Day in History 19 January – Francesca Woodman – James Dickey – Carl Perkins – Hedy Lamarr – Wilson Pickett – Suzanne Pleshette

#RIP #OTD in 1981 photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring either herself or female models, Francesca Woodman died jumping out of a loft window of a building on the East Side of New York City, aged 22.

On this day in 1997, U.S. Army and U.S Air Force veteran, poet, novelist, eighteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, James Dickey, died in Columbia, South Carolina at the age of 73.  Born James Lafayette Dickey on 2 February 1923 in Atlanta, Georgia.  He attended Clemson and later graduated from Vanderbilt.  Dickey taught at Rice University and The University of South Carolina.  Perhaps best known for his novel Deliverance (1970).  The film version was released in 1972 starring Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight and Ned Beatty and was nominated for an Academy Award.  Both the book and the movie are unforgettable.  I highly recommend both.

The Final Footprint – Dickey is interred in All Saints Episcopal Church Cemetery in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.  His grave is marked with an upright marble marker inscribed with his name, birth and death years and; POET and “I MOVE AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD”.

Carlperkins_Sun_recordsOn this day in 1998, singer, songwriter, musician, the King of Rockabilly, Carl Perkins died at the age of 65 at Jackson-Madison County Hospital in Jackson, Tennessee from throat cancer after suffering several strokes.  Born Carl Lee Perkins on 9 April 1932 in Tiptonville, Tennessee.  Perkins, who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning in 1954, is perhaps best known for his song is “Blue Suede Shoes”.  Charlie Daniels said, “Carl Perkins’ songs personified the rockabilly era, and Carl Perkins’ sound personifies the rockabilly sound more so than anybody involved in it, because he never changed.”  Paul McCartney claimed that “if there were no Carl Perkins, there would be no Beatles.”   Perkins was inducted into the Rock and Roll, the Rockabilly, and the Nashville Songwriters Halls of Fame; and was a Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipient.

The Final Footprint – Among mourners at Perkin’s funeral at Lambuth University were George Harrison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Wynonna Judd, Garth Brooks, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.  Perkins was entombed at Ridgecrest Cemetery in Jackson.

Publicity photo for the film The Heavenly Body, 1944

On this day in 2000, actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr died in Casselberry, Florida of heart disease, aged 85. Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler on November 9, 1914 in Vienna. 

After a brief early film career in Czechoslovakia, including the controversial Ecstasy (1933), she fled from her husband, a wealthy Austrian ammunition manufacturer, and secretly moved to Paris. Traveling to London, she met Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio head Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a movie contract in Hollywood. She became a film star with her performance in Algiers (1938). Her MGM films include Lady of the Tropics (1939), Boom Town(1940), H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), and White Cargo (1942). Perhaps her greatest success was as Delilah in Cecil B. DeMille‘s Samson and Delilah (1949). She also acted on television before the release of her final film, The Female Animal (1958). She was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

At the beginning of World War II, she and composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers. Although the US Navy did not adopt the technology until the 1960s, the principles of their work are incorporated into Bluetooth technology and are similar to methods used in legacy versions of CDMA and Wi-Fi. This work led to their induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

In a 1934 publicity photo with the name “Heddie Kietzler”

Hedy Lamarr, 1944

Sigrid Gurie (left) and Hedy Lamarr (right) were Charles Boyer’s leading ladies in Algiers (1938)

Clark Gable and Lamarr in Comrade X (1940)

In Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945)

With Victor Mature in Samson and Delilah (1949)

With John Hodiak in A Lady Without Passport (1950)

Lamarr was married and divorced six times:

  1. Friedrich Mandl (married 1933–1937), chairman of the Hirtenberger Patronen-Fabrik
  2. Gene Markey (married 1939–1941), screenwriter and producer. Lamarr and Markey lived at 2727 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills, California during their marriage.
  3. John Loder (married 1943–1947), actor. 
  4. Ernest “Ted” Stauffer (married 1951–1952), nightclub owner, restaurateur, and former bandleader
  5. W. Howard Lee (married 1953–1960), a Texas oilman (who later married film actress Gene Tierney)
  6. Lewis J. Boies (married 1963–1965), Lamarr’s divorce lawyer

Following her sixth and final divorce in 1965, Lamarr remained unmarried for the last 35 years of her life.

The Final Footprint

Honorary grave at Vienna’s Central Cemetery

Her son Anthony Loder spread her ashes in Austria’s Vienna Woods in accordance with her last wishes. Lamarr was given an honorary grave in Vienna’s Central Cemetery in 2014.

Wilson_PickettOn this day in 2006, singer, songwriter, the Wicked Pickett, Wilson Pickett died from a heart attack in Reston, Virginia at the age of 64.  Born on 18 March 1941 in Prattville, Alabama.  A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which hit the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100.  Among his best known hits are “In the Midnight Hour” (which he co-wrote), “Land of 1,000 Dances”, “Mustang Sally”, and “Funky Broadway”.  The impact of Pickett’s songwriting and recording led to his 1991 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

The Final Footprint – Pickett was laid to rest in a mausoleum in Louisville, Kentucky at Evergreen Cemetery on Preston Highway.  The eulogy was delivered by Pastor Steve Owens of Decatur, Georgia.  Little Richard, a long-time friend of Pickett’s, spoke about him and preached a message at the funeral.  He was remembered on 20 March 2006, at New York’s B.B. King Blues Club with performances by the Commitments, Ben E King, his long-term backing band the Midnight Movers, soul singer Bruce “Big Daddy” Wayne, and Southside Johnny in front of an audience that included members of his family, including two brothers.

#RIP #OTD in 2008 actress (Rome Adventure, The Birds, The Bob Newhart Show) Suzanne Pleshette died from lung cancer at her Los Angeles home, aged 70. Interment near her third husband, Tom Poston, in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California

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Day in History 18 January – Rudyard Kipling – Curly Howard – Glenn Frey – Roberta Peters – Yvette Mimieux – David Crosby

On this day in 1936, poet, writer, Nobel Prized recipient, Rudyard Kipling, died in Middlesex Hospital, London, England at the age of 70 of a perforated duodenal ulcer.  Born Joseph Rudyard Kipling on 30 December 1865 in Bombay, British India.  He was named after Rudyard Lake in Rudyard, Staffordshire, England where his parents met.  Kipling is best known for his works of fiction, including The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), many short stories including “The Man Who Would Be King” (1888); and his poems, including Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), and If— (1910).  The Jungle Book is one of my favorite books from childhood.  Memorizing If is a rite of passage for the children of one of my friends.  Kipling was married to Carrie Balestier.  On marriage, he wrote that marriage principally taught “the tougher virtues—such as humility, restraint, order, and forethought“.  Partly in response to the tragic death of his only son, John in 1915 in the Battle of Loos, Kipling joined Sir Fabian Ware’s Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission), the group responsible for the garden-like British war graves that can be found to this day dotted along the former Western Front and all the other locations around the world where troops of the British Empire lie buried.  His most significant contribution to the project was his selection of the biblical phrase “Their Name Liveth For Evermore” (Sirach 44.14, KJV) found on the Stones of Remembrance in larger war graves and his suggestion of the phrase “Known unto God” for the gravestones of unidentified servicemen.  Kipling chose the inscription “The Glorious Dead” on the Cenotaph, Whitehall, London.

Poet’s Corner

The Final Footprint – Kipling was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and his cremains were inurned in Poets’ Corner, part of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey.  Other notable cremations at GGC include; Kingsley Amis, Neville Chamberlain, T. S. Eliot, Sigmund Freud, Henry James, Vivien Leigh, Keith Moon, Peter Sellers, Bram Stoker, H. G. Wells and Amy Winehouse.  Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Edward The Confessor, Elizabeth I, George II, George Friederic Handel, Stephen Hawking, James I (James VI of Scotland), Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Charles II, Edward III, Edward VI, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, Richard II, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Henry Purcell, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, Thomas Shadwell, Edmund Spenser, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III. 

#RIP #OTD in 1952 vaudevillian actor and comedian, one of the Three Stooges, Curly Howard died from stroke complications in San Gabriel, California, aged 48. Western Jewish Institute section of Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles

Glenn Frey

Glenn Frey.jpg

performing with the Eagles in 2008

On this day in 2016, singer, songwriter and actor Glenn Frey died while recovering from gastrointestinal tract surgery at Columbia University Medical Center in Manhattan at the age of 67. Born Glenn Lewis Frey on November 6, 1948 in Detroit, Michigan. Perhaps best known as a founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don Henley, with whom he wrote most of the Eagles’ material. Frey played guitar and keyboards as well as singing lead vocals on songs such as “Take It Easy”, “Peaceful Easy Feeling”, “Tequila Sunrise”, “Already Gone”, “James Dean”, “Lyin’ Eyes”, “New Kid in Town”, and “Heartache Tonight”.

