In this generation In this lovin’ time In this generation We will make the world shine I never got to meet Peter Tork, but I did see The Monkees live in concert in 2013, on their first post-Davy Jones tour. I did, however, meet Davy Jones in 2011.
In 1695, two years before he wrote Cendrillon (“Cinderella”), celebrated French author Charles Perrault wrote a tale called Peau d’Âne (“Donkey Skin”) that included elements of Cinderella. But Peau d’Âne was just a little strange. Once there was a wealthy king who got his riches from a donkey that he owned. The donkey was special, in that it …
On July 16, 1944 — eleven years before Rosa Parks was asked to relinquish her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama — 27 year-old Irene Morgan boarded a Greyhound bus in southeastern Virginia to head home to Baltimore, Maryland. Irene was returning home from a visit with her mother. Irene had suffered a miscarriage and her mother was …
Forced by his parents to take piano lessons, Robert Moog preferred tinkering around in his father’s workshop. Robert’s father was an engineer at Consolidated Edison and Robert became fascinated by the wires and tubes and other electronic accessories. Around this time, Robert discovered the theremin, an unusual musical instrument that makes otherworldly sounds created merely …
Born to sharecroppers in 1866, Matthew Henson fled persecution by the Ku Klux Klan and headed to Georgetown with his family. While attending an event honoring President Abraham Lincoln, young Matthew was inspired by a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass. Douglass called upon blacks to vigorously pursue educational opportunities and battle racial prejudice. Matthew began …
I should stay away but what can I do I hear your name and I’m a flame Flame, flame of desire That only your kiss — put out the fire!
Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely with a birth weight of 4-and-a-half pounds. She suffered from several early childhood illnesses, including pneumonia and scarlet fever. At the age of five, she contracted infantile paralysis, caused by the polio virus. Although she recovered from polio, Wilma lost strength in her left leg and foot. Physically disabled for much of …
Over the course of her long and successful career, Julie Adams charmed a small town sheriff, a man who wished he’d never been born, the King of Rock & Roll and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Julie passed away in February 2019 at the age of 92.
Over the course of 12 studio albums, 13 EPs and 22 singles, The Beatles have few songs that are credited as a group collaboration. One of those is “Flying.”
20 year-old Adelaide Hall performed with numerous all-African-American cast productions in the early 20th Century, including shows by Eubie Blake and W.C. Handy. In 1927, Adelaide was appearing in Dance Mania with Duke Ellington. At a stop at the Standard Theater in Philadelphia, Ellington introduced a new composition, an instrumental he called “Creole Love Call.” Adelaide …
