Yesterday's Memories and Other Useless Thoughts: 2014

Saturday, December 20, 2014

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1950 ~ Richard Nixon

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc,
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron,
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team,
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland,
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev,
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez.

Chorus

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac,
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball,
Starkweather homicide, children of thalidomide, Oh-oh-oh.

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion,
"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania,
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson,
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex,
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say?

Chorus

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again,
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock,
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline,
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan,
"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide,
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz, Hypodermics on the shore,

China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

1950

Richard Nixon

Before the presidency and before the scandals of Watergate, Nixon in the 1950's was just starting to get his political career started. This is where Nixon enters the stage of American history.

Richard Milhous Nixon was born on a farm on January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California and was the second of five boys born into the family. Each of his brothers, including himself, was named after a king in England. He was named after Richard the Lionheart. They had Quaker faith upbringing. In high school he discovered he was a great debater. His teacher once told him, "Remember, speaking is conversation ... don't shout at people. Talk to them. Converse with them" and that helped boost his debate skills. After the Pearl Harbor attack he left his law practice to help out in the war and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the navy. By the time the war was over he was ranked lieutenant commander.

After the war a friend of his suggested he enter politics and that the committee of California Republicans needed a congressional candidate. The committee ended up backing him against Jerry Voorhis who was the Democratic representative from California's Twelfth District for the past ten years. He won that campaign. He became one of the youngest members of he Republican controlled Eightieth Congress.

In 1950 Nixon ran for the United States Senate against Democratic Congresswomen

Helen Douglas. At this time American's were on a communist scare and Nixon pointed out that Douglas supported communist policy. He ended up carrying 53 out of the 58 counties in California and won with over 700,000 votes. The campaign became known as Pink Lady vs. Tricky Dick. Nixon, being 37 years old at this time, became the youngest Republican U.S. Senator at this time.

Greg Mitchell wrote a book about this election called Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady : Richard Nixon vs Helen Gahagan Douglas-Sexual Politics and the Red Scare, 1950.

In 1952 Eisenhower took notice of Nixon and asked him to be his vice-president running mate. They won that election in 1952 and Richard Nixon became vice-president for 2 terms for the 34th president serving from 1953 to 1961. He later on went and became the 37th president from 1969 to 1974 when he resigned from office.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1950 ~ Joe McCarthy

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

Chorus

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

1950

Joe McCarthy

At this time in history America was fearful of communism and its politics to take control of the world. The Soviet Union successfully tested the Atomic Bomb in 1949 leaving American's to wonder if the Russian's will use it against them. The collapse of the Kuomintang regime in China set up the new Mao's Communist government which put America on alert of all things Communist. Joe Mccarthy was there to help fan the flames of that fear for his political gain. This moment became known as "McCarthyism."

Joseph Raymond McCarthy was born November 14, 1908 in Appleton, Wisconsin. He was the fifth child out of nine. Growing up in a catholic home he attended a one room school house until the eighth grade. He ended up furthering his education and graduated from the University of Wisconsin.

In 1939 he ran for the Republicans to be judge of the 10th Judicial Circuit of Wisconsin and won the seat party by slandering his opponent openly through the media. He quickly learned that running someone's name through the mud gave him the advantage over things.

Right before this election he ran for the Democrats to be District Attorney. He lost that one. He would flip flop between Republicans and Democrats to whichever would suit his needs. He truly wasn't loyal to one party or another. Another example of this would be in 1944, while in the Marines (he served 1942 to 1945 resigning at Lieutenant) he ran for the Democratic nomination of the U.S. Senate and lost. In 1946 he ran for the U.S. Senate under the Republican nomination in Wisconsin and won the seat.

McCarthy was challenging Robert LaFollete for the seat and like usual McCarthy turned to his slanderous ways. He claimed while he was fighting in the war to defend America LaFollete was home profiting from it. The fact was that LaFollete was too old at the time to serve in the military for the war. LaFollete became so distraught over the slandering that he dropped out of politics altogether and committed suicide.

The first thing McCarthy did in the Senate was proposed a solution to the coal strike that was going on at the time. He said to draft the coal workers, including John Lewis who was head of their union, into the military and force them to work the mines. If they refused they would be court martialed for insubordination and shot. That forward speaking caught the attention of the press. The coal strike ended in May of 1950 when Lewis signed an agreement that increased the wages of the workers with new medical benefits.