After the breakup of the Eagles in 1980, Frey embarked on a successful solo career. He released his debut album, No Fun Aloud, in 1982 and went on to record Top 40 hits “The One You Love”, “Smuggler’s Blues”, “Sexy Girl”, “The Heat Is On”, “You Belong to the City”, “True Love”, “Soul Searchin'” and “Livin’ Right”. As a member of the Eagles, Frey won six Grammy Awards. The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the first year they were nominated.

Frey was married twice. From 1983 to 1988, he was married to artist Janie Beggs. He married dancer and choreographer Cindy Millican in 1990 and they remained together until his death.

The Final Footprint

At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, the remaining members of the Eagles and Jackson Browne performed “Take It Easy” in his honor. A life-sized statue of Frey was unveiled at the Standin’ on the Corner Park in Winslow, Arizona, on September 24, 2016. Frey was cremated. 

in 1974

On this day in 2017, coloratura soprano Roberta Peters died of Parkinson’s disease at the age of 87. Born Roberta Peterman in The Bronx on May 4, 1930. In my opinion, one of the most prominent singers to achieve lasting fame and success in opera.  Peters is noted for her 35-year association with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York, among the longest such associations between a singer and a company in opera. She was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1998.

Peters made her debut on 17 November 1950 as Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Peters who knew the role, but had not yet ever performed on stage, or even sung with a full orchestra, accepted. Her performance was received with great enthusiasm, and her career was established.

Combining an attractive voice with sparkling coloratura agility and good looks, Peters became a favorite of American audiences and a great proponent of opera for the masses. She quickly established herself in the standard soubrette and coloratura repertoire. Her roles at the Met included Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro; Despina in Così fan tutte; The Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute; Amore in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice; Marzeline in Beethoven’s Fidelio; Rosina in The Barber of Seville; Adina in L’elisir d’amore; Norina in Don Pasquale; Oscar in Un ballo in maschera; Nanetta in Falstaff; Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann; Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier; Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos; and Adele in Die Fledermaus. She later added lyric-coloratura roles such as Amina in La sonnambula, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoorand Gilda in Rigoletto, the last being her farewell role at the Met in 1985.

Peters was briefly married to baritone Robert Merrill in 1952, later admitting she had fallen in love with the voice and not the man. The two divorced amicably, remained friends and continued to perform together in opera and recitals. She remarried in 1955, to Bertram Fields.

The Final Footprint 

Peters is interred in Westchester Hills Cemetery  Hastings-on-HudsonWestchester CountyNew York. Other notable final footprints at Westchester Hills include; George and Ira Gershwin and Lee Strasberg.

#RIP #OTD in 2022 actress (The Time Machine, Platinum High School, The Most Deadly Game, Where the Boys Are, Jackson County Jail, The Black Hole), Yvette Mimieux died at her home in Los Angeles aged 80. Cremated remains scattered off the coast of Los Angeles County

#RIP #OTD in 2023 singer, songwriter, guitarist, member of the Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash, David Crosby died at his home in Santa Ynez, California, aged 81. Cremation

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Day in History 17 January – Horace Vernet – Louis Comfort Tiffany – Barbara Jordan – Erich Segal

On this day in 1863 painter Horace Vernet died in Paris at the age of 73. Born Émile Jean-Horace Vernet on 30 June 1789 in the Louvre in Paris. Vernet’s father Carle Vernet and grandfather Claude Joseph Vernet were painters. 

He was born in the Paris Louvre, while his parents were staying there during the French Revolution. Vernet decided to paint subjects taken mostly from contemporary life. He gained recognition during the Bourbon Restoration for a series of battle paintings commissioned by the duc d’Orleans, the future King Louis-Philippe. Enjoying equal favour with the court and with the opposition, he was appointed director of the French Academy in Rome, from 1829 to 1835. 

The King requested that he paint a gallery dedicated to the “fruits of colonization”. At the time, France was colonizing Algeria through war, and claiming it to be part of their mission civilsatrice, or their “civilizing mission”. In a neoclassical style, reflecting the Roman colonization in North Africa about 2000 years before, Horace painted stills of French non-commissioned officers training Algerian soldiers, French engineers building Algerian roads, and French soldiers tilling Algerian fields.

His depictions of Algerian battles, such as the Capture of the Smahla and the Capture of Constantine, were well-received by other French people, as they were vivid depictions of their army in the heat of battle. After the fall of the July Monarchy during the Revolution of 1848, Vernet discovered a new patron in Napoléon III of France. He accompanied the French Army during the Crimean War, producing several paintings. One well known and possibly apocryphal anecdote maintains that when Vernet was asked to remove a certain obnoxious general from one of his paintings, he replied, “I am a painter of history, sire, and I will not violate the truth,” hence demonstrating his fidelity to representing war.

Vernet also developed an interest in daguerreotype photography. He took photographs in Egypt as reference material for his paintings, and during a stop at Malta in March 1840 while en route to Egypt, he took the earliest known photographs of the island at Fort Manoel. Today these early photographs are believed to be lost.

In Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story “The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter” Holmes claims to be related to Vernet, stating, “My ancestors were country squires… my grandmother… was the sister of Vernet, the French artist.”, without further clarifying which Vernet.

 Gallery

 

Olympe Pélissier, étude pour Judith et Holopherne (1830), musée des Beaux-Arts de Boston.

 

Allégorie de la Pologne vaincue ou Le Prométhée polonais (vers 1831), Bibliothèque polonaise de Paris6.

 

Autoportrait (1835), Saint-Pétersbourg, musée de l’Ermitage.

 

The Final Footprint

Vernet is entombed in cimetière de Montmartre in Paris. Other notable final footprints at Montmartre include; Hector Berlioz, Dalida, Edgar Degas, Alexandre Dumas, fils, Marie Duplessis, France Gall, Théophile Gautier, Gustave Moreau, Jeanne Moreau, Henri Murger, Jacques Offenbach, Stendhal, François Truffaut, and Alfred de Vigny.

On this day in 1933, artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany died in New York City at the age of 84.  Born on 18 February 1848 in New York City, the son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of Tiffany and Company; and Harriet Olivia Avery Young.  Tiffany worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass.  He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements.  Tiffany was affiliated with a prestigious collaborative of designers known as the Associated Artists.  Tiffany designed stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, ceramics, jewelry, enamels and metalwork.  Tiffany married twice: Mary Woodbridge Goddard (1872 – 1884 her death) and Louise Wakeman Knox (1886 – 1904 her death).

The Final Footprint – Tiffany is interred in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn.  Other notable final footprints at Green-Wood include; Albert Anastasia, Jean-Michel BasquiatLeonard Bernstein, Lorenzo da Ponte, and Charles Ebbes.

Gallery

Barbara_Jordan-221x300On this day in 1996, U.S. Congresswoman, Texas Senator, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Barbara Jordan, died in Austin, Texas.  Born Barbara Charline Jordan on 21 February 1936 in Houston, Texas.  She was the first African-American elected to the Texas Senate after reconstruction and the first Southern black woman ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.  Jordan was mentioned as a possible running mate to Jimmy Carter in 1976.  That year, she became the first African-American woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.  Jordan retired from politics in 1979 and became an adjunct professor teaching ethics at the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.

The Final Footprint – Jordan is interred in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin becoming the first African-American woman interred there.  Her grave is marked by a large granite upright column monument and a full ledger granite marker.  At the top of the column the word, PATRIOT, is engraved and the ledger is engraved in part; WE THE PEOPLE SALUTE YOU.  Upon her death, Jordan lay in state at the LBJ Library on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin.  The main terminal at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is named after her.  On April 24, 2009, a Barbara Jordan statue was unveiled at the University of Texas at Austin.  Other notable final footprints at Texas State Cemetery include; Stephen F. Austin, John B. Connally, Nellie Connally, J. Frank Dobie, Tom Landry (cenotaph), James A. Michener (cenotaph), Ann Richards, Edwin “Bud” Shrake, Big Foot Wallace, and Walter Prescott Webb.

#RIP #OTD in 2010 author (Love Story, Oliver’s Story), screenwriter, educator, and classicist Erich Segal, who had Parkinson’s disease, died of a heart attack in London, aged 72. Hoop Lane Jewish Cemetery, Golders Green, London.

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Day in History 16 January – Carole Lombard – Ted Cassidy – Andrew Wyeth

On this day in 1942, Academy Award nominated actress, Carole Lombard, died on Mount Potosi near Las Vegas, Nevada at the age of 33.  Born Jane Alice Peters on 6 October 1908 in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  She is particularly noted for her roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s.  Lombard is listed as one of the American Film Institute’s greatest stars of all time and was the highest-paid star in Hollywood in the late 1930s.  Graham Greene praised the “heartbreaking and nostalgic melodies” of her faster-than-thought delivery: “Platinum blonde, with a heart-shaped face, delicate, impish features and a figure made to be swathed in silver lamé, Lombard wriggled expressively through such classics of hysteria as Twentieth Century and My Man Godfrey.”  Lombard was married twice; William Powell (1931 – 1933 divorce) and Clark Gable (1939 – 1942 her death).  Lombard and Gable eloped in Kingman, Arizona on the 29 March 1939.  The couple, both lovers of the outdoors, bought a 20-acre ranch in Encino, California, where they kept barnyard animals and enjoyed hunting trips.  Lombard and 21 others, including her mother, were killed when TWA Flight 3 crashed on returning to California from a war bond rally in Indiana. 

