BROWNNOSE
BOOTLICKER
337th day of 2010 - 28 remaining
Friday, December 3, 2010
CONNEE BOSWELL DAY
On this day in 1907, Mr. and Mrs. Boswell of New Orleans were celebrating the birth of their daughter, Connie. They should have known from her melodic cries that she would one day be singin’ the blues. Connie or Connee (a spelling she preferred later in life), who also played several musical instruments, arranged vocals for herself and her two sisters.
Although she was stricken with polio and worked from her wheelchair, she never let this get in the way of being part of her white, jazz-singing trio. The Boswell Sisters’ talent was quickly recognized and by the time Connee was 24 years old, the sisters were doing vaudeville, radio, playing New York’s Paramount Theatre, recording with the Dorsey Brothers: You Oughta Be in Pictures; making films and appearing on the U.S.A.’s first public TV broadcast.
One thing led to another and Connie went solo, entertaining World War II troops, making films, appearing on Broadway and recording with big names like Woody Herman; even a duet classic with Bing Crosby: Basin Street Blues. Her musical influence spanned many generations and music styles. If you’d have asked Ella, she would have told you, “They just don’t make ’em like Connee Boswell anymore.”
Events December 3
1818 - Illinois (from an American Indian word meaning ‘tribe of superior men’) is the name of the 21st state to enter the United States of America. Many superior men have hailed from Illinois, the most famous being Abraham Lincoln. The ‘Illinois rail-splitter’ is buried in the city where he was married and began his legal career, Springfield, the capital of Illinois. Also known as the Prairie State, Illinois calls the tiny, but beautiful violet, the state flower, while state Bird honors were bestowed on the brightly colored cardinal.
1833 - Oberlin College in Ohio started classes as the first coed institution of higher learning in the United States. Looking at the school’s registration, one would have found a total of 44 students enrolled: 29 men and 15 women.
1903 - King Camp Gillette filed an application for a patent on his ‘safety razor’. It had a double-edged disposable blade.
1922 - The first successful Technicolor motion picture, The Toll of the Sea, was shown at the Rialto Theatre in New York City.
1925 - The first jazz concerto for piano and orchestra was presented at Carnegie Hall in NYC. Commissioned by Walter Damrosch, American composer George Gershwin presented Concerto In F, and was also the featured soloist playing a flugelhorn in a slow, bluesy style as one of his numbers.
1931 - Miles Laboratories introduced Alka-Seltzer. The combination of aspirin and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) was developed to combat colds. The fizzy stuff has since become famous for helping combat the effects of hangovers and headaches in general.
1944 - Frank Sinatra was in the Columbia Records studio recording Old Man River.
1944 - The U.S. 95th Infantry Division crossed the Saar River (near Saarlautern) in assault boats. The troops secured the main bridge on the Saar without firing a shot.
1948 - The Chinese passenger ship Kiangya, carrying refugees fleeing Communist troops during civil war, struck an old mine. The mine exploded, and the ship sank off Shanghai. Over 2,750 people are believed to have been killed. An estimated 700 survived.
1953 - Kismet opened on Broadway in New York. The show ran for 583 performances.
1955 - Elvis Presley’s first release on RCA Victor Records was announced. No, it wasn’t Hound Dog or Heartbreak Hotel. The first two sides were actually purchased from Sam Phillips of Sun Records: Mystery Train and I Forgot to Remember to Forget. Elvis was described by his new record company as “The most talked about personality in recorded music in the last 10 years.”
1960 - Camelot opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York City. Richard Burton and Julie Andrews played the leading roles in the musical written by Lerner and Loewe. Robert Goulet also got rave reviews. Camelot had a run of 873 performances. Broadway went Hollywood in the 1967 film version of Camelot. Its run was not quite as successful.
1962 - Edith Spurlock Sampson was sworn in as the first black woman judge in the United States. She was elected associate judge of the Municipal Court in Chicago. (In 1950 Sampson had become the first African-American to serve on the U.S. delegation to the United Nations.)
1967 - The world’s first successful heart transplant was performed. Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the operation at Cape Town, South Africa.
1968 - The rules committee of major-league baseball announced that in 1969 the pitcher’s mound would be lowered from 15 to 10 inches in order to “get more batting action.” What they didn’t know at the time was that batters would get taller in 1969...
1968 - The O’Kaysions received a gold record for Girl Watcher. The song had a promotional reprise in the 1990s as a theme for Merv Griffin’s Wheel of Fortune -- with the revamped lyrics, “I’m a Wheel Watcher...”
1977 - After 29 weeks in the #1 position on the album charts (a record, literally...), Rumours, by Fleetwood Mac, was replaced at the top spot by the album Simple Dreams, sung by Linda Ronstadt.
