girls, Surfin’ USA, Little Deuce Coupe, Surfer Girl, Be True to Your School; died in drowning accident Dec 28, 1983
1946 - Skip Vanderbundt
football: SF 49ers LB
1948 - Southside Johnny (Lyon)
singer: group: Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes: I Don’t Wanna Go Home, The Fever, This Time It’s for Real, Hearts of Stone
1948 - Randy Vataha
football: Stanford Univ., New England Patriots WR; sports consultant
1949 - Jeff Bridges
actor: White Squall, Wild Bill, Blown Away, The Vanishing, American Heart, The Fisher King, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Starman, Against All Odds, The Last Picture Show, The Company She Keeps, Fearless, Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, Sea Hunt; songwriter; son of actor Lloyd Bridges; brother of actor Beau Bridges
1949 - Pamela Stephenson
Saturday Night Live, Lost Empires, Funny Man, Those Dear Departed, Finders Keepers, Superman III, The Comeback, McManus, Private Collection
1951 - Gary Rossington
musician: guitar: group: Lynyrd Skynyrd: Freebird, Sweet Home Alabama; Rossington Collins band: LPs: Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere, This is the Way
1951 - Patricia Wettig
Emmy Award-winning actress: thirtysomething [1987-88, 1989-90, 1990-91]; Stephen King’s The Langoliers, City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly’s Gold, City Slickers
1955 - Brian Prout
musician: drums: group: Diamond Rio: Meet in the Middle, Mirror Mirror, Mama Don’t Forget to Pray for Me, Norma Jean Riley, Nowhere Bound, In a Week or Two, Oh Me, Oh My Sweet Baby
1956 - Bernard King
basketball: New Jersey Nets, Utah Jazz, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks: led NBA in scoring [32.9 points per game, 1984-85], Washington Bullets; actor: Fast Break, Miami Vice, Ryan’s Hope
1964 - Jonathan Goldstein
actor: Drake & Josh, The Guru Singh-Cinderelli, Tube, The Auteur Theory, Shock Television, Body of Influence 2, Target of Suspicion
1964 - Marisa Tomei
Academy Award-winning actress: My Cousin Vinny [1993]; Chaplin, Oscar, The Paper, Untamed Heart, A Different World, The Flamingo Kid, As the World Turns
1966 - Fred Armisen
comedian, actor: Saturday Night Live, The Post Grad Survival Guide, The Rocker, Baby Mama, Fast Track, Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, Like Mike
1969 - Jay-Z
rapper: Young Forever, Empire State of Mind, Run This Town, Show Me What You Got, Hard Knock Life [Ghetto Anthem], Wishing on a Star; business mogul: co-owner of The 40/40 Club, part-owner of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, creator of the clothing line Rocawear, former CEO of Def Jam Recordings
1970 - Jeff Blake
football [quarterback]: East Carolina Univ; NFL: New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals, New Orleans Saints, Baltimore Ravens, Arizona Cardinals, Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears
1970 - Kevin Sussman
actor: Ugly Betty, Heavy Petting, For Your Consideration, Funny Money, Hitch, Little Black Book, Changing Lanes, Sweet Home Alabama
1972 - Howard Eisley
basketball [guard]: Boston College; NBA: Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns
1972 - Ted Johnson
football [linebacker]: Univ of Colorado; NFL: New England Patriots
1973 - Tyra Banks
actress: Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Higher Learning; model: Cover Girl cosmetics
1973 - Corliss Williamson
basketball [forward]: Univ of Arkansas; NBA: Sacramento Kings, Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers
1984 - Lindsay Felton
actress: Thunder Alley, Stray Dog, The Metro Chase
Chart Toppers December 4
1948Buttons and Bows - Dinah Shore
On a Slow Boat to China - The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Harry Babbitt & Gloria Wood
Hair of Gold, Eyes of Blue - Gordon MacRae
One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart) - Jimmy Wakely
1957Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley
You Send Me - Sam Cooke
My Special Angel - Bobby Helms
Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley
1966Winchester Cathedral - The New Vaudeville Band
Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
Devil with a Blue Dress On & Good Golly Miss Molly - Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
Somebody Likes Me - Eddy Arnold
1975Fly, Robin, Fly - Silver Convention
The Way I Want to Touch You - Captain & Tennille
Let’s Do It Again - The Staple Singers
It’s All in the Movies - Merle Haggard
1984Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!
Out of Touch - Daryl Hall & John Oates
I Feel for You - Chaka Khan
Your Heart’s Not in It - Janie Fricke
1993I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) - Meat Loaf
Again - Janet Jackson
Shoop - Salt-N-Pepa
American Honky-Tonk Bar Association - Garth Brooks
2002Die Another Day - Madonna
Lose Yourself - Eminem
The Game of Love - Santana featuring Michelle Branch
These Days - Rascal Flatts
Happy Birthday Freddy Cannon
