On this day in 1976, aviator, engineer, industrialist, film producer, director, philanthropist, and once one of the wealthiest people in the world, Howard Hughes died from kidney failure aboard an airplane bound for Houston, at the age of 70. Born Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. probably on 24 September 1905 in Humble, Texas. His father patented the two-cone roller bit, which allowed rotary drilling for petroleum in previously inaccessible places and founded the Hughes Tool Company. Hughes took full control of the business when he was 19 following his father’s death. His most notable films inlcude the flying film Hell’s Angels (1930), Scarface (1932), and The Outlaw (1943), which featured Jane Russell. Hughes dated many famous women, including Bette Davis, Ava Gardner, Olivia de Havilland, Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Jean Peters, Terry Moore and Gene Tierney. He reportedly proposed to Joan Fontaine several times. In 1932 Hughes founded Hughes Aircraft Company, which became a major American aerospace and defense contractor, as a division of Hughes Tool Company. Hughes was one of the most influential aviators in history; he set multiple world air-speed records, built the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 “Hercules” (better known to history as the “Spruce Goose”) aircraft, and acquired and expanded Trans World Airlines which would later on merge with American Airlines. In 1953, Hughes founded the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in Chevy Chase, Maryland, formed with the express goal of basic biomedical research, including trying to understand, in Hughes’ words, the “genesis of life itself.” Hughes gave all his stock in the Hughes Aircraft Company to the institute, which would sell the company to General Motors in 1985 for $5 billion. HHMI is one of the wealthiest medical research foundations in the world. In 1966, Hughes moved into the Desert Inn in Las Vegas. He wound up purchasing other hotels/casinos such as the Castaways, New Frontier, The Landmark Hotel and Casino, the Sands and the Silver Slipper. Hughes was married two or three times; Ella Rice (1925-1929 divorce), Terry Moore (1949-1976 his death) (alleged), and Jean Peters (1957-1971 divorce).
The Final Footprint – Hughes is interred in the Hughes private estate with his parents in Glenwood Cemetery in Houston. One of my offices in Houston overlooked Glenwood. Hughes has been portayed in film by Tommy Lee Jones in The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977) and by Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator (2004). The latter was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning five. Other notable Final Footprints at Glenwood include; Maria Franklin Prentiss Langham Gable, Oveta Culp Hobby, William P. Hobby, Glenn McCarthy, and Gene Tierney.
On this day in 1994, musician, singer, and songwriter Kurt Cobain died from a self inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Seattle at the age of 27. Born Kurt Donald Cobain on 20 February 1967, at Grays Harbor Hospital in Aberdeen, Washington. Cobain was the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the grunge band Nirvana. Cobain formed Nirvana with Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1985 and established it as part of the Seattle music scene, having its debut album Bleach released on the independent record label Sub Pop in 1989. After signing with major label DGC Records, the band found breakthrough success with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from its second album Nevermind (1991). Following the success of Nevermind, Nirvana was labeled “the flagship band” of Generation X, and Cobain hailed as “the spokesman of a generation”. Cobain, however, was often uncomfortable and frustrated, believing his message and artistic vision to have been misinterpreted by the public, with his personal issues often subject to media attention. During the last years of his life, Cobain struggled with heroin addiction, illness and depression. Cobain married fellow musician Courtney Love. With Cobain’s death at 27 he became a member of the 27 Club; a group of famous musicians who died when they were 27 years old. The group includes; bluesman Robert Johnson, Rolling Stone Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouse.
The Final Footprint – A public vigil was held for Cobain on 10 April 1994, at a park at Seattle Center. A prerecorded message by Love was played at the memorial. Love read portions of Cobain’s suicide note to the crowd, crying and chastising Cobain. Near the end of the vigil, Love arrived at the park and distributed some of Cobain’s clothing to those who still remained. A final ceremony was arranged for Cobain, by his mother, on 31 May 1999. As a Buddhist monk chanted, daughter Frances Bean scattered Cobain’s ashes into McLane Creek in Olympia, the city where he “had found his true artistic muse.” Together with Nirvana band mates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, Cobain was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, which was the first year in which the band was eligible.
| Allen Ginsberg | |
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 in 1979 |
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On this day in 1997 poet, philosopher and writer Allen Ginsberg died from liver cancer via complications of hepatitis in East Village, New York City at the age of 70. Born Irwin Allen Ginsberg on June 3, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey. He was one of the leading figures of both the Beat Generation during the 1950s and the counterculture that soon followed. He opposed militarism, economic materialism and sexual repression and was known as embodying various aspects of this counterculture, such as his views on drugs, hostility to bureaucracy and openness to Eastern religions.
Perhaps best known for his poem “Howl”, in which he denounced what he saw as the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity in the United States. In 1956, “Howl” was seized by San Francisco police and US Customs. In 1957, it attracted widespread publicity when it became the subject of an obscenity trial, as it described heterosexual and homosexual sex at a time when sodomy laws made homosexual acts a crime in every U.S. state. Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that “Howl” was not obscene, adding, “Would there be any freedom of press or speech if one must reduce his vocabulary to vapid innocuous euphemisms?”
Ginsberg was a practicing Buddhist. He lived modestly, buying his clothing in second-hand stores and residing in downscale apartments in New York’s East Village. Ginsberg took part in decades of non-violent political protest against everything from the Vietnam War to the War on Drugs.