1978 - Mommie Dearest hit the best-seller list. The ‘poison-penned’ book, by Christina Crawford, the adopted daughter of movie-star Joan Crawford, stayed on the list for 42 weeks.
1979 - Eleven people were killed when thousands of rock fans jammed the entrances to get to unreserved seats at the Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio for a performance by The Who. Most cities have since banned first-come, first-served seating.
1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center removed the respirator of Barney Clark, one day after the retired dentist became the world’s first recipient of a permanent artificial heart. Clark survived with the artificial heart for over three months. He died on March 23, 1983.
1983 - In his final season as head basketball coach of the DePaul Blue Demons, Ray Meyer won game #700.
1984 - Miss America 1971, Phyllis George, wife of the Governor of Kentucky and an heiress to the Kentucky Fried Chicken fortune, signed a multiyear contract with CBS-TV. Her work as coanchor of the CBS Morning News began in January 1985.
1984 - The world’s worst industrial accident occurred when gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. The deadly gas, methyl isocyanate, killed over two thousand people, and injured more than 200,000.
1988 - Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State University won the Heisman Trophy.
1990 - A Northwest Airlines DC-9 collided on the ground with a Northwest Boeing 727 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Eight people were killed in the resulting fire.
1991 - Embattled White House chief of staff John H. Sununu resigned -- and was replaced by Samuel K. Skinner.
1992 - The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-led military mission to help starving Somalia.
1992 - The Greek tanker Aegean Sea spilled 21.5 million gallons of crude oil when it ran aground off La Coruna, Spain.
1993 - Great Britain’s Princess Diana, saying she was fed up with media intrusions, announced she would be limiting her public appearances.
1994 - On Bended Knee, by Boyz II Men, hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The smash was #1, off and on, thru January 1995.
1996 - A judge in Hawaii ruled that the state had to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, prompting an appeal -- and an eventual vote outlawing of the practice.
1997 - It was reported that former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, Edward J. DeBartolo, owner of the SF 49ers, and three others were to be indicted for alleged fraud. DeBartolo had offered to pay the governor as much as $400,000 for a riverboat casino license.
1998 - A four-day conference in Washington, attended by 44 countries, the Vatican and over a dozen Jewish organizations, produced guidelines for documenting Nazi plunder to resolve claims on confiscated art.
1999 - After rowing 2,962 miles in 81 days, Tori Murden of the United States eased her 23-foot boat, American Pearl, to the dock at Fort-du-Bas on the French Carribean island of Guadeloupe. She had just rowed across the Atlantic Ocean. Astonishingly, Murden appeared relaxed, even radiant, as she stood up to toss out a rope. “Next time, the Concorde,” she quipped, as she bounded out of the boat.
1999 - Billionaire banker Edmond Safra suffocated in a smoke-filled bathroom in his Monaco apartment. American nurse Ted Maher later confessed to setting the fire that killed the 67-year-old Safra.
1999 - Six firefighters died while battling a fire in an abandoned Worcester, MA industrial building.
2000 - Poet Gwendolyn Brooks died at the age of 83. Brooks won a 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Annie Allen, her second book of poetry. She had been the poet laureate of Illinois since 1968.
2001 - In the wake of suicide attacks that killed 26 Israelis, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared war on terror. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was blamed for not stopping the attacks.
2002 - Thousands of personnel files released under a court order showed that the Archdiocese of Boston went to great lengths to hide priests accused of abuse, including clergy who allegedly snorted cocaine and had sex with girls aspiring to be nuns.
2003 - A Colorado state judge in Denver declared a school voucher plan to be unconstitutional. Opponents objected to giving state support to religious schools and predicted the plan would undermine public education by siphoning off students their tax dollars.
2004 - Closer opened in U.S. theatres. The drama stars Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Clive Owen.
2004 - Tommy G. Thompson resigned as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services as he expressed concern over the threat of global flu and the possibility of a terrorist attack on the U.S. food supply.
2005 - Montreal: Some 40,000 people protested inaction on global warming. The demonstration, held as part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, was one of the largest environmental protests ever and was accompanied by marches worldwide.
2006 - Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez won reelection over challenger Manuel Rosales governor of the western state of Zulia). Chavez won 63% of the vote, to 37% for Rosales.
2007 - The U.S. national debt was expanding by about $1.4 billion a day, or nearly $1 million per minute.
2007 - Artist Mark Wallinger won Britain’s prestigious Turner Prize for a fiercely anti-war exhibit based on a lone protester's six-year vigil outside British parliament.
2008 - 94 nations signed a treaty in Norway that banned cluster bombs. The move was intended to shame the U.S., Russia and China into abandoning weapons blamed for maiming and killing civilians. Norway, which began the drive to ban cluster bombs, was the first to sign, followed by Laos and Lebanon, both hard-hit by the weapons.