The Final Footprint – Gable was flown to Las Vegas after learning of the tragedy to claim the bodies of his wife, mother-in-law, and Otto Winkler, who aside from being his press agent had been a close friend.  Lombard’s funeral was held on 21 January at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.  Lombard is entombed in the Great Mausoleum Sanctuary of Trust, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale.  Her crypt is memorialized with a bronze plaque with the name, CAROLE LOMBARD GABLE and her birth and death dates.  Shortly after her death, Gable (who was inconsolable and devastated by his loss) joined the United States Army Air Forces, as Lombard had asked him to do numerous times after the United States had entered World War II.  After officer training, Gable headed a six-man motion picture unit attached to a B-17 bomb group in England to film aerial gunners in combat, flying five missions himself.  In December 1943, the United States Maritime Commission announced that a Liberty ship named after Lombard would be launched.  Gable attended the launch of the SS Carole Lombard on 15 January 1944, the two-year anniversary of Lombard’s record-breaking war bond drive.  The ship was involved in rescuing hundreds of survivors from sunken ships in the Pacific and returning them to safety.  Despite being married twice more, Gable chose to be entombed beside Lombard when he died in 1960.  Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; L. Frank Baum, Humphrey Bogart, Lon Chaney, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Harlow, Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Michael Jackson, Tom Mix, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Stewart, and Spencer Tracy.

#RIP #OTD in 1979 actor (Star Trek, I Dream of Jeannie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Lurch on The Addams Family) Ted Cassidy died following heart surgery at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, aged 46. Cremation

On this day in 2009, visual artist Andrew Wyeth died in his sleep in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, after a brief illness, at the age of 91. Born Andrew Newell Wyeth on July 12, 1917 in Chadds Ford.

In his art, Wyeth’s favorite subjects were the land and people around him, both in his hometown of Chadds Ford, and at his summer home in Cushing, Maine. Wyeth often noted: “I paint my life.” One of the best-known images in 20th-century American art is his painting Christina’s World, currently in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This tempera was painted in 1948, when Wyeth was 31 years old.

N.C. Wyeth in his studio with a cowboy model

In 1940, Wyeth married Betsy James, whom he met in 1939 in Maine. Christina Olson, who would become the model for the iconic Christina’s World, met Wyeth through an introduction by Betsy. His wife, Betsy, had an influence on Andrew as strong as that of his father. She played an important role managing his career. She was once quoted as saying, “I am a director and I had the greatest actor in the world.”

Winter 1946, Painted in tempera, 1946.

Winter 1946, Painted in tempera, 1946.

Christina’s World (1948)

It was at the Olson farm in Cushing, Maine, that he painted Christina’s World (1948). Perhaps his most famous image, it depicts his neighbor, Christina Olson, sprawled on a dry field facing her house in the distance. Wyeth was inspired by Christina, who, crippled from (undiagnosed) Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease, a genetic polyneuropathy and unable to walk, spent most of her time at home.

Braids (1979), portrait of Helga Testorf

The Final Footprint

Hathorn Cemetery, Cushing, Maine.

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On this day 15 January – The Black Dahlia (Elizabeth Short) – Yves Tanguy – Meyer Lansky – Sammy Cahn – Harry Nilsson – Junior Wells – Dolores O’Riordan – Carol Channing

Black_DahliaOn this day in 1947, The Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short‘s body was found in the Leimert Park district of Los Angeles, the victim of a gruesome and much-publicized murder, at the age of 22.  Born Elizabeth Short on 29 July 1924 in Boston, Massachusetts.  Short acquired the nickname posthumously by newspapers in the habit of nicknaming crimes they found particularly colorful.  Short’s unsolved murder has been the source of widespread speculation, leading to many suspects, along with several books and film adaptations of the story.    ElizabethShortGrave

The Final Footprint –  Short was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.  A 1975 TV movie, “Who Is the Black Dahlia?” featured Lucie Arnaz in the role of Elizabeth.  James Ellroy wrote The Black Dahlia in 1987.  It was a fictionalized account of Elizabeth, the events in her life eventually leading to her death, and two obsessed cops who attempt to find her killer.  A fictionalized account of Black Dahlia murder was featured in the program American Horror Story: Murder House in episode 9 Spooky Little Girl.  She was portrayed by actress Mena Suvari.  In the episode, Elizabeth was murdered by a young doctor who resided in the show’s haunted house.  Short is portrayed in the episode as a ghost who has lost her memory and is doomed to linger on the house’s premises.  True Confessions, a 1981 film starring Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall was loosely based on the murder case.  The film was adapted from a 1977 novel of the same name by John Gregory Dunne.  A movie titled The Black Dahlia,  based on Ellroy’s book, was released in September 2006 directed by Brian De Palma and starred Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary SwankMia Kirshner played Elizabeth.

#RIP #OTD in 1955 surrealist painter, husband of Kay Sage, Yves Tanguy died from astroke at Woodbury, Connecticut, aged 55. His cremated remains were kept until Sage’s death in 1963. Their remains were scattered by his friend Pierre Matisse on the beach at Douarnenez in Brittany

Meyer_Lansky_NYWTS_1_retouchedOn this day in 1983, major organized crime figure, the “Mob’s Accountant”, Meyer Lansky died of lung cancer at the age of 80 in Miami Beach.  Born Meyer Suchowlansky in Grodno (then in Russian Empire, now in Belarus) on 4 July 1902.  Along with his associate Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Lansky was instrumental in the development of the “National Crime Syndicate” in the United States.  For decades he was thought to be one of the most powerful individuals in the country.  Lansky developed a gambling empire which stretched across the seas.  He was said to own points in casinos in Las Vegas, Cuba, The Bahamas and London.  Although a member of the Jewish Mob, Lansky undoubtedly had strong influence with the Italian Mafia and played a large role in the consolidation of the criminal underworld (although the full extent of this role has been the subject of some debate, as he himself denied many of the accusations against him).  Despite all the reports, the U.S. Justice Department never found Lansky guilty of anything more serious than illegal gambling. 

The Final Footprint – Lansky is interred in Mount Nebo Miami Memorial Gardens in West Miami.  The character Hyman Roth, portrayed by Lee Strasberg, and certain aspects of the main character Michael Corleone from Francis Ford Coppola‘s film The Godfather Part II (1974), appear to be based on Lansky.  Shortly after the premiere in 1974, Lansky phoned Strasberg and congratulated him on a good performance (Strasberg was nominated for an Oscar for his role), but added “You could’ve made me more sympathetic.”  Roth’s statement to Michael Corleone that “We’re bigger than U.S. Steel” was actually a direct quote from Lansky, who said the same thing to his wife while watching a news story on the Cosa Nostra.  The Godfather character Johnny Ola is similar to Lansky’s associate Vincent Alo.  Additionally, the character Moe Greene, who was a friend of Roth’s, appears to be modeled upon Bugsy Siegel.  The film reflects real life in that Lansky was denied the Right of Return to Israel and returned to the U.S. to face criminal charges, but fabricated details regarding Roth’s attempts to bribe Latin American dictators for entry to their countries, as well as Roth’s ultimate fate.  Maximilian “Max” Bercovicz, the gangster played by James Woods in Sergio Leone’s opus Once Upon A Time In America, appears to be inspired by Lansky.  Mark Rydell played Lansky in the 1990 Sydney Pollack film Havana, starring Robert Redford.  The film Bugsy (1991), a biography of Siegel, included Lansky as a major character, played by Ben Kingsley, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.  In the 1991 film Mobsters, he is played by Patrick Dempsey.  Lansky is portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the 2005 film The Lost City, which presents a fictionalized account of Lansky’s involvement in Cuba.

On this day in 1993, lyricist, songwriter and musician, multiple Academy Award-winner, Sammy Cahn, died in Los Angeles, California at the age of 79 from heart failure.  Born Samuel Cohen on 18 June 1913 in The Lower East Side of Manhattan.  My favorite Cahn songs are; “(Love is) The Tender Trap”, “Come Fly with Me” and “My Kind of Town”.  Cahn and composer Jimmy Van Heusen wrote many songs for Frank Sinatra.  Cahn was married twice; Gloria Delson and Virginia “Tita” Curtis. 

The Final Footprint – Cahn is interred at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary (a Dignity Memorial® provider) in Los Angeles.  His grave is marked by a full ledger granite marker inscribed with his name, birth and death years and; SLEEP WITH A SMILE.  Other notable final footprints at Westwood include; Ray Bradbury, Truman Capote, James Coburn, Rodney Dangerfield, Janet Leigh, Farrah Fawcett, Hugh Hefner, Brian Keith, Don Knotts, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Peggy Lee, Jack Lemmon, Karl Malden, Dean Martin, Walter Mathau, Marilyn Monroe, Carroll O’Connor, Roy Orbison, George C. Scott, Dorothy Stratten, Natalie Wood, and Frank Zappa.

