Day in History 22 September – Marion Davies – Irving Berlin – George C. Scott – Marcel Marceau – Eddie Fisher – Yogi Berra

#RIP #OTD 1961 actress (April Folly, Buried Treasure, Ziegfeld girl,, producer, screenwriter, philanthropist, partner of William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies died of malignant osteomyelitis in Hollywood aged 64. Private mausoleum, Hollywood Forever Cemetery

On this day in 1989, Tony and Grammy winner, songwriter, composer, lyricist Irving Berlin died in New York City at the age of 101.  Born Israel Isidore Baline on 11 May 1888 in Tyumen, Russia, now Belarus.  In my opinion, one of the greatest songwriters.  Among the many songs he wrote; God Bless America, White Christmas, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, There’s no Business like Show Business, Blue Skies, Puttin’ on the Ritz.  Composer Douglas Moore sets Berlin apart from all other contemporary songwriters, and includes him instead with Stephen Foster, Walt Whitman, and Carl Sandburg, as a “great American minstrel”—someone who has “caught and immortalized in his songs what we say, what we think about, and what we believe.”  George Gershwin called him “the greatest songwriter that has ever lived”, and Jerome Kern concluded that “Irving Berlin has no place in American music—he is American music.”  In 1912, he married Dorothy Goetz.  She died six months later of typhoid fever, which she contracted during their honeymoon in Havana.  The song he wrote to express his grief, “When I Lost You,” was his first ballad.  In 1925 he married Ellin Mackay.  Their marriage remained a love affair and they were inseparable until she died in July 1988 at the age of 85.

The Final Footprint – Berlin was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.  His grave is marked by a half ledger granite marker inscribed with his name and the birth and death dates.  On the evening following the announcement of his death, the marquee lights of Broadway were dimmed before curtain time in his memory.  Other notable Final Footprints at Woodlawn include; Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Fiorello La Guardia, Lionel Hampton, Rowland Macy, Bat Masterson, Herman Melville, J. C. Penney, and Joseph Pulitzer.

On this day in 1999, stage and film actor, director and producer George C. Scott died of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm in Westlake Village, California, at the age of 71. Born George Campbell Scott on October 18, 1927 in Wise, Virginia. Perhaps best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Ebenezer Scrooge in Clive Donner’s 1984 film A Christmas Carol and Lieutenant Bill Kinderman in William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist III.

He was the first actor to refuse the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Patton in 1970), having warned the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences months in advance that he would do so on philosophical grounds if he won. Scott believed that every dramatic performance was unique and could not be compared to others.

Scott was married five times:

1. Carolyn Hughes (m. 1951–1955); one daughter, Victoria, born December 19, 1952.
2. Patricia Reed (m. 1955–1960); two children: Matthew – born May 27, 1957, and actress Devon Scott – born November 29, 1958.
3. He married Canadian-born actress Colleen Dewhurst (m. 1960–1965), by whom he had two sons, writer Alexander Scott (born August 1960), and actor Campbell Scott (born July 19, 1961). Dewhurst nicknamed her husband “G.C.”
4. He remarried Colleen Dewhurst on July 4, 1967, but they divorced for a second time on February 2, 1972.
5. He married American actress Trish Van Devere on September 4, 1972, with whom he starred in several films, including the supernatural thriller The Changeling (1980). Scott adopted Trish’s nephew, George Dewey Scott II, and resided in Malibu. They remained married until his death.

The Final Footprint

He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California in an unmarked grave located to the right of that of Walter Matthau. Other notable final footprints at Westwood Village include; Ray Bradbury, Sammy Cahn, Truman Capote, James Coburn, Rodney Dangerfield, Janet Leigh, Farrah Fawcett, Brian Keith, Don Knotts, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Peggy Lee, Jack Lemmon, Karl Malden, Dean Martin, Walter Matthau, Marilyn Monroe, Carroll O’Connor, Roy Orbison, Dorothy Stratten, Natalie Wood, and Frank Zappa.

On this day in 2007 actor and mime artist Marcel Marceau died at the racetrack in Cahors, France, at the age of 84. Born Marcel Mangel on 22 March 1923 in Strasbourg, France. Perhas best known for his stage persona as “Bip the Clown”. He referred to mime as the “art of silence”, and he performed professionally worldwide for over 60 years. As a youth, he lived in hiding and worked with the French Resistance during most of World War II, giving his first major performance to 3000 troops after the liberation of Paris in August 1944. Following the war, he studied dramatic art and mime in Paris.

In 1959 he established his own pantomime school in Paris, and subsequently set up the Marceau Foundation to promote the art in the U.S. Among his various awards and honours he was made “Grand Officier de la Légion d’Honneur” (1998) and was awarded the National Order of Merit (1998) in France. He won the Emmy Award for his work on television, was elected member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, and was declared a “National treasure” in Japan. He was friends with Michael Jackson for nearly 20 years, and Jackson said he would use some of Marceau’s techniques in his own dance steps.

Marceau as Bip the Clown in 1974

Marceau in 1974

Marceau in 1962

Marcel Marceau in 2004

Marceau was married three times: first to Huguette Mallet; then, to Ella Jaroszewicz. His third wife was Anne Sicco. Artist and fellow mime Paulette Frankl released a memoir in August 2014 about her decades’ long relationship with Marceau. Marcel & Me: A Memoir of Love, Lust, and Illusion, released in 2014.