2009 - Comcast Corp. announced plans to buy a majority stake in NBC Universal for $13.75 billion. The deal would give Comcast, the largest U.S. cable TV operator, control of the NBC TV network, an array of cable channels and the Universal Pictures movie studio.
2009 - Pope Benedict XVI and visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to renew Vatican-Kremlin relations to include full diplomatic ties.
2010 - Movies opening in U.S. theatres: All Good Things, starring Ryan Gosling, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kirsten Dunst, Kristen Wiig and Frank Langella; Applause, with Paprika Steen, Michael Falch, Sara-Marie Maltha, Shanti Roney and Steen Rieks; Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Winona Ryder, Vincent Cassel and Barbara Hershey; Dead Awake, with Nick Stahl, Rose McGowan, Amy Smart, Ben Marten and Kim Grimaldi; I Love You Phillip Morris, starring Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro and Ted Alderman; Meskada, with Nick Stahl, Rachel Nichols, Kellan Lutz, Jonathan Tucker and Grace Gummer; Night Catches Us, with Kerry Washington, Novella Nelson, Anthony Mackie, Wendell Pierce and Jamie Hector; Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, starring Tommi Korpela, Per Christian Ellefsen, Jorma Tommila, Jonathan Hutchings and Peeter Jakobi; and The Warrior’s Way, with Geoffrey Rush, Kate Bosworth, Danny Huston, Dong-gun Jang and Tony Cox.
Birthdays December 3
1755 - Gilbert Stuart
artist: portraits of George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, etc.; died July 9, 1828
1838 - Cleveland Abbe
meteorologist: first U.S. Weather Bureau meteorologist; died Oct 28, 1916
1857 - Joseph Conrad (Józef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski)
author: Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness; died Aug 3, 1924
1907 - Connee Boswell
singer: died Oct 11, 1976; see Connee Boswell Day [above]
1922 - Tom Fears
Pro Football Hall of Famer: Los Angeles Rams: 400 catches for 5,397 yards, scored 38 touchdowns; died Jan 4, 2000
1922 - Sven Nykvist
cinematographer: Something to Talk About, Sleepless in Seattle, Chaplin, New York Stories, Agnes of God, The Postman Always Rings Twice; died Sep 20, 2006
1925 - Harry (Leon) ‘Suitcase’ ‘Goody’ Simpson
baseball: Cleveland Indians, KC Athletics [all-star: 1956], NY Yankees [World Series: 1957], Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates; died Apr 3, 1979
1927 - Phyllis Curtin
singer: soprano: New York City Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, La Scala, Teatro Colon; coordinator of Voice Dept and Opera at Yale School of Music, Dean Emerita of Boston Univ School for the Arts
1927 - Ferlin Husky (aka: Simon Crum, Terry Preston)
singer: Gone, A Fallen Star, Wings of a Dove, The Waltz You Saved for Me
1927 - Andy Williams
Emmy Award-winning entertainer: The Andy Williams Show [1962-63]; singer: Can’t Get Used to Losing You, [Where Do I Begin] Love Story, Days of Wine and Roses, Canadian Sunset, Moon River, Born Free, Butterfly, I Like Your Kind of Love [w/Peggy Powers], Are You Sincere, Lonely Street, In the Village of St. Bernadette
1930 - Jean-Luc Godard
producer, writer, director: Breathless, Weekend, Hail Mary, King Lear, A Married Woman
1931 - Jaye P. (Mary Margaret) Morgan
singer: That’s All I Want from You, The Longest Walk; performer: Stop the Music, Perry Presents, The Chuck Barris Rah Rah Show, The Jaye P. Morgan Show; panelist: The Gong Show
1933 - Nicolas Coster
actor: The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard In Hollywood, Love Happens, Full Circle, Betsy’s Wedding, Big Business, Beverly Hills Madam
1933 - Les Crane
TV talk host: The Les Crane Show; Grammy-winning [Best Spoken Word, 1971] narrator: Desiderata; died Jul 13, 2008
1936 - Clay (Clayton Errol) Dalrymple
baseball: catcher: Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles [World Series: 1969]
1937 - Bobby Allison
International Motorsports Hall of Famer: Daytona 500 winner [1978, 1982, 1988], oldest Daytona 500 winner [1988]
1947 - (Ronald) Wayne Garrett
baseball: NY Mets [World Series: 1969, 1973], Montreal Expos, SL Cardinals
1948 - Ozzy (John) Osbourne
songwriter, singer: groups: Rare Breed, Black Sabbath: Paranoid; solo: Blizzard of Oz; dead bat-head biter
1949 - Mickey Thomas
singer: Alive Alone, group: Jefferson Starship: We Built this City, Sara
1951 - Mike Bantom
basketball: St. Joseph’s Univ., 1972 USA Olympic Men’s Team, Phoenix Suns
1951 - Samantha Fox (Stasia Therese Angela Micula)