#RIP #OTD in 1994 singer (“Everybody’s Talkin'”, “Without You”), songwriter (“One”) Harry Nilsson died of heart failure in his Agoura Hills, California, home at the age of 52. Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park, Westlake Village, California

#RIP #OTD in 1998 blues singer (“Messin’ with the Kid”, Hoodoo Man Blues), harmonica player, Junior Wells died in Chicago, aged 63. Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago

On this day in 2018, musician, singer and songwriter Dolores O’Riordan died as a result of accidental drowning in a bathtub due to sedation by alcohol intoxication at the London Hilton on Park Lane hotel in Mayfair, London, at the age of 46. Born Dolores Mary Eileen O’Riordan on 6 September 1971 in  Ballybricken, County Limerick, Ireland. She was the vocalist for rock band The Cranberries from 1990 until their break-up in 2003, later reuniting with her band in 2009, which she led until her death in 2018.

O’Riordan’s first solo album, Are You Listening?, was released in May 2007 and was followed up by No Baggage in 2009. O’Riordan was known for her lilting mezzo-soprano voice, her emphasised use of keening, and her strong Limerick accent.

On 18 July 1994, O’Riordan married Don Burton, the former tour manager of Duran Duran, at Holy Cross Abbey in Co. Tipperary. The couple divorced in 2014.

The Final Footprint

Funeral plans included a service reserved for extended family and close friends. A three-day memorial in her hometown, with O’Riordan lying in repose, lasted from 20–22 January at St Joseph’s church. O’Riordan’s songs were played, while photographs of the singer performing and one of her with Pope John Paul II were placed along the walls.

She was buried on 23 January after a service at Saint Ailbe’s Roman Catholic Church, Ballybricken, County Limerick; it began with the studio recording of “Ave Maria” as sung by O’Riordan and Luciano Pavarotti. At the end of the service the Cranberries’ song “When You’re Gone” was played. O’Riordan was buried alongside her father at Caherelly Cemetery in Hebertstown, County Limerick.

On this day in 2019, actress, singer, dancer, and comedian Carol Channing died of natural causes at her home in Rancho Mirage, California, at the age of 97. Born Carol Elaine Channing on January 31, 1921 in . Perhaps best known for starring in Broadway and film musicals. Her characters usually had a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice, whether singing or for comedic effect.

Channing began as a Broadway musical actress starring in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1949 and Hello, Dolly! in 1964, and winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the latter. She revived both roles several times throughout her career, playing Dolly on Broadway for the final time in 1995. She was nominated for her first Tony Award in 1956 for The Vamp, followed by a nomination in 1961 for Show Girl. She received her fourth Tony Award nomination for the musical Lorelei in 1974.

As a film actress, she won the Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Her other film appearances include The First Traveling Saleslady (1956) and Skidoo (1968). On television, she appeared as an entertainer on variety shows, from The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1950s to Hollywood Squares. She performed The White Queen in the TV production of Alice in Wonderland (1985), and she had the first of many TV specials in 1966, entitled An Evening with Carol Channing.

Channing was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1981 and received a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995. She continued to perform and make appearances well into her 90s, singing songs from her repertoire and sharing stories with fans, cabaret-style. She released her autobiography Just Lucky I Guess in 2002, and Larger Than Life was released in 2012, a documentary film about her career.

Channing in 2009

Channing was married four times. Her first husband was Theodore Naidish, whom she married when she was 20 in 1941. He was a writer, who in 1944 wrote Watch Out for Willie Carter. Her second husband Alexander F. Carson, known as Axe, or “The Murderous Ax”, played center for the Ottawa Rough Riders Canadian football team and was also a private detective. They married in 1950 and divorced in September 1956.

In September 1956, following the entry of the divorce decree from Carson, Channing married her manager and publicist Charles Lowe. Channing filed for divorce from Lowe in 1998, but her estranged husband died before the divorce was finalized. After Lowe’s death and until shortly before her fourth marriage, the actress’s companion was Roger Denny, an interior decorator. In 2003, while recording the audiobook of her autobiography Just Lucky, I Guess, at VideoActive Productions, NYC, produced and directed by Steve Garrin, she rekindled her romance with her junior high school sweetheart, Harry Kullijian, and they married on May 10, 2003. They later performed at their old junior high school in a benefit for the school. They also promoted arts education in California schools through their Dr. Carol Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation. The couple resided in both Modesto, California, and Rancho Mirage, California. Harry Kullijian died on December 26, 2011, the eve of his 92nd birthday.

The Final Footprint

On January 16, the lights on Broadway were dimmed in her honor. A crowd congregated outside the St. James Theater, as it had also been the anniversary of the opening of the original Broadway production of Hello, Dolly!. She was cremated and her cremated remains were scattered between the Curran theater and the Geary theater in San Francisco.

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On this day 14 January – Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres – Lewis Carroll – Humphrey Bogart – Jeanette MacDonald – Anaïs Nin – Blossom Rock – Donna Reed – Shelley Winters – Ricardo Montalbán – Alan Rickman

#RIP #OTD in 1867 Neoclassical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres died of pneumonia in his apartment on the Quai Voltaire in Paris, aged 86. Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris with a tomb sculpted by his student Jean-Marie Bonnassieux

#RIP #OTD in 1898 author (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass), poet (Jabberwocky, The Hunting of the Snark), mathematician, photographer, Lewis Carroll died of pneumonia following influenza at his sisters’ home, “The Chestnuts”, in Guildford, Surrey, England  He was two weeks away from turning 66 years old. His funeral was held at the nearby St Mary’s Church.  His body was interred at the Mount Cemetery in Guildford

On this day in 1957, U.S. Navy veteran, Academy Award-winning actor and American icon, Bogie, Humphrey Bogart, died from cancer at his home in Holmby Hills, California at the age of 57.  Born Humphrey DeForest Bogart on 25 December 1899 in New York City.  Bogart is a Dutch name meaning orchard.  His acting breakthrough came in 1941, with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. The next year, his performance in Casablanca raised him to the peak of his profession and cemented his trademark film persona;  the hard-boiled cynic who ultimately shows his noble side.  Bogart’s other notable movies included; To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), Key Largo (1948), with his wife Lauren Bacall; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948); The African Queen (1951), for which he won his only Academy Award; Sabrina (1954) and The Caine Mutiny (1954).  His last movie was The Harder They Fall (1956).  During a film career of almost thirty years, he appeared in 75 feature films.  Bogart was married four times; Helen Menken (1926 – 1927 divorce), Mary Phillips (1928 – 1937 divorce), Mayo Methot (1938 – 1945 divorce), Bacall (1945 – 1957 his death).

Bogart met Bacall while filming To Have and Have Not (1944), a loose adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novel.  When they met, Bacall was nineteen and Bogart was forty-five.  He nicknamed her “Baby.”  Bogart was drawn to Bacall’s high cheekbones, green eyes, tawny blond hair, and lean body, as well as her poise and earthy, outspoken honesty.  Their physical and emotional rapport was very strong from the start and quite contrary to the Hollywood norm, it was his first affair with a leading lady.  Bogart was still miserably married and his early meetings with Bacall were discreet and brief, their separations bridged by ardent love letters.

Bogart was a founding member of the Rat Pack.  In the spring of 1955, after a long party in Las Vegas with Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, her husband, Sid Luft, Mike Romanoff and wife Gloria, David Niven, Angie Dickinson and others, Bacall surveyed the wreckage of the party and declared, “You look like a goddamn rat pack.”  Romanoff’s home in Beverly Hills was where the Rat Pack became official.  Sinatra was named Pack Leader, Bacall was named Den Mother, Bogart was Director of Public Relations, and Luft was Acting Cage Manager.  When asked by columnist Earl Wilson what the purpose of the group was, Bacall responded “to drink a lot of bourbon and stay up late.

Bogart is credited with five of the most quotable quotes in American cinema:  “Here’s looking at you, kid” – Casablanca, The stuff that dreams are made of.” – The Maltese Falcon, Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” – Casablanca, We’ll always have Paris.” – Casablanca, Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” – Casablanca.  Bogart is also credited with one of the top movie misquotations.  In Casablanca, neither he, nor anyone else, ever said, “Play it again, Sam“.  When Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), his former love, first enters the Café Americain, she spots Sam, the piano player (Dooley Wilson) and asks him to “Play it once, Sam, for old times’ sake.”  When he feigns ignorance, she responds, “Play it, Sam. Play “As Time Goes By.“”  Later that night, alone with Sam, Rick says, “You played it for her and you can play it for me” and “If she can stand it, I can! Play it!”  The slang term “bogarting” refers to taking an unfairly long time with a cigarette, drink, et cetera, that is supposed to be shared (e.g., “Don’t bogart the microphone!“).  It derives from Bogart’s style of cigarette smoking, with which he left his cigarette dangling from his mouth rather than withdrawing it between puffs.  No one was Bogart cool, before or since.  Indeed, here is lookin’ at you.  