The Final Footprint

At his burial ceremony, the second movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 (which Marceau long used as an accompaniment for an elegant mime routine) was played, as was the sarabande of Bach‘s Cello Suite No. 5. Marceau was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Other notable Final Footprints at Père Lachaise include; Guillaume Apollinaire, Honoré de Balzac, Georges Bizet, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Maria Calas, Frédéric Chopin, Colette, Auguste Comte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Max Ernst, Molière, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde, and Richard Wright.

On this day in 2010, singer and actor Eddie Fisher died at his home in Berkeley, California, from complications from hip surgery, at the age of 82. Born Edwin John Fisher on August 10, 1928 in . He was one of the most popular artists during the first half of the 1950s, selling millions of records and hosting his own TV show. Fisher divorced his first wife, actress Debbie Reynolds, to marry Reynolds’ best friend, actress Elizabeth Taylor, after Taylor’s husband, film producer Mike Todd, was killed in a plane crash. The scandalous affair was widely reported, bringing unfavorable publicity to Fisher. He later married Connie Stevens. Fisher fathered Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher with Reynolds, and Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher with Stevens.

The Final Footprint

Fisher was cremated and his cremated remains are inurned at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.

On this day in 2015, U. S. Navy veteran, Purple Heart recipient, MLB Hall of Fame catcher, manager, 3x AL MVP, 18x All Star, 10x World Series champ, New York Yankee Yogi Berra died in West Caldwell, New Jersey, 69 years to the day after his MLB debut, at the age of 90. Born Lawrence Peter Berra on May 12, 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri. He played 19 seasons (1946–63, 1965), all but the last for the Yankees. Berra had a career batting average of .285, while hitting 358 home runs and 1,430 runs batted in. In my opinion, one of the greatest catchers in baseball history

Berra signed with the Yankees in 1943 before serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II. He made his major-league debut at age 21 in 1946 and was a mainstay in the Yankees’ lineup during the team’s championship years beginning in 1949 and continuing through 1962. Despite his short stature (he was 5′ 7″ tall), Berra was a power hitter and strong defensive catcher. He caught Don Larsen’s perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.

Berra played 18 seasons with the Yankees. He spent the next season as their manager, then joined the New York Mets in 1965 as coach (and briefly a player again). Berra remained with the Mets for the next decade, serving the last four years as their manager. He returned to the Yankees in 1976, coaching them for eight seasons and managing for two, before coaching the Houston Astros. Berra appeared as a player, coach or manager in every one of the 13 World Series that New York baseball teams competed in from 1947 through 1981. In all, he appeared in 22 World Series, 13 on the winning side.

The Yankees retired his uniform number 8 in 1972; Bill Dickey also wore number 8, and both catchers had that number retired by the Yankees. The club honored him with a plaque in Monument Park in 1988. Berra was named to the MLB All-Century Team in a vote by fans in 1999. For the remainder of his life, he was closely involved with the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, which he opened on the campus of Montclair State University in 1998.

Berra quit school after the eighth grade. He was known for his malapropisms as well as pithy and paradoxical statements, such as “It ain’t over ’til it’s over”, while speaking to reporters. He once simultaneously denied and confirmed his reputation by stating, “I really didn’t say everything I said.”

Berra with Hank Bauer and Mickey Mantle, 1953

Berra as Mets’ first base coach, 1969.

Berra hitting with a fungo bat prior to a game in 1981.

Yogi Berra’s number 8 was retired by the New York Yankees in 1972.

Yogi Berra’s plaques at the Baseball Hall of Fame (top)and in Monument Park. (bottom)

Berra married Carmen Short on January 26, 1949. They were longtime residents of Montclair, New Jersey. Carmen died on March 6, 2014, of complications from a stroke, at age 85; the couple had recently celebrated their 65th anniversary.

The Final Footprint

The Yankees added a number “8” patch to their uniforms in honor of Berra, and the Empire State Building was lit with vertical blue and white Yankee “pinstripes” on September 23. New York City lowered all flags in the city to half-staff for a day in tribute. A moment of silence was held before the September 23 games of the Yankees, Dodgers, Astros, Mets, Nationals, Tigers, Pirates, and his hometown St. Louis Cardinals, as well as the ALPB’s Long Island Ducks. The Yogi Berra Museum held a tribute on October 4.

Berra’s funeral services were held on September 29, and were broadcast by the YES Network. He was interred at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in East Hanover, New Jersey.

“Yogi-isms”

Berra in 2007

• As a general comment on life: “90 percent of baseball is mental; the other half is physical.”
• On why he no longer went to Rigazzi’s, a St. Louis restaurant: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
• “It ain’t over till it’s over.” In July 1973, Berra’s Mets trailed the Chicago Cubs by 9½ games in the National League East. The Mets rallied to clinch the division title in their second-to-last game of the regular season, and eventually reach the World Series.
• When giving directions to Joe Garagiola to his New Jersey home, which was accessible by two routes: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
• At Yogi Berra Day at Sportsman Park in St. Louis: “Thank you for making this day necessary.”
• “It’s déjà vu all over again.” Berra explained that this quote originated when he witnessed Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris repeatedly hitting back-to-back home runs in the Yankees’ seasons in the early 1960s.
• “You can observe a lot by watching.”
• “Always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise they won’t go to yours.”
• “I really didn’t say everything I said.”
• “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore”
• “If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him.”

Have you planned yours yet?

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