actress: X-rated films: Swedish Sorority Girls, Dr. Love and His House of Perversions, That Lucky Stiff, This Lady is a Tramp, The Devil in Miss Jones, Part II, The Story of X
1951 - Rick Mears
auto racer: Indy 500 winner [1979, 1984, 1988, 1991]; Rookie of the Year [1976]; Roger Penske racing team
1952 - Larry Anderson
baseball: pitcher: Milwaukee Brewers Chicago White Sox
1952 - Don Barnes
musician: guitar; singer: group: .38 Special: Hold on Loosely, Caught Up to You, You Keep Runnin’ Away, Chain Lightnin’, Teacher, Teacher, Back to Paradise, Second Chance, The Sound of Your Voice
1955 - Melody Anderson
actress: Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair, Landslide, Hitler’s Daughter, Final Notice, Speed Zone, Firewalker, Beverly Hills Madam, Policewoman Centerfold, Dead and Buried, flash Gordon, Manimal
1960 - Daryl Hannah
actress: The Fury, Splash, Steel Magnolias, Blade Runner, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Roxanne, Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, Grumpier Old Men, Diplomatic Siege, Dancing at the Blue Iguana
1960 - Igor Larionov
hockey: Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Sharks, Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils
1960 - Julianne Moore
actress: As the World Turns, The Fugitive, Jurassic Park, The Forgotten, Laws of Attraction, The Hours, Far from Heaven, The Shipping News, Evolution, Hannibal
1964 - Darryl Hamilton
baseball [outfield]: Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers, San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies, New York Mets
1965 - Barbara Garrick
actress: Tales of the City, Lobster Farm, Far from Heaven, Pollock, Mary and Rhoda, Miami Rhapsody
1965 - Katarina Witt
Emmy Award-winning performer: Carmen On Ice [1989-90]; Olympic Gold Medalist ice skater
1968 - Brendan Fraser
actor: The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, George of the Jungle, Encino Man, The Quiet American
1969 - Kwamie Lassiter
football [safety]: Univ of Kansas; NFL: Arizona Cardinals, San Diego Chargers, St. Louis Rams
1970 - Paul Byrd
baseball [pitcher]: Louisiana State Univ; New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, Kansas City Royals, LA Angels
1970 - Lindsey Hunter
basketball [guard]: Alcorn State Univ, Jackson State Univ; NBA: Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors
1973 - Holly Marie Combs
actress: Picket Fences, Chain of Desire, A Reason to Believe, Daughters, Ocean’s Eleven
1975 - Malinda Williams
actress: Soul Food, Nailed, Daddy’s Little Girls, Dancing in September, Laurel Avenue
1976 - Gary Glover
baseball [pitcher]: Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago White Sox, Anaheim Angels, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays
1976 - Cornelius Griffin
football [DT]: Univ of Alabama; NFL: New York Giants, Washington Redskins
1977 - Chad Durbin
baseball [pitcher]: Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Indians, Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers
1977 - Cristi Harris
actress: Sunset Beach, Passions, Star Quality, Lurid Tales: The Castle Queen, Night of the Scarecrow, Kiss of Death, Night of the Demons 2
1979 - Daniel Bedingfield
singer: Gotta Get Thru This, If You’re Not the One, Never Gonna Leave Your Side, Wrap My Words Around You, Friday, I Can’t Read You
1980 - Anna Chlumsky
actress: My Girl, My Girl 2, A Child’s Wish, Miracle in the Woods
1981 - Brian Bonsall
actor: Family Ties, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Father and Scout, Lily in Winter, Father Hood, Desperate Motives
Chart Toppers December 3
1947You Do - Dinah Shore
Near You - The Francis Craig Orchestra (vocal: Bob Lamm)
The Whiffenpoof Song - Bing Crosby
I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms) - Eddy Arnold
1956Love Me Tender - Elvis Presley
Cindy, Oh Cindy - Eddie Fisher
Hey! Jealous Lover - Frank Sinatra
Singing the Blues - Marty Robbins
1965I Hear a Symphony - The Supremes
Turn! Turn! Turn! - The Byrds
Let’s Hang On! - The 4 Seasons
May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose - "Little" Jimmy ****ens
1974I Can Help - Billy Swan
Kung Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas
When Will I See You Again - The Three Degrees
Back Home Again - John Denver
1983All Night Long (All Night) - Lionel Richie
Say Say Say - Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson
Uptown Girl - Billy Joel
A Little Good News - Anne Murray
1992I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
Rump Shaker - Wreckx-N-Effect
Rhythm is a Dancer - Snap!