His collection The Fall of America shared the annual U.S. National Book Award for Poetry in 1974. Ginsberg was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1995 for his book Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986–1992.
Ginsberg with his partner, poet Peter Orlovsky. Photo taken in 1978
Portrait with Bob Dylan, taken in 1975
Allen Ginsberg’s greeting A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada at San Francisco International Airport. January 17, 1967
The Mantra-Rock Dance promotional poster featuring Allen Ginsberg along with leading rock bands.
In 1979
Ginsberg continued to write through his final illness, with his last poem, “Things I’ll Not Do (Nostalgias)”, written on March 30.
The Final Footprint
He died with family and friends in his East Village loft in New York City, succumbing to liver cancer via complications of hepatitis. He was 70 years old.
One third of Ginsberg’s ashes were buried in his family plot in Gomel Chesed Cemetery in Newark, NJ. He was survived by Orlovsky.
When Orlovsky died, as per Ginsberg’s wishes, another third of his ashes were buried alongside Orlovsky at Shambhala Mountain Center in Colorado. The remaining third of the ashes are buried at Jewel Heart, Gelek Rimpoche’s sangha, in India.
On this day in 2002, lead singer and co-songwriter of the rock band Alice in Chains, Layne Staley died from an accidental overdose of a speedball in his home in Seattle, at the age of 34. Born Layne Rutherford Staley on August 22, 1967 in Kirkland, Washington. Alice in Chains rose to international fame in the early 1990s during Seattle’s grunge movement, and became known for Staley’s distinct vocal style, as well as the harmonized vocals between him and guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell. Staley was also a member of the supergroups Mad Season and Class of ’99.
The Final Footprint
An informal memorial was held for Staley on the night of April 20, 2002 at the Seattle Center, which was attended by at least 100 fans and friends, including Alice in Chains bandmates Cantrell, Starr, Inez, Kinney and Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell. Staley’s body was cremated and a private memorial service was held for him on April 28, 2002 on Bainbridge Island in Washington’s Puget Sound. It was attended by Staley’s family and friends, along with his Alice in Chains bandmates, Cornell, as well as other music personalities. Cornell, joined by Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, sang a rendition of The Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses” at the funeral. They also performed The Lovemongers’ song “Sand”.
#RIP #OTD in 2006 singer (“Town Without Pity”, “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance”, “Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa”, “I’m Gonna Be Strong”, “It Hurts to Be in Love”, “Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart”), songwriter (“Hello Mary Lou”), musician Gene Pitney died in his hotel room following a concert in Cardiff, Wales, aged 66. Center Cemetery, Somers, Connecticut
| Charlton Heston | |
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 1981 |
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On this day in 2008, U.S. Army Air Forces veteran, actor and activist Charlton Heston died from Alzheimer’s complications at his home in Beverly Hills at the age of 84. Born John Charles Carter or Charlton John Carter on October 4, 1923 in Wilmette, Illinois.
As a Hollywood star, he appeared in 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film, The Ten Commandments (1956), for which he received his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. He also starred in Touch of Evil (1958) with Orson Welles, Ben-Hur (1959), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid (1961), and Planet of the Apes (1968). He also starred in the films The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Secret of the Incas (1954), The Big Country (1958) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).
A supporter of Democratic politicians and civil rights in the 1960s, Heston later became a Republican, founding a conservative political action committee and supporting Ronald Reagan. Heston’s most famous role in politics came as the five-term president of the National Rifle Association, from 1998 to 2003.
Heston as Antony in Julius Caesar (1950)
Heston in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
as Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956)
In Touch of Evil (1958)
In Ben-Hur (1959)
Drawing of Heston after he won an Oscar for Ben-Hur in 1959. Artist: Nicholas Volpe.
at a congressional hearing in 1961
with James Baldwin, Marlon Brando, and Harry Belafonte at the Civil Rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom 1963: Sidney Poitier is in the background.
at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, DC with Sidney Poitier (left) and Harry Belafonte
at the March on Washington in 1963
by Jerry Avenaim in 2001
The Final Footprint
Heston died with Lydia, his wife of 64 years, by his side. Early tributes came in from leading figures; President George W. Bush called Heston “a man of character and integrity, with a big heart … He served his country during World War II, marched in the civil rights movement, led a labor union and vigorously defended Americans’ Second Amendment rights.” Former First Lady Nancy Reagan said that she was “heartbroken” over Heston’s death and released a statement, reading, “I will never forget Chuck as a hero on the big screen in the roles he played, but more importantly I considered him a hero in life for the many times that he stepped up to support Ronnie in whatever he was doing.”
Heston’s funeral was held a week later on April 12, 2008, in a ceremony which was attended by Nancy Reagan and Hollywood stars such as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Olivia de Havilland, Keith Carradine, Pat Boone, Tom Selleck, Oliver Stone (who had cast Heston in his 1999 movie Any Given Sunday), Rob Reiner, and Christian Bale.
The funeral was held at Episcopal Parish of St. Matthew’s Church in Pacific Palisades, the church where Heston had regularly worshipped and attended Sunday services since the early 1980s. He was cremated and his cremains are inured in Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Church Columbarium, Pacific Palisades, California, U.S.
#RIP #OTD in 2014 author (The Snow Leopard, Shadow Country, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse) naturalist, zen teacher, CIA agent, co-founder of The Paris Review, Peter Matthiessen died from leukemia at his home in Sagaponack, New York, aged 86
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