The Final Footprint – Bogart was cremated and his cremains are inurned in the Garden of Memory Columbarium of Eternal Light, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California.  Inurned with his cremains is a small gold whistle, which he had given to Bacall, before they married, in reference to their first movie.  His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 6322 Hollywood Boulevard.  The latest in a long line of Bogart biographies is Stefan Kanfer‘s  “Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart.”  Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; L. Frank Baum, Lon Chaney, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Harlow, Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Michael Jackson, Carole Lombard, Tom Mix, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Stewart, and Spencer Tracy.

#RIP #OTD in 1965 soprano, sister of Blossom Rock (see below) actress (The Love Parade, Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow, One Hour With You, Naughty Marietta, San Franciso) Jeanette MacDonald died; Houston Methodist Hospital, heart failure, aged 61. Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale

220px-Anais_NinOn this day in 1977, author Anaïs Nin died in Los Angeles, California after a three year battle with cancer, at the age of 73.  Born Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell on 21 February 1903 in Neuilly, France to a Cuban father and a French/Danish mother.  Nin wrote journals (which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly before her death), novels, critical studies, essays, short stories, and erotica; including Delta of Venus (1977), Little Birds (1979) and Henry and June (1986).  On 3 March 1923, in Havana, Cuba, Nin married her first husband, Hugh Parker Guiler (1898–1985), a banker and artist, later known as “Ian Hugo” when he became a maker of experimental films in the late 1940s.  According to her diaries, Vol.1, 1931–1934, Nin shared a bohemian lifestyle with writer Henry Miller during her time in Paris.  The diaries tell that her union with Miller was very passionate and physical, and that she believed that it was a pregnancy by him that she aborted in 1934.  In 1947, at the age of 44, she met former actor Rupert Pole in a Manhattan elevator on her way to a party.  The two ended up dating and traveled to California together; Pole was sixteen years her junior.  On 17 March 1955, she married him at Quartzsite, Arizona, returning with Pole to live in California.  Guiler remained in New York City and was unaware of Nin’s second marriage until after her death in 1977, or chose not to know.  Nin referred to her simultaneous marriages as her “bicoastal trapeze”.  In 1966, Nin had her marriage with Pole annulled, due to the legal issues arising from both Guiler and Pole having to claim her as a dependent on their federal tax returns.  Though the marriage was annulled, Nin and Pole continued to live together as if they were married, up until her death in 1977.  Nin often cited authors Djuna Barnes and D. H. Lawrence as inspirations. 

The Final Footrpint – Her body was cremated, and her cremated remains were scattered over Santa Monica Bay in Mermaid Cove.  Philip Kaufman directed the 1990 film Henry & June based on Nin’s novel Henry and June: From the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin.  She was portrayed in the film by Maria de Medeiros.

#RIP #OTD in 1978 sister of Jeanette MacDonald (see above), actress (“Grandmama” on The Addams Family) Blossom Rock died in Los Angeles, California, aged 82. Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California

On this day in 1986, actress Donna Reed died of pancreatic cancer in Beverly Hills, at the age of 64. Born Donna Belle Mullenger on January 27, 1921 in Denison, Iowa. Her career spanned more than 40 years, with performances in more than 40 films. Perhaps best known for her role as Mary Hatch Bailey in Frank Capra’s 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life. In 1953, she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Lorene Burke in the war drama From Here to Eternity.

Reed is known for her work in television, notably as Donna Stone, a middle-class American mother and housewife in the sitcom The Donna Reed Show (1958–1966), in which her character was more assertive than most other television mothers of the era. She received numerous Emmy Award nominations for this role and the Golden Globe Award for Best TV Star in 1963. Later in her career, Reed replaced Barbara Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie Ewing Farlow in the 1984–1985 season of the television melodrama Dallas.

From 1943 to 1945, Reed was married to make-up artist William Tuttle. After they divorced, in 1945 she married producer Tony Owen. After 26 years of marriage, Reed and Owen divorced in 1971. Three years later, Reed married Grover W. Asmus (1926–2003), a retired United States Army colonel. They remained married until her death.

The Final Footprint

Her remains are interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Other notable final footprints at Westwood include; Ray Bradbury,  Sammy Cahn, Truman Capote, James Coburn, Rodney Dangerfield, Janet Leigh, Farrah Fawcett, Hugh Hefner, Brian Keith, Don Knotts, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Peggy Lee, Jack Lemmon, Karl Malden, Dean Martin, Walter Mathau, Marilyn Monroe, Carroll O’Connor, Roy Orbison, George C. Scott, Dorothy Stratten, Natalie Wood, and Frank Zappa.

On this day in 2006, actress Shelley Winters died from heart failure at the Rehabilitation Center of Beverly Hills, at the age of 85. Born Shirley Schrift on August 18, 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her career spanned almost six decades.

She appeared in numerous films, and won Academy Awards for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and A Patch of Blue (1965), and received nominations for A Place in the Sun (1951) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Other roles Winters appeared in include A Double Life (1947), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Lolita (1962), Alfie (1966), and Pete’s Dragon (1977).

Winters was married four times. Her husbands were:

  • Captain Mack Paul Mayer, whom she married on December 29, 1942 in Brooklyn;[11] they divorced in October 1948. Mayer was unable to deal with Shelley’s “Hollywood lifestyle” and wanted a “traditional homemaker” for a wife. Winters wore his wedding ring up until her death, and kept their relationship very private.
  • Vittorio Gassman, whom she married on April 28, 1952 in Juarez, Mexico; they divorced on June 2, 1954.
  • Anthony Franciosa, whom she married on May 4, 1957; they divorced on November 18, 1960.
  • Gerry DeFord, whom she married on January 14, 2006.

The Final Footprint

Her body was interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City. Her third former husband, Franciosa, had a stroke on the day she died and died five days later. Other notable Final Footprints at Hillside Memorial include; Jack BennyMilton BerleCyd CharisseLorne Greene, Moe HowardAl Jolson, Michael LandonJerry LeiberSuzanne Pleshette, and Dinah Shore.

On this day in 2009, actor Ricardo Montalbán died from congestive heart failure at his home in Los Angeles at age 88. Born Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino on November 25, 1920 in Mexico City. His career spanned seven decades, during which he became known for many different performances in a variety of genres, from crime and drama to musicals and comedy.

Among his notable roles was Armando in the Planet of the Apes film series from the early 1970s, where he starred in Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972).

Montalbán played Mr. Roarke on the television series Fantasy Island (1977–1984), and Khan Noonien Singh in both the original Star Trek series (1967) and the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). He won an Emmy Award for his role in the miniseries How the West Was Won (1978), and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1993.

Montalbán was professionally active into his 80s, when he provided voices for animated films and commercials, and appeared as Grandfather Valentin in the Spy Kids franchise. During the 1970s and 80s he was a spokesman in automobile advertisements for Chrysler, including those in which he extolled the “rich Corinthian leather” used for the Cordoba’s interior.

Montalbán married actress and model Georgiana Young (born Georgiana Paula Belzer; September 30, 1923 – November 13, 2007) in 1944. Georgiana was the half-sister of actresses Sally Blane, Polly Ann Young and Loretta Young. They were married for 63 years. Her death preceded Montalbán’s by one year and two months.

The Final Footprint

He is buried in Culver City, California at the Holy Cross Cemetery. Other notable final footprints at Holy Cross include; John Candy, Bing Crosby, Jimmy DuranteJohn Ford, Rita Hayworth, Chick Hearn, Conrad Hilton, Jr., Bela Lugosi, Al Martino, Audrey Meadows, Chris Penn, Jo Stafford, and Sharon Tate.

On this day in 2016, actor and director Alan Rickman died in London of pancreatic cancer, at the age of 69. Born Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman on 21 February 1946 in . He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), performing in modern and classical theatre productions. His first big television role came in 1982, he played the Vicomte de Valmont in the RSC stage production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1985, and after the production transferred to Broadway in 1987 he was nominated for a Tony Award.

Rickman’s first cinematic role was as the German terrorist leader Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988). He also appeared as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), for which he received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Elliott Marston in Quigley Down Under (1990); Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990); P.L. O’Hara in An Awfully Big Adventure (1995); Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility (1995); Alexander Dane in Galaxy Quest (1999); Harry in Love Actually (2003); Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005); and Judge Turpin in the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007). Rickman gained further notice for his film performances as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series.

Rickman made his television acting debut playing Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1978) as part of the BBC’s Shakespeare series. He later starred in television films, playing the title character in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996), which won him a Golden Globe Award, an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and Dr. Alfred Blalock in the Emmy-winning Something the Lord Made (2004). His final film roles were as Lieutenant General Frank Benson in the thriller Eye in the Sky (2015), and the voice of Absolem, the caterpillar in Alice Through the Looking Glass.

In 1965, at age 19, Rickman met 18-year-old Rima Horton, who became his girlfriend and would later be a Labour Party councillor on the Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council (1986–2006) and an economics lecturer at the nearby Kingston University. In 2015, Rickman confirmed that they had married in a private ceremony in New York City in 2012. They lived together from 1977 until Rickman’s death. The two had no children.