I’m in a Hurry (And Don’t Know Why) - Alabama
2001Family Affair - Mary J. Blige
Hero - Enrique Iglesias
Drowning - Backstreet Boys
I Wanna Talk About Me - Toby Keith
ENJOY ALL
Chart Topper December 3rd, 1992...I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
Friday, December 3, 2010
CONNEE BOSWELL DAY
On this day in 1907, Mr. and Mrs. Boswell of New Orleans were celebrating the birth of their daughter, Connie. They should have known from her melodic cries that she would one day be singin’ the blues. Connie or Connee (a spelling she preferred later in life), who also played several musical instruments, arranged vocals for herself and her two sisters.
Although she was stricken with polio and worked from her wheelchair, she never let this get in the way of being part of her white, jazz-singing trio. The Boswell Sisters’ talent was quickly recognized and by the time Connee was 24 years old, the sisters were doing vaudeville, radio, playing New York’s Paramount Theatre, recording with the Dorsey Brothers: You Oughta Be in Pictures; making films and appearing on the U.S.A.’s first public TV broadcast.
One thing led to another and Connie went solo, entertaining World War II troops, making films, appearing on Broadway and recording with big names like Woody Herman; even a duet classic with Bing Crosby: Basin Street Blues. Her musical influence spanned many generations and music styles. If you’d have asked Ella, she would have told you, “They just don’t make ’em like Connee Boswell anymore.”
Events December 3
1818 - Illinois (from an American Indian word meaning ‘tribe of superior men’) is the name of the 21st state to enter the United States of America. Many superior men have hailed from Illinois, the most famous being Abraham Lincoln. The ‘Illinois rail-splitter’ is buried in the city where he was married and began his legal career, Springfield, the capital of Illinois. Also known as the Prairie State, Illinois calls the tiny, but beautiful violet, the state flower, while state Bird honors were bestowed on the brightly colored cardinal.
1833 - Oberlin College in Ohio started classes as the first coed institution of higher learning in the United States. Looking at the school’s registration, one would have found a total of 44 students enrolled: 29 men and 15 women.
1903 - King Camp Gillette filed an application for a patent on his ‘safety razor’. It had a double-edged disposable blade.
1922 - The first successful Technicolor motion picture, The Toll of the Sea, was shown at the Rialto Theatre in New York City.
1925 - The first jazz concerto for piano and orchestra was presented at Carnegie Hall in NYC. Commissioned by Walter Damrosch, American composer George Gershwin presented Concerto In F, and was also the featured soloist playing a flugelhorn in a slow, bluesy style as one of his numbers.
1931 - Miles Laboratories introduced Alka-Seltzer. The combination of aspirin and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) was developed to combat colds. The fizzy stuff has since become famous for helping combat the effects of hangovers and headaches in general.
1944 - Frank Sinatra was in the Columbia Records studio recording Old Man River.
1944 - The U.S. 95th Infantry Division crossed the Saar River (near Saarlautern) in assault boats. The troops secured the main bridge on the Saar without firing a shot.
1948 - The Chinese passenger ship Kiangya, carrying refugees fleeing Communist troops during civil war, struck an old mine. The mine exploded, and the ship sank off Shanghai. Over 2,750 people are believed to have been killed. An estimated 700 survived.
1953 - Kismet opened on Broadway in New York. The show ran for 583 performances.
1955 - Elvis Presley’s first release on RCA Victor Records was announced. No, it wasn’t Hound Dog or Heartbreak Hotel. The first two sides were actually purchased from Sam Phillips of Sun Records: Mystery Train and I Forgot to Remember to Forget. Elvis was described by his new record company as “The most talked about personality in recorded music in the last 10 years.”
1960 - Camelot opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York City. Richard Burton and Julie Andrews played the leading roles in the musical written by Lerner and Loewe. Robert Goulet also got rave reviews. Camelot had a run of 873 performances. Broadway went Hollywood in the 1967 film version of Camelot. Its run was not quite as successful.
1962 - Edith Spurlock Sampson was sworn in as the first black woman judge in the United States. She was elected associate judge of the Municipal Court in Chicago. (In 1950 Sampson had become the first African-American to serve on the U.S. delegation to the United Nations.)
1967 - The world’s first successful heart transplant was performed. Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the operation at Cape Town, South Africa.
1968 - The rules committee of major-league baseball announced that in 1969 the pitcher’s mound would be lowered from 15 to 10 inches in order to “get more batting action.” What they didn’t know at the time was that batters would get taller in 1969...
1968 - The O’Kaysions received a gold record for Girl Watcher. The song had a promotional reprise in the 1990s as a theme for Merv Griffin’s Wheel of Fortune -- with the revamped lyrics, “I’m a Wheel Watcher...”
1977 - After 29 weeks in the #1 position on the album charts (a record, literally...), Rumours, by Fleetwood Mac, was replaced at the top spot by the album Simple Dreams, sung by Linda Ronstadt.
1978 - Mommie Dearest hit the best-seller list. The ‘poison-penned’ book, by Christina Crawford, the adopted daughter of movie-star Joan Crawford, stayed on the list for 42 weeks.
