Today in History

[Swing Girl]

1939: Frank Sinatra made his first commercial recording, 'From the Bottom of My Heart' and 'Melancholy Mood,' with Harry James and his Orchestra for the Brunswick label.

Cool! I've been listening to a ton of Frank Sinatra lately, so that's nice to know.

 

[Tiki Tom]

“Frank Sinatra has a once in a lifetime voice. Why’d it have to be in my lifetime?” —Bing Crosby

 

[Harp]

^Billy Eckstein and Vic Damone come immediately to mind.

Any thing and every thing Eckstein did became the definitive version, and he is only male singer
that I can think of who took a woman's signature song, Doris Day's Secret Love and improved upon it.

And Damone was just wonderful.

Frank's okay. But okey-doke and a similar style, not all that much more.

 

[Swing Girl]

“Frank Sinatra has a once in a lifetime voice. Why’d it have to be in my lifetime?” —Bing Crosby

That's the best quote I've heard in a long time.

 

[GHT]

That's the best quote I've heard in a long time.

One of my favourite quotes comes from a 1982 Frank and Ernest comic strip, Thaves wrote about Fred Astaire: "Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did, backwards… and in high heels." The official Ginger Rogers website credits Thaves and uses his original line.

 

[Harp]

One of my favourite quotes comes from a 1982 Frank and Ernest comic strip, Thaves wrote about Fred Astaire: "Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did, backwards… and in high heels." The official Ginger Rogers website credits Thaves and uses his original line.

I once made a try for GR's autograph but a lady asked if she had ever slept with Astaire. I quickly exited scene.

 

[Turnip]

1099 After one month‘s siege the troops of the first crusade take Jerusalem, killing almost the city’s entire population.

1937 The KZ Buchenwald near Weimar starts „operations“.

 

[GHT]

I once made a try for GR's autograph but a lady asked if she had ever slept with Astaire. I quickly exited scene.

Good heavens, the nerve of some people. My wife and I met her, did you know that the lady spent the last three years of her life wheelchair bound? When we met her she was walking with the aid of crutches. I was surprised to learn the the lady was something of an Anglophile. Out of the glare of the publicity cameras she crossed the pond on numerous occasions to see the British National Dance championships, and whilst here, took in some sightseeing.
We found her engaging, no Hollywood ego and a wonderful genuine woman. There's no mention of any of that on her Wiki page, but it's true, the poor woman was confined to a wheelchair in her latter years.

 

[Harp]

Good heavens, the nerve of some people. My wife and I met her, did you know that the lady spent the last three years of her life wheelchair bound? When we met her she was walking with the aid of crutches. I was surprised to learn the the lady was something of an Anglophile. Out of the glare of the publicity cameras she crossed the pond on numerous occasions to see the British National Dance championships, and whilst here, took in some sightseeing.
We found her engaging, no Hollywood ego and a wonderful genuine woman. There's no mention of any of that on her Wiki page, but it's true, the poor woman was confined to a wheelchair in her latter years.

So I heard, she was in town and a friend happened to see Ms Rogers in public, and she was indeed
seated in a wheelchair, but apparently GR did not let age or infirmity stop her in her dance through life.

 

[Peacoat]

1951: The novel 'The Catcher in the Rye' by J.D. Salinger was first published by Little, Brown and Co.

 

[Haversack]

In 1940, after she finished making the movies with Astaire, (bar one), she bought a ranch on the bank of the Rogue River northwest of Medford in Southern Oregon. For the next fifty years when she wasn't making movies she lived there and spent a great deal of the time fishing. I learned this as my parents took up drift boat fishing along a stretch of the river upstream from her ranch.

 

[Harp]

I always had the impression that GR kept her private distance from Hollywood.
And I can still recall that scene at Water Tower Place with her encircled by those ladies
when I came close to meeting her.

 

[Harp]

1951: The novel 'The Catcher in the Rye' by J.D. Salinger was first published by Little, Brown and Co.

There was a Jewish-American US Army Second World War intelligence outfit that interviewed
captured personnel and conducted field forays throughout the European Theatre. Salinger was in this unit.

 

[Swing Girl]

With all this talk about Ginger Rogers, I thought I should mention it's her birthday today! (July 16, 1911.)

 

[Turnip]

1917 The British King George V renames the royal house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor due to domestic political pressure due to the war with Germany.

1987 The death penalty is abolished in the GDR.

 

[Harp]

1917 The British King George V renames the royal house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor due to domestic political pressure due to the war with Germany.

Also, Battenberg renamed to Mountbatten.

 

[Turnip]

1986 Great Britain bans fustigation in schools.

 

[Harp]

13 days belated remembrance: 9 July 1942 the 1st Special Service Force comprised American
and Canadian Army personnel formed Ft William Henry Harrison Montana; disbanded 6 January 1945 France.
12th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces reconstituted 15 April 1960-disbanded 15 September 1995.

 

[Peacoat]

1936: Jesse Owens of the United States won the first of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics as he took the 100-meter sprint.

And I imagine Hitler was cringing. Go Jesse!

 

[Peacoat]

1945: During World War II, the B—29 SuperfortressEnola Gay dropped an atomic bomb code-named 'Little Boy' on Hiroshima, Japan, resulting in an estimated 140,000 deaths. (Three days later, the United States exploded a nuclear device over Nagasaki; five days after that, Imperial Japan surrendered.)