The Final Footprint

His remains were cremated on 3 February 2016 in the West London Crematorium in Kensal Green. His ashes were given to his wife. His final two films, Eye in the Sky and Alice Through the Looking Glass, were dedicated to his memory.

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Day in History 13 January – Edmund Spenser – Stephen Foster – Wyatt Earp – James Joyce – Donny Hathaway – W. D. Snodgrass – Teddy Pendergrass

Edmund_Spenser_oil_paintingOn this day in 1599, poet Edmund Spenser died in London at the age of 46.  Born in East Smithfield, London, around the year 1552.  Perhaps best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I.  In my opinion, he is one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse, and one of the greatest poets in the English language. 

The Final Footprint – His coffin was carried to his grave in Westminster Abbey by other poets, who reportedly threw many pens and pieces of poetry into his grave with many tears.  His epitaph reads:

HERE LYES (EXPECTING THE SECOND
COMMINGE OF OVR SAVIOVR CHRIST
IESVS) THE BODY OF EDMUND SPENCER
THE PRINCE OF POETS IN HIS TYME
WHOSE DIVINE SPIRRIT NEEDS NOE
OTHIR WITNESSE THEN THE WORKS
WHICH HE LEFT BEHINDE HIM

Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Edward The Confessor, Elizabeth I, George II, George Friederic Handel, Stephen Hawking, James I (James VI of Scotland), Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Charles II, Edward III, Edward VI, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, Richard II, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Henry Purcell, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, Thomas Shadwell, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.

stephen_FosterOn this day in 1864, songwriter, “The Father of American Music”, Stephen Foster died in Bellevue Hospital in New York at the age of 37.  Born Stephen Collins Foster on 4 July 1826 in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania.  Primarily known for his parlour and minstrel music.  Foster wrote over 200 songs; among his best known are “Oh! Susanna,” “Camptown Races,” “Old Folks at Home,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,”  and “Beautiful Dreamer.”

From a modern perspective Foster’s compositions can be seen as disparaging to African Americans, and racist. Others have argued that Foster unveiled the realities of slavery in his work while also imparting some dignity to African Americans in his compositions, especially as he grew as an artist.  Foster composed many songs that were used in minstrel shows.  This form of public entertainment lampooned African Americans as buffoonish, superstitious, without a care, musical, lazy, and dim-witted.  In the early 1830s, these minstrel shows gained popularity, and blackface minstrel shows were a separate musical art form by 1848, more readily accessible to the general public than opera. 

The Final Footprint – Foster was buried in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh.  He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010.  “My Old Kentucky Home” is the official song of the Kentucky Derby.

Wyatt_Earp_portraitOn this day in 1929, city policeman, teamster, buffalo hunter, bouncer, saloon-keeper, gambler, brothel owner, pimp, miner, boxing referee, Pima County Deputy Sheriff, and Deputy Town Marshal in Tombstone, Arizona, Wyatt Earp died at home in the Earps’ apartment at 4004 W 17th Street, in Los Angeles, of chronic cystitis (some sources cite prostate cancer) at the age of 80.  Born Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp in Monmouth, Warren County in western Illinois, on 19 March 1848.  Earp took part in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral during which lawmen killed three outlaw Cowboys.  To Wyatt’s displeasure, the 30-second gunfight defined the rest of his life.  He is often regarded as the central figure in the shootout in Tombstone, although his brother Virgil was Tombstone City Marshal and Deputy U.S. Marshal that day, and had far more experience as a sheriff, constable, and marshal and in combat.  His first wife Urilla Sutherland Earp died while pregnant less than a year after they married.  Within the next two years he was arrested, sued twice, escaped from jail, then was arrested three more times for “keeping and being found in a house of ill-fame”.  He landed in the cattle boomtown of Wichita, Kansas where he became a deputy city marshal for one year and developed a solid reputation as a lawman.  In 1876 he followed his brother James to Dodge City, Kansas where he became an assistant city marshal.  In winter 1878, he went to Texas to gamble where he met John Henry Doc Holliday whom Earp credited with saving his life.  Earp moved constantly throughout most of his life from one boomtown to another.  He left Dodge City in 1879 and with his brothers James and Virgil, moved to Tombstone where a huge silver boom was underway.  The Earps bought an interest in the Vizina mine and some water rights.  There, the Earps clashed with a loose federation of outlaw cowboys.  Wyatt, Virgil, and their younger brother Morgan held various law enforcement positions that put them in conflict with Tom and Frank McLaury, and Ike and Billy Clanton, who threatened to kill the Earps.  The conflict escalated over the next year, culminating on 26 October 1881 in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which the Earps and Holliday killed three of the Cowboys.  In the next five months, Virgil was ambushed and maimed and Morgan was assassinated.  Pursuing a vendetta, Wyatt, his brother Warren, Holliday, and others formed a federal posse which killed three of the Cowboys they thought responsible.  Unlike his lawmen brothers Virgil and James, Wyatt was never wounded in the few gunfights he took part in, which only added to his mystique after his death.  After leaving Tombstone, Earp and his third wife Josephine Earp moved from one boomtown to another, starting in Eagle City, Idaho; followed by San Diego, California; Nome, Alaska; Tonopah, Nevada; and finally Vidal, California.  An extremely flattering, largely fictionalized, best-selling biography published after his death created his reputation as a fearless lawman.  As a result of the book, Wyatt Earp has been the subject of and model for a large number of films, TV shows, biographies and works of fiction that have increased his mystique.  Earp’s modern-day reputation is that of the Old West’s “toughest and deadliest gunman of his day”.  Wyatt_&_Josephine_Earp_grave

The Final Footprint – His Associated Press obituary described him as a “gun-fighter, whose blazing six-shooters, were for most of his life allied with the side of law and order”.  His pallbearers were W. J. Hunsaker, (Earp’s attorney in Tombstone and noted L.A. attorney); Jim Mitchell (Los Angeles Examiner reporter and Hollywood screenwriter); George W. Parsons (founding member of Tombstone’s “Committee of Vigilance”); Wilson Mizner (a friend of Wyatt’s during the Klondike Gold Rush); John Clum (a good friend from his days in Tombstone, former Tombstone mayor, and editor of The Tombstone Epitaph); William S. Hart (good friend and western actor and silent film star); and Tom Mix (friend and western film star).  The newspapers reported that Mix cried during his friend’s service.  His wife Josie was too grief-stricken to attend.  Josie, who was of Jewish heritage, had Earp’s body cremated and buried his ashes in the Marcus family plot at the Hills of Eternity, a Jewish cemetery in Colma, California.  Although it never was incorporated as a town, the settlement formerly known as Drennan located near the site of some of his mining claims was renamed Earp, California in his honor when the post office was established there in 1930.  When Josie died in 1944, her ashes were buried next to Earp’s.  The original gravemarker was stolen on 8 July 1957 but was later recovered.  Earp has been portrayed in films by various actors including; Randolph Scott, Henry Fonda, Burt Lancaster, James Garner, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, and Val Kilmer.

On this day in 1941, novelist and poet, James Joyce, died following surgery for a perforated ulcer in Zurich, Switzerland at the age of 58.  Born James Augustine Aloysius Joyce on 2 February 1882 in the Dublin, Ireland suburb of Rathgar.  In my opinion, one of the most influential writers of the early 20th century.  Perhaps best known for Ulysses (1922), his landmark novel which perfected his stream of consciousness technique in a modern re-telling of The Odyssey.  Joyce’s other major works include; the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939).  In 1904, he met Nora Barnacle, a young woman from Connemara, County Galway who was working as a chambermaid.  She would be his lover, companion, muse and eventual wife.  On 16 June 1904, they had their first date, an event which would be commemorated by providing the date for the action of Ulysses.  The entire novel chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom on an ordinary day in Dublin.  Joyce fans worldwide now celebrate 16 June as Bloomsday.  The day involves a range of cultural activities including Ulysses readings and dramatisations, pub crawls and general merriment, much of it hosted by the James Joyce Centre in North Great George’s Street.  Joyce and Nora were married from 1931 until his death.  “Molly Bloom’s soliloquy” from Ulysses is one of my all-time favorite literary passages.  

The Final Footprint – Joyce is interred in the Joyce private estate in Fluntern Cemetery in Zurich.  The estate is marked by a bronze statue of Joyce.  Nora died on 10 April 1951 and is interred next him.  Their graves are maked by a full ledger granite marker.  Other memorials inlcude; a bronze bust in St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, a bronze statue in Trieste, Italy, the Jame-Joyce-Plateau fountain at Platzspitz Park in Zurich and a bronze statue on North Earl Street in Dublin.

#RIP #OTD in 1979 singer, keyboardist, songwriter, backing vocalist, and arranger, soul legend, Donny Hathaway died after jumping from his 15th-floor room in the Essex House hotel, Manhattan, aged 33. Lake Charles Park Cemetery, Bel-Nor, Missouri. 

#RIP #OTD in 2009 poet (Heart’s Needle) W. D. Snodgrass died in Erieville, New York, aged 83. Cremation (Heart’s Needle inaugurated confessional poetry and earned Snodgrass a Pulitzer. He disliked the term)

On this day in 2010, singer Teddy Pendergrass died from respiratory failure with his wife Joan by his side, at Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania at the age of 59. Born Theodore DeReese Pendergrass on March 26, 1950 in  Philadelphia. He initially rose to musical fame as the lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. After leaving the group over monetary disputes in 1976, Pendergrass launched a successful solo career under the Philadelphia International label, releasing four consecutive platinum albums, then a record for an African-American R&B artist. Pendergrass’ career was suspended after a near-fatal car crash in March 1982 that left him paralyzed from the chest down. Pendergrass continued his successful solo career until announcing his retirement in 2007. Pendergrass died from respiratory failure in January 2010.

In June 1987, he married a former Philadanco dancer named Karen Still, who had also danced in his shows. They amicably divorced in 2002. In the spring of 2006 Pendergrass met Joan Williams. He proposed to her after four months, and they married in a private ceremony on Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008. A formal wedding was celebrated at The Ocean Cliff Resort in Newport, Rhode Island, on September 6, 2008. 

The Final Footprint

His body was interred at the West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Another notable final footprint at West Laurel Hill is that of John B. Stetson.

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Day in History 12 January – Agatha Christie – Affirmed – Maurice Gibb – Alice Coltrane – Precious Bryant – Ronnie Spector – Lisa Marie Presley

#RIP #OTD in 1976 writer (novels revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple) Agatha Christie died at her home at Winterbrook House in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, aged 85. St. Mary’s church, Cholsey, Oxfordshire

On this day in 2001, thoroughbred racehorse, Champion Two-Year-Old Colt (1977), Champion Three-Year-Old Male (1978), Two-X Horse of the Year (1978, 1979) and 11th Triple Crown Winner (1978), Affirmed, died at Jonabell Farm near Lexington, Kentucky, age 25.  Affirmed was euthanized after falling seriously ill with laminitis, a circulatory hoof disease.  The same disease led to the death of fellow Triple Crown winner Secretariat.  Foaled on 21 February 1975 at Harbor View Farm near Fellowship, Florida.  Affirmed was the great-great-grandson of Triple Crown winner War Admiral through damsire Crafty Admiral, and thereby the great-great-great grandson of Man o’ War who won two of the three Triple Crown races himself.  Affirmed was also known for his famous rivalry with Alydar, whom he met ten times, including in all three Triple Crown races and where Alydar became the first racehorse to finish second in all three Triple Crown races.  I remember watching all three of those races that year.  I fell in love with both of these beautiful chestnut horses.  Affirmed was trained by Hall of Fame trainer Laz Barrera.  Barrera once said: “Affirmed is greater than Secretariat, or any Triple Crown winner, because only Affirmed had to face Alydar.”  During the Triple Crown races, Affirmed was ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Steve Cauthen

The Final Footprint – Affirmed was buried whole, the ultimate honor for a race horse, at Jonabell Farm, wearing the flamingo pink colors of his original owners, Harbor View Farm.  His grave is marked by a half-life size bronze statue on a granite base.

On this day in 2003, musician, singer, songwriter Maurice Gibb died unexpectedly due to complications of a twisted intestine, with his wife, children, and brothers at his side at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida at the age of 53. Born Maurice Ernest Gibb on 22 December 1949 in Douglas, Isle of Man. He achieved fame as a member of the pop group Bee Gees. Although his brothers Barry and Robin Gibb were the group’s main lead singers, most of their albums included at least one or two compositions by Maurice, including “Lay It on Me”, “Country Woman”, and “On Time”. Gibb’s role in the group focused on melody and arrangements, providing backing vocal harmony and playing a variety of instruments.

Gibb started his music career in 1955 in Manchester, England, joining the skiffle-rock and roll group the Rattlesnakes, which later evolved into the Bee Gees in 1958 when they moved to Australia. They returned to England, where they achieved worldwide fame.

By 1964 he began his career as an instrumentalist, playing guitar on “Claustrophobia”. After the group’s break-up in 1969, Gibb released his first solo single, “Railroad”, but his first solo album, The Loner, has never been released.

Gibb and Scottish pop singer Lulu married on 18 February 1969 and divorced in 1975. Their careers and his heavy drinking forced them apart.

He married his second wife, Yvonne Spenceley Gibb, on 17 October 1975. Their marriage lasted until his death.

The Final Footprint

His funeral service was attended by Michael JacksonAfter his funeral service, his body was cremated.

On this day in 2007, jazz musician and composer, and swamini, Alice Coltrane died of respiratory failure at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center in suburban Los Angeles, aged 69. Born Alice McLeod on August 27, 1937 in Detroit. Also known by her adopted Sanskrit name Turiyasangitananda or Turiya. One of the few harpists in the history of jazz, she recorded many albums as a bandleader, beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s for Impulse! and other major record labels. She was the second wife and the widow of jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane.

The Final Footprint

She is buried alongside John Coltrane in Pinelawn Memorial Park, Farmingdale, Suffolk County, New York.

#RIP #OTD in 2013 blues, gospel, folk singer, Piedmont fingerstyle guitarist, one of Georgia’s great blueswomen, Precious Bryant died in Columbus, Georgia, of complications from diabetes & congestive heart failure, aged 71. Salem Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery, Olive Branch GA

#RIP #OTD in  2022 singer, co-founder of The Ronettes (“Be My Baby”, “Baby, I Love You”, “(The Best Part of) Breakin’ Up”, “Do I Love You?”, “Walking in the Rain”) Ronnie Spector died at her home in Danbury CT from cancer aged 78. Cremation

#RIP #OTD 2023 singer, songwriter, daughter of Elvis and Priscilla, Lisa Marie Presley died of small bowel obstruction caused by a bariatric surgery at West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles, aged 54. Graceland Meditation Garden, next to her son

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Day in History 11 January – Francis Scott Key – Thomas Hardy – Eva Tanguay – Anita Ekberg

On this day in 1843, lawyer, author, and poet, Francis Scott Key, died at the home of his daughter Elizabeth Howard in Baltimore, Maryland at the age of 63.  Born on 1 August 1779 in Carroll County Maryland.  During the War of 1812, Key dined aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant, as a guest of the British.  Key was there to negotiate the release of prisoners.  Key was not allowed to return to his own sloop: he had become familiar with the strength and position of the British units and with the British intent to attack Baltimore.  As a result, Key was unable to do anything but watch the bombarding of the American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore on the night of 13 September – 14 September 1814.  When the smoke cleared, Key was able to see an American flag still waving and reported this to the prisoners below deck.  On the way back to Baltimore, he was inspired to write a poem describing his experience, “The Defence of Fort McHenry”, which he published in the Patriot on 20 September 1814.  He intended to fit the words to the rhythms of composer John Stafford Smith‘s “To Anacreon in Heaven”.  It became  known as “The Star Spangled Banner”.  Under this name, the song was adopted as the American national anthem, first by an Executive Order from President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 (which had little effect beyond requiring military bands to play it) and then by a Congressional resolution in 1931, signed by President Herbert Hoover.  In 1832, Key served as the attorney for Sam Houston during his trial in the U.S. House of Representatives for assaulting another Congressman.  Key was a distant cousin and the namesake of F. Scott Fitzgerald whose full name was Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald.  Scott was married to Mary Tayloe “Polly” Lloyd (1784 – 1843 his death).  

The Final Footprint – Key was initially entombed in Old Saint Paul’s Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland in the vault of John Eager Howard.  In 1866, his body was moved to his family plot in Frederick, Maryland at Mount Olivet Cemetery.  The Key Monument Association erected a memorial in 1898 and the remains of both Francis Scott Key and his wife were placed in a crypt in the base of the monument.  Cenotaphs in his honor have been erected at Fort McHenry, on Eutaw Street in Baltimore and at the Presidio in San Francisco, California.  The US Navy named a submarine in his honor, the USS Francis Scott Key. 

#RIP #OTD in 1928 poet, novelist (Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd) Thomas Hardy died at his home, Max Gate aged 87. His heart at St. Michael’s Churchyard, Stinsford, England, cremated remains Poets’ Corner Westminster Abbey

#RIP #OTD in 1947 singer (“I Don’t Care”), actress (The Wild Girl) and entertainer, the Queen of Vaudeville, The I Don’t Care Girl, Eva Tanguay died in Hollywood, aged 68. Hollywood Forever Cemetery

On this day in 2015, actress Anita Ekberg died at the clinic San Raffaele in Rocca di Papa in Castelli Romani, Italy, at the age of 83. Born Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg on 29 September 1931 in  Malmö, Skåne, Sweden. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita (1960). Ekberg worked primarily in Italy, where she became a permanent resident in 1964.

Both of Ekberg’s marriages were to actors, but neither of them succeeded. She was married to Anthony Steel from 22 May 1956 until their divorce in 14 May 1959 and to Rik Van Nutter from 9 April 1963 until their divorce in 1975. 

in Hollywood or Bust (1956)

The Final Footprint

Ekberg’s funeral service was held on 14 January 2015, at the Lutheran-Evangelical Christuskirche in Rome, after which her body was cremated and her remains were buried at the cemetery of Skanör Church in Sweden.

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Day in History 10 January – Buffalo Bill Cody – Sinclair Lewis – Gabriela Mistral – Dashiell Hammett – Coco Chanel – Howlin’ Wolf – David Bowie – Jeff Beck

On this day in 1917, soldier, Medal of Honor recipient, bison hunter and showman, Buffalo Bill Cody, died surrounded by family and friends at his sister’s house in Denver, Colorado, at the age of 70.  Born William Frederick Cody on 26 February 1846 near LeClaire, Iowa.  One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, mostly famous for the shows he organized with cowboy themes.  At one time or another, the wild west shows Cody appeared in or founded featured, James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane and the great Lakota Sioux holy man and war chief Sitting Bull.  He was instrumental in founding the city of Cody, Wyoming.  Cody established the TE Ranch located on the South Fork of the Shoshone River about thirty-five miles from Cody.  The spread eventually included 8,000 acres for a grazing operation that ran about 1,000 head of cattle.  Cody was married to Louisa Maud Frederici (1866 – 1917 his death).  My heroes have always been Cowboys.

The Final Footprint – Cody is interred in the Cody private estate on Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado.  Louisa was interred next to him when she passed in1921.  The estate is marked by a stone monument with a bronze plaque with their names and birth and death years.  Underneath Louisa’s name is the inscription, AT REST HERE BY HIS REQUEST.  Cody’s grave is marked by a bronze individual marker inscribed with his name and birth and death dates and the following; MEDAL OF HONOR INDIAN SCOUT 3 US CAV INDIAN WARS.

#RIP #OTD in 1951 writer (Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, Dodsworth, It Can’t Happen Here), poet, playwright Sinclair Lewis died in Rome from advanced alcoholism, aged 65. Cremated remains interred at Greenwood Cemetery in Sauk Centre, Minnesota

#RIP #OTD in 1957 poet (Sonetos de la muerte), the first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature, Gabriela Mistral died of pancreatic cancer in Hempstead Hospital in New York City, aged 67. Cementerio de Monte Grande, Monte Grande, Chile.

On this day in 1961, writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories Dashiell Hammett died in Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan on January 10, 1961, of lung cancer.  Born Samuel Dashiell Hammett near Great Mills on the “Hopewell and Aim” farm in Saint Mary’s County, Maryland, on 27 May 1894.

He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), the Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse) and the comic strip character Secret Agent X-9.

In my opinion, one of the finest mystery writers of all time.  In his obituary in The New York Times, he was described as “the dean of the… ‘hard-boiled’ school of detective fiction.”  Time included Hammett’s 1929 novel Red Harvest on its list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.  In 1990, the Crime Writers’ Association picked three of his five novels for their list of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All TimeFive years later, four out of five of his novels made The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time as selected by the Mystery Writers of America.  His novels and stories also had a significant influence on films, including the genres of private eye/detective fiction, mystery thrillers, and film noir.

Coco_Chanel,_1920On this day in 1971, fashion designer and founder of the Chanel brand, Coco Chanel died at the Hotel Ritz in Paris, where she had resided for more than 30 years, at the age of 87.  Born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel on 19 August 1883 to an unmarried mother, Eugénie Jeanne Devolle – known as Jeanne – a laundrywoman, in the charity hospital run by the Sisters of Providence (a poorhouse) in Saumur, France.  Her father, Albert Chanel was an itinerant street vendor who peddled work clothes and undergarments.  Chanel is the only fashion designer listed on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.  Along with Paul Poiret, Chanel was credited with liberating women from the constraints of the “corseted silhouette” and popularizing the acceptance of a sportive, casual chic as the feminine standard in the post-World War I era.  A prolific fashion creator, Chanel’s influence extended beyond couture clothing.  Her design aesthetic was realized in jewelry, handbags, and fragrance.  Her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, has become an iconic product.  Chanel was known for her lifelong determination, ambition, and energy which she applied to her professional and social life.  She achieved both success as a businesswoman and social prominence thanks to the connections she made through her work.  These included many artists and craftspeople to whom she became a patron.  However, Chanel’s life choices generated controversy, particularly her behaviour during the German occupation of France in World War II.  Chanel was the mistress of some of the most influential men of her time, but she never married.  She had significant relationships with the poet Pierre Reverdy and the illustrator and designer Paul Iribe.  During the German occupation of France, Chanel resided at the Hotel Ritz, which was also noteworthy for being the preferred place of residence for upper echelon German military staff.  Her romantic liaison with Hans Gunther von Dincklage, a German officer who had been an operative in military intelligence since 1920, facilitated her arrangement to reside at the Ritz.

The Final Footprint – Chanel’s funeral was held at the eglise de la Madeleine.  Her fashion models occupied the first seats during the ceremony and her coffin was covered with white flowers – camellias, gardenias, orchids, azaleas and a few red roses.  Her grave is located in the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Howlin'_WolfOn this day in 1976, blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player Howlin’ Wolf died from complications of kidney disease at the Hines VA Hospital in Hines, Illinois at the age of 65.  In my opinion, one of the greatest blues artists of all-time.  A number of songs written or popularized by Burnett, such as “Smokestack Lightnin'”, “Back Door Man”, “Killing Floor” and “Spoonful”, have become blues and blues rock standards.  Born Chester Arthur Burnett on 10 June 1910 in West Point, Mississippi in an area now known as White Station. 

The Final Footprint – Burnett is buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Hillside, Cook County, Illinois in a plot in Section 18, on the east side of the road.  His large gravestone, allegedly purchased by Eric Clapton, has an image of a guitar and harmonica etched into it.

David Bowie

Bowie smiling

during the Heathen Tour (Chicago, 2002)


On this day in 2016, singer, songwriter, actor David Bowie
 died from liver cancer in his New York City apartment at the age of 69. Born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London. Bowie was a leading figure in popular music for over five decades, acclaimed by critics and other musicians for his innovative work. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, his music and stagecraft significantly influencing popular music.

“Space Oddity” became his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart after its release in July 1969. After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with his flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of his single “Starman” and album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. In 1975, Bowie’s style shifted radically towards a sound he characterised as “plastic soul”, garnering him his first major US crossover success with the number-one single “Fame” and the album Young Americans. In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth, directed by Nicolas Roeg, and released Station to Station. The following year, he further confounded musical expectations with the electronic-inflected album Low (1977), the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that would come to be known as the “Berlin Trilogy”. “Heroes” (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed.

Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 single “Ashes to Ashes”, its parent album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), and “Under Pressure”, a 1981 collaboration with Queen. He then reached his commercial peak in 1983 with Let’s Dance, with its title track topping both UK and US charts. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including industrial and jungle. He also continued acting; his roles included Major Celliers in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), the Goblin King Jareth in Labyrinth (1986), Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Nikola Tesla in The Prestige (2006), among other film and television appearances and cameos. He stopped concert touring after 2004 and his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006. In 2013, Bowie returned from a decade-long recording hiatus with the release of The Next Day. He remained musically active until his death two days after the release of his final album, Blackstar (2016).

Bowie married his first wife, Mary Angela Barnett on 19 March 1970 at Bromley Register Office in Bromley, London. Bowie and Angela divorced on 8 February 1980 in Switzerland.

On 24 April 1992, Bowie married Somali-American model Iman in a private ceremony in Lausanne. The wedding was later solemnised on 6 June in Florence.

during the Ziggy Stardust Tour from 1972–73

filming a video for “Rebel Rebel” in 1974

performing during Diamond Dogs Tour, 1974

performing with Cher on the variety show Cher, 1975

as the Thin White Duke at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, 1976

performing in Oslo, Norway, 1978

Serious Moonlight Tour, 1983

performing during the Glass Spider Tour, 1987

in Chile during the Sound+Vision Tour, 1990

with wife Iman, 2009

The Final Footprint 

In his will, Bowie stipulated that he be cremated and his ashes scattered in Bali “in accordance with the Buddhist rituals”.

A woman places flowers outside Bowie’s apartment in New York on Lafayette Street the day after his death was announced

Following Bowie’s death, fans gathered at impromptu street shrines. At the mural of Bowie in his birthplace of Brixton, south London, which shows him in his Aladdin Sane character, fans laid flowers and sang his songs. Other memorial sites included Berlin, Los Angeles, and outside his apartment in New York. Bowie had insisted that he did not want a funeral.

#RIP #OTD in 2023 guitarist (Yardbirds; Jeff Beck Group; Beck, Bogert & Appice) Jeff Beck died from a bacterial meningitis infection at a hospital in Wadhurst, England at the age of 78. St. Mary’s Church Cemetery, ShotleyBabergh DistrictSuffolkEngland

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