1979 - Eleven people were killed when thousands of rock fans jammed the entrances to get to unreserved seats at the Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio for a performance by The Who. Most cities have since banned first-come, first-served seating.
1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center removed the respirator of Barney Clark, one day after the retired dentist became the world’s first recipient of a permanent artificial heart. Clark survived with the artificial heart for over three months. He died on March 23, 1983.
1983 - In his final season as head basketball coach of the DePaul Blue Demons, Ray Meyer won game #700.
1984 - Miss America 1971, Phyllis George, wife of the Governor of Kentucky and an heiress to the Kentucky Fried Chicken fortune, signed a multiyear contract with CBS-TV. Her work as coanchor of the CBS Morning News began in January 1985.
1984 - The world’s worst industrial accident occurred when gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. The deadly gas, methyl isocyanate, killed over two thousand people, and injured more than 200,000.
1988 - Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State University won the Heisman Trophy.
1990 - A Northwest Airlines DC-9 collided on the ground with a Northwest Boeing 727 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Eight people were killed in the resulting fire.
1991 - Embattled White House chief of staff John H. Sununu resigned -- and was replaced by Samuel K. Skinner.
1992 - The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-led military mission to help starving Somalia.
1992 - The Greek tanker Aegean Sea spilled 21.5 million gallons of crude oil when it ran aground off La Coruna, Spain.
1993 - Great Britain’s Princess Diana, saying she was fed up with media intrusions, announced she would be limiting her public appearances.
1994 - On Bended Knee, by Boyz II Men, hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The smash was #1, off and on, thru January 1995.
1996 - A judge in Hawaii ruled that the state had to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, prompting an appeal -- and an eventual vote outlawing of the practice.
1997 - It was reported that former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, Edward J. DeBartolo, owner of the SF 49ers, and three others were to be indicted for alleged fraud. DeBartolo had offered to pay the governor as much as $400,000 for a riverboat casino license.
1998 - A four-day conference in Washington, attended by 44 countries, the Vatican and over a dozen Jewish organizations, produced guidelines for documenting Nazi plunder to resolve claims on confiscated art.
1999 - After rowing 2,962 miles in 81 days, Tori Murden of the United States eased her 23-foot boat, American Pearl, to the dock at Fort-du-Bas on the French Carribean island of Guadeloupe. She had just rowed across the Atlantic Ocean. Astonishingly, Murden appeared relaxed, even radiant, as she stood up to toss out a rope. “Next time, the Concorde,” she quipped, as she bounded out of the boat.
1999 - Billionaire banker Edmond Safra suffocated in a smoke-filled bathroom in his Monaco apartment. American nurse Ted Maher later confessed to setting the fire that killed the 67-year-old Safra.
1999 - Six firefighters died while battling a fire in an abandoned Worcester, MA industrial building.
2000 - Poet Gwendolyn Brooks died at the age of 83. Brooks won a 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Annie Allen, her second book of poetry. She had been the poet laureate of Illinois since 1968.
2001 - In the wake of suicide attacks that killed 26 Israelis, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared war on terror. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was blamed for not stopping the attacks.
2002 - Thousands of personnel files released under a court order showed that the Archdiocese of Boston went to great lengths to hide priests accused of abuse, including clergy who allegedly snorted cocaine and had sex with girls aspiring to be nuns.
2003 - A Colorado state judge in Denver declared a school voucher plan to be unconstitutional. Opponents objected to giving state support to religious schools and predicted the plan would undermine public education by siphoning off students their tax dollars.
2004 - Closer opened in U.S. theatres. The drama stars Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Clive Owen.
2004 - Tommy G. Thompson resigned as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services as he expressed concern over the threat of global flu and the possibility of a terrorist attack on the U.S. food supply.
2005 - Montreal: Some 40,000 people protested inaction on global warming. The demonstration, held as part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, was one of the largest environmental protests ever and was accompanied by marches worldwide.
2006 - Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez won reelection over challenger Manuel Rosales governor of the western state of Zulia). Chavez won 63% of the vote, to 37% for Rosales.
2007 - The U.S. national debt was expanding by about $1.4 billion a day, or nearly $1 million per minute.
2007 - Artist Mark Wallinger won Britain’s prestigious Turner Prize for a fiercely anti-war exhibit based on a lone protester's six-year vigil outside British parliament.
2008 - 94 nations signed a treaty in Norway that banned cluster bombs. The move was intended to shame the U.S., Russia and China into abandoning weapons blamed for maiming and killing civilians. Norway, which began the drive to ban cluster bombs, was the first to sign, followed by Laos and Lebanon, both hard-hit by the weapons.
2009 - Comcast Corp. announced plans to buy a majority stake in NBC Universal for $13.75 billion. The deal would give Comcast, the largest U.S. cable TV operator, control of the NBC TV network, an array of cable channels and the Universal Pictures movie studio.