Soon there were allegations that McCarthy took bribes from the Pepsi-Cola Company which could cost him his job. A Roman Catholic priest advised him to begin a campaign to rid the country of communists to the allegations would be forgotten about. So on February 9, 1950 in Wheeling, West Virginia McCarthy made an announcement as he held up a piece of paper saying it contained the names of known communist working for the government. This started a witch hunt on communists in the country. Over 30,000 books that had a communist way about them, either by author or subject, were banned. People were calling out entertainers, athletes, as well as politicians as communists. Twenty-five states even outlawed communists organizations. In 1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg passed atomic secrets to the Russians added fuel to McCarthyism.

Many wanted McCarthy to go away but many did not want to go up against him due to his slanderous methods. McCarthy knew that by using slander and innuendo would keep his name in the headlines and give him political gain. It all came to a head in 1953 when he started to attack the US Army for its communist leaders within it. The Army-McCarthy Hearings in 1954 became the first televised hearings in American history. They exposed his tactics publically and led to his decline. The Senate voted an official censure against McCarthy on December 2, 1954 for his "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."

McCarthy was a man who liked his drinks, but it finally caught up with him. He had acute hepatitis that was caused by his alcoholism. He died May 2, 1957 at the age of 49 in Bethesda, Maryland. He is buried in St. Mary's cemetery in Appleton, Wisconsin.

His name lives on with being known as intense anti-communism in America. It became known to mean as the "practice of making accusations, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence." (McCarthyism Wiki)

Sources:

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1774.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/9/newsid_3703000/3703305.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._La_Follette,_Jr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Lewis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism

Saturday, January 11, 2014

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1949 ~ Joe DiMaggio

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

Chorus

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

1949

Joe DiMaggio

Thanks to his seasickness Joe DiMaggio never became the fisherman that his Italian immigrant wanted him to be. Instead he turned out to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame and ranked #11 in the Sporting News baseball top favorites.

Joe was born Guiseppe Paolo DiMaggio in 1914 in California. He has 7 older siblings and one younger sibling. Fishing has been in the family for generations and his dad was also hoping to continue to pass it down to his sons. Joe, however, couldn't stomach the sea and tried as hard as he could to stay away from his dad's fishing boats. He would play ball with neighborhood children instead of cleaning out his dad's boats. His horsing around paid off.

DiMaggio worked his way up from a local league to play for the San Francisco Seals. In 1936 he started to play centerfield for the New York Yankees. The first four years of him playing for the Yankees they made it to the World Series and they won. He was the first person in North American professional sports to ever win a championship in the first four years of playing professionally. He was voted the leagues most valuable player in 1939. He was famous for a 56 game hitting streak that started in 1941.

WWII was in full swing. DiMaggio wanted to do his part in the war and he signed up for the Air Force in 1943. He wanted to serve in combat but wasn't allowed. So instead he served stateside as a physical education instructor. He got a medical discharge in 1945 due to ulcers. His parents, being of Italian background were not treated too kindly. They couldn't leave 5 miles from their house without proper identification. No matter where they went they had to have some sort of ID on them. His father's fishing boats were taken from him by the government and he was forbidden to fish in the waters.

Joe went back to baseball. He helped the Yankees win 3 more World Series titles in 1949, 1950 and 1951. The 1949 World Series was against the Brooklyn Dodgers. It made history by being the
first World Series game to be playing under electronic lights. Regular night games didn't start until the 1070's.

Joe in the 1949 World Series game
against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

     Joe retired from baseball in 1951. He is quoted saying, "When baseball is no longer fun, it's no longer a game, and so, I've played my last game."
     Joe DiMaggio was married twice. The first time was in 1939 and ended in 1944.  They had one son. Most know of his second wife, Marilyn Monroe. He met her after his baseball career and he fell madly in love with her.  They were married in 1954. Before the year was up they would divorce. Rumors about how she acts in public, (like the infamous dress raising scene) caused him to get upset and she didn't want to change her ways. So they divorced. But he never stopped loving her. In 1961 he resurfaced in her life after she was going through another divorce. They began rekindling their relationship. On August 1 he told a friend that he was getting ready to ask for her hand in marriage again. On August 5 she had died. He ever married another person. He arranged for her funeral and three times a week for the next 20 years he would arrange to have flowers be brought to her grave. In 1999, on his deathbed his last words were, "I'll finally get to see Marilyn."
     Over his baseball career he achieved 13 All Star awards, 9 World Series, and 3 Most Valuable Player awards.  Joe DiMaggio is synonymous with baseball. His name has been used throughout recent time in art, literature, comics, movies, televisions and theater. The music "South Pacific" even mentions DiMaggio's name. Many songs contain his name such as Madonna's "Vogue" and Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson".

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_DiMaggio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949_World_Series
http://www.biography.com/people/joe-dimaggio-9274899?page=3

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1949 ~ Walter Winchell

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

Chorus

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

1949

Walter Winchell

Walter Winchell was pretty much the inventor of the gossip columns in newspapers as well as a popular voice heard on the radio. Walter Winchell was also the narrator in the show "The Untouchables" that aired from 1959 to 1963. He enjoyed pushing the limit and ruining peoples lives by the information he dishes out on both his articles and his radio shows.

Walter Winchell was born with a Jewish heritage on April 7, 1897 in New York City. He dropped out of school in the 6th grade to become a second rate vauderville singer. Around 1919 he started to turn his attention to writing. He wrote a column called "Stage Whispers" for a small paper that was nothing more than gossip. Through connections he worked his way to writing for the Daily Mirror with the column titled "On Broadway". Many readers would purchase the publication just for Winchell's column.

He became very popular with Americans with his show biz gossip. In 1930 he went on the radio for the first time doing Sunday night shows. In 1948 he had the top radio show with over 20 million listeners sitting by their radio's waiting to see what he had to say next. He had a style about himself that people liked when he went on air. He had a staccato voice with an average of 197 words per minute followed with a clicking telegraph key that gave an aurora of some sort of emergency to his gossip. He would start every show saying, "Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea."

Throughout his years he ended up making up words and coining phrases to enhance his gossip. He started the term "G-man" which we all use today. "Making whoopee" was another term he used for people engaged in the action who weren't entirely in love. A few other phrases are "Tell it to a judge", "giggle water" (alcohol), "flicker" (movie), and "Chicagorilla" which is a gangster from Chicago. He even coined the phrase, "America - love it or leave it." Listeners enjoyed hearing how he would put new terms and phrases in to use.

Although the general public loved Walter Winchell many celebrities have learned to fear him as he spoke freely about their lives that can damage their reputation. In 1949 he assaulted James Forrestal who was the Secretary of Defense because Winchell didn't agree to his policies. He even verbally attacked Josephine Baker, a popular black entertainer at the time calling her a Communist. If he didn't like someone he would call them a Communist or being sexually immoral.

Even though Winchell liked to talk about celebrities problems he was not free from his own. He was married one of the Vauderville performers in 1919. He was unfaithful and another woman became pregnant. The couple divorced in 1928. He moved in with the lady he got pregnant and had 2 more children but the couple never married. His one daughter, whom they adopted, died from pneumonia at age 9. His biological son died at age 33 when he shot himself in the mouth on Christmas. This happened the exact day, 36 years later, from when his daughter died. His oldest daughter, was mentally unstable and has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals. At the death of his son Walter Winchell decided to quit radio altogether. His girlfriend ended up dying just over a year later due to failing heart conditions. Walter Winchell died in 1972 from prostrate cancer. He was 74. There was only one person who attended his funeral and that was his mentally unstable daughter.

Walter Winchell opened the doors to celebrity gossip for many years to come. Today, people are still interested in the personal lives of celebrities and wanting to know what they are doing off screen. Magazine tabloids and TV shows like TMZ carry on the gossip that America still loves to inquire about.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell

http://www.ask.com/question/what-did-walter-winchell-do-in-1949

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0934595/bio

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Walter_Winchell.aspx

http://www.howstuffworks.com/15-terms-popularized-by-walter-winchell.htm

Monday, January 6, 2014

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1949 ~ South Pacific

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

Chorus

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

1949

South Pacific

South Pacific is a Broadway play brought to life by Roger's and Hammerstein. The play is based from the book, "Tales of the South Pacific" written by James A. Michener in 1947. His book won the Pulitzer Prize award for fiction in 1948. He based his book from short stories he recalled as he was stationed in the New Hebrides Islands while serving in the US Navy in WWII.

Play writes Roger and Hammerstein picked up on the book and adapted it to a musical. This would be their fifth musical. The play opened up April 7, 1949 and ran for over 5 years at the Majestic Theater. That made up 1,925 performances. It was the second longest Broadway musical next to Oklahoma. Shortly after the play started the cast, under Columbia Records, produced the soundtrack. It spent 69 weeks as #1 on the billboard charts. The movie version came out a few years later in 1958 and that even had great reviews at the box office.

A brief storyline of South Pacific is when a nurse fell in love with a local French planter. Lt. Joseph Cable starts to fall in love with Liat, a girl from the island. She also falls for him. A character known as Bloody Mary provides comic relief between the actions of the two couples. Sailor's while waiting for the war to come in their direction puts on a comedy play to entertain themselves. There are several plots that twist and turn into each other throughout the musical.

The musical also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. In 1950, South Pacific was nominated for 10 different categories and won all 10. South Pacific made Tony history by being the only Musical to win in all acting categories. They were in Best Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Ezino Pinza), Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Mary Martin), Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Myron McCormick), Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Junaita Hall), Best Producer (Rogers, Hammerstein, Hayward, and Logan), Best Director (Logan), Best Libretto (Hammerstein), Best Original Score (Rogers), and Best Scenic Design (Mielziner).

South Pacific has been redone both on Broadway and on the big screen. Again, the well loved musical was huge hit. A well done classic never dies.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pacific_(musical)

http://www.whosdatedwho.com/tpx_647702/south-pacific/trivia

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/176696-VINTAGE-PLAYBILL-South-Pacific-1949

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_South_Pacific

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1949 ~ Johnnie Ray

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

Chorus

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

1949

Johnnie Ray

Johnnie Ray was a rising singer during the late 1940's and early 1950's. He was born January 10, 1927 in Oregon and died February 24, 1990 at the age of 63 in Los Angeles. He was a pioneer to today's rock and roll music. He created his own style on stage which young American's liked.

As a boy John Ray was a typical fun loving, free-spirited young man. He was part of the boy scouts. At one camp gathering while he was 13 years old an accident happened that left him deaf in his right ear. The campers were holding tightly to an edge of a blanket while tossing one member up into the air. It was Johnnie's turn. He was tossed high into the air but the campers lost their grip on the blanket and Johnnie plummeted to the ground. A hard drinking straw ended up getting lodged into his right ear and he lost 50% of his hearing right there. He never told his parents what had happened thinking that his hearing would be restored. It never did.

People say that it was due to his hearing loss that give Johnnie his unique sound. He had to over-enunciate lyrics in his songs so he could hear them. His fans, not aware that he was purposely doing this because of his hearing loss, liked how it sounded. He also started to do something new while onstage. Most singers would stand behind the microphone singing in a proper manner. Johnnie rebelled with that method. He was one of the first singers to take the microphone off the stand and hold it in his hand. He used the whole stage to perform on while interacting with the audience members by reaching out to them.

Johnnie Ray got his start in a Detroit at the Flame Showbar. His first hit was in 1951 with the song "Whiskey and Gin." It wasn't a big hit as his hit "Cry" and "The Little White Cloud That Cried" that followed the next year. He was even know to cry during these songs which gave him the nickname The Nobob of Sob and The Cry Guy. It wasn't long before Hollywood wanted Johnnie Ray to be seen on the big picture. In 1954 he starred in "There's No Business Like Show Business". He played in a few more movies and over dozens of appearances on television. Johnnie Ray and Doris Day did several duets together one called "Let Walk That A-Way." In Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start The Fire" their names were united again in the same verse of this song. His music career was short lived in the United States. Fans started to turn their attention to the British invasion of music. So he found fans outside of the United States and toured in Asia, Australia and Europe.

The boy scout character in Johnnie Ray disappeared as he got into some trouble with the law very early in his career while singing in Detroit. In 1951, he was arrested for paying for favors from a male prostitute. This was right before his rise to fame so it mostly got pushed under the rug. In 1959, he was arrested again and it went to trial for the same thing, also in Detroit. He was found not guilty.

Since being openly gay was not as popular in the 1950's as it is today Johnnie Ray tried to hide it. He even married once. His wife, knowing he was gay, was quoted saying to a friend that she "would straighten it out." Obviously that didn't work since they divorced 1954.

His songs and memory faded away from American society for a bit until Dexys Midnight Runner's song "Come On Eileen" mentioned Johnny Ray in the first verse. Even the song pays tribute by showing his picture as he exits a plane in London as fans scream wildly at him.

"Come On Eileen"

(Come On Eileen)
(Come On Eileen)

Poor old Johnny Ray
Sounded sad upon the radio
But he moved a million hearts in mono
Our mothers cried
Sang along
Who'd blame them
You've grown, so grown
Now I must say more than ever
(Come On Eileen)
Too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye, aye
And we can sing just like our fathers

Billy Idol also mentioned Johnnie Ray near the end of his song "Don't Need A Gun."

You will always be crying yeah
Oh you will always be dying
Oh you will always be dying

Elvis a fight the dying light
Johnny Ray he's always crying
Gene Vincent he cried who slapped John, John, John

Van Morrison also mentions him in the middle of one of his songs, "Sometimes We Cry."

Gonna put me in a jacket, and take me away
Im not gonna fake it like johnnie ray
Sometimes we live, sometimes we die
Sometimes we cry, sometimes we cry

Before Johnnie Ray died from liver failure due to his heavy drinking he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to the music industry.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnie_Ray
http://www.johnnieray.com/
http://johnnierayarchives.com/Home_Page.php
http://www.johnnieray.com/bio.html
http://www.songsandmemories.com/johnnie-ray.html
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/dexysmidnightrunners/comeoneileen.html
http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/billy_idol/dont_need_a_gun.html
http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/v/van_morrison/sometimes_we_cry.html

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1949 ~ Red China

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

Chorus

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

1949

Red China

Red China is the term given to the People's Republic of China which is a communist nation in Asia. During this time China was in a Civil War. It was between Nationalist Forces (Kuomintang) led by Chiang Kai-Shek and the Communist Party of China led by Mao Zedong. The Nationalist Forces were pretty much the ruling party since 1928 when the Civil War broke out. The Communist forces hung out in the northern areas of China while the Nationalist maintained control of the southern part of China. The northern part of China had their own money, their own military. It was as if there were two China's. The North against the South.

Mao Zedong and the

Communist Flag

Chaing Kai-Shek and the
Nationalist Flag

After Japan left the area from WWII both the Nationalist and Communist wanted to regain control of the area left behind. In 1946 the Nationalist were over 4 million strong while the Communist were only over 1 million strong. By the end in 1949 those numbers were practically reversed as the Nationalists were almost one and one half million strong while the Communist were 4 million strong. The Communist Party came down upon the Nationalist like ants to a picnic.

In 1949, Chiang Kai-Shek knew they were beat. He gathered up over 600,000 of his troops and over 2 million refugees and made their way to the island of Taiwan. Mao Zedong proclaimed People's Republic of China and China became a communist nation.

Sources:

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/bgilkers/digitaltimeline/chinesedepth.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist-controlled_China_(1927%E2%80%9349)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintang

Sunday, January 5, 2014

We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1949 ~ Doris Day

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

Chorus

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

1949

Doris Day

1949 image of Doris Day
Source: http://www.buycelebrityposters.com/posters.php?item=5100088

Doris Day was very talented up and coming singer and then actress in that time period. She was born in April 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio as Doris Kappelhoff. She enjoyed dancing. She even won a dancing contest which paved her way from Ohio to Hollywood. Fate took hand in her life and she was in a car accident which shattered her leg bone. Her career as a dancer was forever over.

Her mother helped her get a job at the local radio station. Local band leader, Barney Rapp, heard her on the radio and feel in love with her voice. She sang at his club for $25 a week. He heard her sing "Day After Day" and suggested that she change her last name to Day to help her name sound catchy.

Her first hit was in 1945 with the song, "Sentimental Journey". In 1947 she signed on with Columbia Records and stayed with them until 1972. At a Hollywood party Doris Day was asked to sing a song. People in the movie industry heard her singing and begged for her to do a screen test for a movie. The camera fell in love with her. She got a role in the movie, "Romance on the High Seas" which helped kick start her movie career. She made 38 films in addition to hosting a few television shows. She still didn't stop making music. Even in 2011 Doris Day released her newest album "My Heart" in the United Kingdom. That album was ranked number 12 in Amazon's best seller list.

She became an animal rights activist. In the late 1970's she started up the Doris Day Pet Foundation. Her goal was to find good homes to animals so they wouldn't be put down. She was known for carrying pictures of animals around and trying to match them up with good caretakers. President George W. Bush even gave her the Medal of Freedom award for her hard work and accomplishment with animal rights.

Doris has been married 4 different times. Her first husband she met and married in 1941 when she was working for Barney Rapp. They had one son together and that would be her only child. He became abusive and they divorced in 1943. She married her second husband in 1946. Her rise in fame was unpleasing to her husband and he didn't want to be known as Mr. Doris Day so while she was out touring she got a note saying he was leaving her. That was in 1949. In 1951 she married her third husband who was assumed to be a real nice guy. He even adopted her son as his own. After his death in 1968 did she learn that he swindled her money away and left her with a bunch of debts. She married her fourth husband in 1976. That marriage ended in 1981.

She has received a multitude of awards ranging from 1948 to 2012 from her work as a singer, an actress, and as an animal rights activist. As of this post she resides in California and owns a hotel which she co-owned with her son before his death in 2004. She is currently 89 years old.

Que Sera Sera. One of Doris Day's more popular songs.

1956 Columbia Gold Disc for over a million sales of "Que Sera, Sera" from The Man Who Man Who Knew Too Much.

2012 Grammy Hall of Fame Inductee for recording of Que Sera Sera.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Day

http://www.dorisday.com/

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Doris_Day.aspx