2009 - Pope Benedict XVI and visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to renew Vatican-Kremlin relations to include full diplomatic ties.
2010 - Movies opening in U.S. theatres: All Good Things, starring Ryan Gosling, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kirsten Dunst, Kristen Wiig and Frank Langella; Applause, with Paprika Steen, Michael Falch, Sara-Marie Maltha, Shanti Roney and Steen Rieks; Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Winona Ryder, Vincent Cassel and Barbara Hershey; Dead Awake, with Nick Stahl, Rose McGowan, Amy Smart, Ben Marten and Kim Grimaldi; I Love You Phillip Morris, starring Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro and Ted Alderman; Meskada, with Nick Stahl, Rachel Nichols, Kellan Lutz, Jonathan Tucker and Grace Gummer; Night Catches Us, with Kerry Washington, Novella Nelson, Anthony Mackie, Wendell Pierce and Jamie Hector; Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, starring Tommi Korpela, Per Christian Ellefsen, Jorma Tommila, Jonathan Hutchings and Peeter Jakobi; and The Warrior’s Way, with Geoffrey Rush, Kate Bosworth, Danny Huston, Dong-gun Jang and Tony Cox.
Birthdays December 3
1755 - Gilbert Stuart
artist: portraits of George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, etc.; died July 9, 1828
1838 - Cleveland Abbe
meteorologist: first U.S. Weather Bureau meteorologist; died Oct 28, 1916
1857 - Joseph Conrad (Józef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski)
author: Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness; died Aug 3, 1924
1907 - Connee Boswell
singer: died Oct 11, 1976; see Connee Boswell Day [above]
1922 - Tom Fears
Pro Football Hall of Famer: Los Angeles Rams: 400 catches for 5,397 yards, scored 38 touchdowns; died Jan 4, 2000
1922 - Sven Nykvist
cinematographer: Something to Talk About, Sleepless in Seattle, Chaplin, New York Stories, Agnes of God, The Postman Always Rings Twice; died Sep 20, 2006
1925 - Harry (Leon) ‘Suitcase’ ‘Goody’ Simpson
baseball: Cleveland Indians, KC Athletics [all-star: 1956], NY Yankees [World Series: 1957], Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates; died Apr 3, 1979
1927 - Phyllis Curtin
singer: soprano: New York City Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, La Scala, Teatro Colon; coordinator of Voice Dept and Opera at Yale School of Music, Dean Emerita of Boston Univ School for the Arts
1927 - Ferlin Husky (aka: Simon Crum, Terry Preston)
singer: Gone, A Fallen Star, Wings of a Dove, The Waltz You Saved for Me
1927 - Andy Williams
Emmy Award-winning entertainer: The Andy Williams Show [1962-63]; singer: Can’t Get Used to Losing You, [Where Do I Begin] Love Story, Days of Wine and Roses, Canadian Sunset, Moon River, Born Free, Butterfly, I Like Your Kind of Love [w/Peggy Powers], Are You Sincere, Lonely Street, In the Village of St. Bernadette
1930 - Jean-Luc Godard
producer, writer, director: Breathless, Weekend, Hail Mary, King Lear, A Married Woman
1931 - Jaye P. (Mary Margaret) Morgan
singer: That’s All I Want from You, The Longest Walk; performer: Stop the Music, Perry Presents, The Chuck Barris Rah Rah Show, The Jaye P. Morgan Show; panelist: The Gong Show
1933 - Nicolas Coster
actor: The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard In Hollywood, Love Happens, Full Circle, Betsy’s Wedding, Big Business, Beverly Hills Madam
1933 - Les Crane
TV talk host: The Les Crane Show; Grammy-winning [Best Spoken Word, 1971] narrator: Desiderata; died Jul 13, 2008
1936 - Clay (Clayton Errol) Dalrymple
baseball: catcher: Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles [World Series: 1969]
1937 - Bobby Allison
International Motorsports Hall of Famer: Daytona 500 winner [1978, 1982, 1988], oldest Daytona 500 winner [1988]
1947 - (Ronald) Wayne Garrett
baseball: NY Mets [World Series: 1969, 1973], Montreal Expos, SL Cardinals
1948 - Ozzy (John) Osbourne
songwriter, singer: groups: Rare Breed, Black Sabbath: Paranoid; solo: Blizzard of Oz; dead bat-head biter
1949 - Mickey Thomas
singer: Alive Alone, group: Jefferson Starship: We Built this City, Sara
1951 - Mike Bantom
basketball: St. Joseph’s Univ., 1972 USA Olympic Men’s Team, Phoenix Suns
1951 - Samantha Fox (Stasia Therese Angela Micula)
actress: X-rated films: Swedish Sorority Girls, Dr. Love and His House of Perversions, That Lucky Stiff, This Lady is a Tramp, The Devil in Miss Jones, Part II, The Story of X
1951 - Rick Mears
auto racer: Indy 500 winner [1979, 1984, 1988, 1991]; Rookie of the Year [1976]; Roger Penske racing team
1952 - Larry Anderson
baseball: pitcher: Milwaukee Brewers Chicago White Sox
1952 - Don Barnes
musician: guitar; singer: group: .38 Special: Hold on Loosely, Caught Up to You, You Keep Runnin’ Away, Chain Lightnin’, Teacher, Teacher, Back to Paradise, Second Chance, The Sound of Your Voice
1955 - Melody Anderson
actress: Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair, Landslide, Hitler’s Daughter, Final Notice, Speed Zone, Firewalker, Beverly Hills Madam, Policewoman Centerfold, Dead and Buried, flash Gordon, Manimal
1960 - Daryl Hannah
actress: The Fury, Splash, Steel Magnolias, Blade Runner, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Roxanne, Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, Grumpier Old Men, Diplomatic Siege, Dancing at the Blue Iguana
1960 - Igor Larionov
hockey: Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Sharks, Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils
1960 - Julianne Moore
actress: As the World Turns, The Fugitive, Jurassic Park, The Forgotten, Laws of Attraction, The Hours, Far from Heaven, The Shipping News, Evolution, Hannibal
1964 - Darryl Hamilton
baseball [outfield]: Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers, San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies, New York Mets
1965 - Barbara Garrick
actress: Tales of the City, Lobster Farm, Far from Heaven, Pollock, Mary and Rhoda, Miami Rhapsody
1965 - Katarina Witt
Emmy Award-winning performer: Carmen On Ice [1989-90]; Olympic Gold Medalist ice skater
1968 - Brendan Fraser
actor: The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, George of the Jungle, Encino Man, The Quiet American
1969 - Kwamie Lassiter
football [safety]: Univ of Kansas; NFL: Arizona Cardinals, San Diego Chargers, St. Louis Rams
1970 - Paul Byrd
baseball [pitcher]: Louisiana State Univ; New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, Kansas City Royals, LA Angels
1970 - Lindsey Hunter
basketball [guard]: Alcorn State Univ, Jackson State Univ; NBA: Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors
1973 - Holly Marie Combs
actress: Picket Fences, Chain of Desire, A Reason to Believe, Daughters, Ocean’s Eleven
1975 - Malinda Williams
actress: Soul Food, Nailed, Daddy’s Little Girls, Dancing in September, Laurel Avenue
1976 - Gary Glover
baseball [pitcher]: Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago White Sox, Anaheim Angels, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays
1976 - Cornelius Griffin
football [DT]: Univ of Alabama; NFL: New York Giants, Washington Redskins
1977 - Chad Durbin
baseball [pitcher]: Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Indians, Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers
1977 - Cristi Harris
actress: Sunset Beach, Passions, Star Quality, Lurid Tales: The Castle Queen, Night of the Scarecrow, Kiss of Death, Night of the Demons 2
1979 - Daniel Bedingfield
singer: Gotta Get Thru This, If You’re Not the One, Never Gonna Leave Your Side, Wrap My Words Around You, Friday, I Can’t Read You
1980 - Anna Chlumsky
actress: My Girl, My Girl 2, A Child’s Wish, Miracle in the Woods
1981 - Brian Bonsall
actor: Family Ties, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Father and Scout, Lily in Winter, Father Hood, Desperate Motives
Chart Toppers December 3
1947You Do - Dinah Shore
Near You - The Francis Craig Orchestra (vocal: Bob Lamm)
The Whiffenpoof Song - Bing Crosby
I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms) - Eddy Arnold
1956Love Me Tender - Elvis Presley
Cindy, Oh Cindy - Eddie Fisher
Hey! Jealous Lover - Frank Sinatra
Singing the Blues - Marty Robbins
1965I Hear a Symphony - The Supremes
Turn! Turn! Turn! - The Byrds
Let’s Hang On! - The 4 Seasons
May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose - "Little" Jimmy ****ens
1974I Can Help - Billy Swan
Kung Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas
When Will I See You Again - The Three Degrees
Back Home Again - John Denver
1983All Night Long (All Night) - Lionel Richie
Say Say Say - Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson
Uptown Girl - Billy Joel
A Little Good News - Anne Murray
1992I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
Rump Shaker - Wreckx-N-Effect
Rhythm is a Dancer - Snap!
I’m in a Hurry (And Don’t Know Why) - Alabama
2001Family Affair - Mary J. Blige
Hero - Enrique Iglesias
Drowning - Backstreet Boys
I Wanna Talk About Me - Toby Keith
ENJOY ALL
Chart Topper December 3rd, 1992...I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston