The Beatles Top the Charts

It was 1964 and it seemed that everything, at least in music, revolved around the Beatles. They had hit the United States with a two year abundance of hits from England and on the Billboard Top 40 chart of April 3, 1964 their songs occupied the top 5 slots, a feat that had never occurred before or since.

The songs were “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “Twist and Shout”, “She Loves You”, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, and “Please Please Me”.

But this wasn’t all since seven of their other songs was also on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart during this same period. They were: “I Saw Her Standing There”, “You Can’t Do That”, “All My Loving”, “Roll Over Beethoven”, “From Me To You”, “Do You Want To Know A Secret”, and “Thank You Girl”.

Other than “Twist and Shout” written by Phil Medley and Bert Russell and Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” all of these songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. “Twist and Shout” was the only song covered by the Beatles to become a million selling single of theirs.

The Beatles actually held the Top 4 spots in the previous week. The newcomer was “Can’t Buy Me Love”, which entered the top spot from Number 27. The Top 4 were “She Loves You”, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, “Twist and Shout”, and “Please Please Me”.

What was the top song not done by the Beatles on the April 3rd chart? That would be “Suspicion” by Terry Stafford.

Birth of the Titanic

On March 31, 1909 at the shipyards of Harlan and Wolff, in Belfast Ireland, the keel of the Titanic was laid. This can be considered the birth of the ship. Thomas Andrews, the managing director of Harland and Wolff, was the ship’s chief designer. He spend many hours with the ship, including going on its maiden voyage.

The ship was built as part of the White Star Lines and part of their Olympic Class liners. There was three Olympic Class ships, the Olympic, Titanic and Britannic. The Titanic was the second of the three ships.

The approval of the designs of the Titanic was on July 29, 1908.

The Olympic was launched on October 20, 1910 and until the launch of the Titanic on May 31, 1911 it was the world’s largest ship.

Originally the date for the maiden voyage of the Titanic was to begin on March 20, 1912, but when the Olympic was damaged on September 20, 1911, it was decided to set back the date until April 10, 1912.

On March 31, 1912 the fitting of the Titanic was completed. The ship began sea trails three days later on April 2nd.

In Texas

Texas was the next to last state to reenter the union of the United States of American after the end of the War Between the States or the Civil War. That occurred on March 30, 1870. The last was Georgia a few months later on July 15, 1870.

Over its history Texas has been part of 6 different nations and therefore flew 6 National flags. Spain, France, Mexico, Republic of Texas, Unites States of America and the Confederate States of America.

The community of Ysleta, Texas is considered the oldest settlement in Texas. In 1680 the Ysleta Mission began with the settlement built around it. Ysleta has been annexed and is currently part of El Paso, Texas.

Confederate Heroes Day, January 19th, is a holiday in Texas. January 19th is the birthday of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s and in 1931 Texas approved the Robert E. Lee Birthday Holiday. In 1973 Jefferson Davis’ Birthday holiday (June 3rd) was eliminated and the two were combined and renamed Confederate Heroes Day.

The Kansas City Chiefs began as the Dallas Texans as one of the first six teams in the American Football League (AFL), forming in 1959. They moved to Kansas City in 1962. The Indianapolis Colts franchise also started in Dallas and also called the Texans. This Dallas Texans team played for two years before moving to Baltimore in 1953 taking the name Colts.

Until 2010, Baseball’s Texas Rangers were the oldest team in the Major League Baseball to have never played in a World Series. The franchise began as the Washington Senators in 1961 after the original Washington Senators moved to Minnesota and renamed the Twins in 1960. They advanced to the World Series again in 2011, but lost in seven games to St. Louis.

The Seattle Mariners and the Washington Nationals, originally the Montreal Expos, now are the only major league teams not to appear in a World Series. The Mariners debuted in 1977 while the Expos debuted in 1969 moving to Washington in 2005.

John Jacob Astor

The first John Jacob Astor was an early 19th century businessman who when he died on March 29, 1848 was considered the richest man in America. Astor was born in Waldorf, Germany and moved to London when he was 16.

Astor fortune was due to the business of buying and selling furs. He heard that money could be made from fur trading while in London and moved to America in 1783. By the end of the 18th century he had established trading posts along the Missouri and Columbia Rivers and had a fleet of ships transporting furs all over the world.

It was on June 23, 1810 that Astor formally established the Pacific Fur Company. This was a joint venture of Astor and the American Fur Company, also owned by Astor, to begin fur trading in western America. His plans was to establish a settlement at the mouth of the Columbia River and trade with the eastern land of Russia and China. This plan failed and during the War of 1812, he sold the company to the rival North West Company based in Montreal, Canada

Astor found his fortunes rising again when in 1817 Congress passed a law banning foreign traders from the territories of the United States. This enabled Astor to become the top trader on the Great Lakes area.

Astor foresaw that New York would someday become the premier city of the United States and in the 1830′s he began purchasing land on Manhattan Island.

Another John Jacob Astor, the fourth to hold the name and the Great Grand Son of the first, died on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. He and his 18 year old wife, Astor was 47, were returning from their honeymoon in Europe. His new bride was pregnant and she wished to give birth in New York. She survived and the baby also named John Jacob Astor was born on April 14, 1912.

Pabst Blue Ribbon

Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer is a beer drank by many, but where did the name come from? The Pabst part of the name comes from the German immigrant Frederick Pabst who was born on March 28, 1836. Pabst was working as a lake Michigan steamer captain when he met Phillip Best who was running a small brewery in Milwaukee. Pabst married Best’s daughter as well as joining in a business partnership which began in 1862.

By 1873 Frederick Pabst had greatly expanded the business. He turned it into a public company, became its President with the company’s name being changed to the Pabst Brewing Company.

So where did the blue ribbon come from? It looks to have been a marketing gimmick. By 1882 the beer had won awards with one of its greatest awards coming from the Paris World’s Fair. The company was bottling beers in unattractive glass bottles and Pabst decided to tie a blue ribbon around the bottle’s neck.

From there people was asking for the beer “with the blue ribbons”. Blue ribbons were used until 1916.

Pabst Brewing has been an early adopter in many changes in beer over the years. They were one of the first to bottle their beer. The first, in 1906, to use caps on their bottles instead of corks. And in 1935 they were the second, Krueger Beer was first, to put their beer in cans. They even placed opening instructions on the can side.

Frederick Pabst died on the first day of the new year of 1905.

The Maryland Colony

The history of the Maryland Colony began with a failed attempt by George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore, in Newfoundland. Calvert had been the Secretary of State under King James I and he had requested a chance to build a colony in the New World. The “Province of Avalon” began settlement in 1623 and by 1627 when Calvert first visited the colony 100 men and women were living at Ferryland, a plantation that was being built for him.

He stayed for a while before returning to England. In 1628 he returned with his household with the intention of remaining there for the rest of his days. The winter of 1628-29 was much worst than he expected and he returned again to England. He continued to desire a colony in the New World and began the process that would become the Maryland Charter.

The colony was named in honor of King Charles’s Queen, Henrietta Maria. Even though Calvert was a Catholic, he viewed the colony as a place where Catholics and Puritans could live together without oppression because of their faith. The boundaries were the Potomac River to the South, the Atlantic to the East and the 40th Parallel to the North.

George Calvert died on April 15, 1632 and the Charter for the Maryland Colony was granted to his son Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore, two months later on June 20, 1632.

In November of 1633 two ships, the Ark and the Dove left England for the Chesapeake Bay and the Maryland Colony. They were led by Cæcilius Calvert’s brother Leonard.

After a stop at the Jamestown where they bought animals and other supplies they ventured further up the Chesapeake Bay. They landed on March 25th at a small island they called St Clement’s Island, called Blakistone Island in later years. Today, Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources controls the island as a state park.

A Silent Star and His Fall

Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle was born on March 24, 1887 in Smith Center, Kansas, to Mollie and William Goodrich Arbuckle. His mother died in 1899 and his father abandoned him shortly afterward. Arbuckle survived by doing odd jobs at a hotel in San Jose, California. He entered an amateur night contest where he caught the attention of showman David Grauman, who took him into vaudeville as a singer and dancer.

From 1902 to 1908 he toured in stock companies, and on vaudeville and burlesque circuits. He was in San Francisco during the great Earthquake in 1906 and was forced to clear debris. In 1908 he appeared as an extra for Selig’s Polyscope Company.

Between 1909 and 1921 Arbuckle made more than 150 silent films defining the art of slapstick at Keystone Studios, where he excelled as a performer, writer and director. Even though he had a bulky, 250-pound frame (the reason for the nickname, Fatty, one that he hated) he was an able acrobat and played the hero who saved the day by pie-throwing, back-flipping and outwitting his opponent. In “A Noise from the Deep,” Arbuckle became the first film comedian to be hit with a pie on film. He also had the ability to throw two of them at the same time in different directions.

While on vacation in September 1921 he hosted a party at his room. Virginia Rappe, who attended the party, died of an inflammation of the lining of the pelvis. Arbuckle was accused of raping Rappe, which allegedly caused her injuries. After two trials resulted in hung juries the third ended in an acquittal.

Even though he was acquitted of any crimes and having support from Hollywood friends, the motion picture industry, partly through public opinion, wasn’t. He was able to work behind the scenes, under the name William B. Goodrich as a director and gag writer. He also performed on the vaudeville stage under his own name, but his film career seemed to be at an end.

In 1932, Warner Brothers gave Arbuckle a chance to star in a comedy short called “Hey, Pop.” The public loved “Hey, Pop,” and its success led to five more talkie shorts. On June 30, 1933, hours after completing his sixth Warner’s short and signing to make a feature-length film, Arbuckle died of a heart attack. He was only 46.

He Wanted Liberty

The Virginia’s House of Burgesses was meeting in Saint John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia on March 23, 1775 when Patrick Henry addressed the assembled. Virginia was still undecided on whether they would join their Northern neighbors in Massachusetts in fighting the British.

At the end of his speech he had convinced Virginia to send troops to New England. It was this speech that he is credited with saying, “Give me Liberty, or Give me Death”.

Did he actually utter these words? It wasn’t until 1816, seventeen years after Patrick Henry’s death, that Henry’s biographer William Wirt first published the text for that speech. With no notes available Wirt had corresponded with men who had heard the speech and others who were acquainted with people who were there at the time to recreate it.

According to Wirt the crowd convinced, jumped up and shouted “To Arms! To Arms!”

Patrick Henry may have been one of the key Virginia’s in favor of removing the colonies from the rule of George III, who he called at times a Tyrant, a fool, a puppet & tool to the Ministry, but when it came time to adopt the Constitution he led a movement in Virginia to vote against its ratification. He felt it gave the federal government too much power. Once the Constitution was adopted he was instrumental in forcing the adoption of the Bill of Rights to amend the new Constitution.

George Washington did offer Henry the post of Secretary of State in 1795 to replace Edmund Randolph. Henry was still opposed to the views of Washington and declined the post. With the radicalism of the French Revolution Henry’s views changed. He feared that the same could happen in America and began supporting the Federalist policies of Washington and Adams.

First Bond Girl

It wasn’t her first film appearance, but when when she emerged from the sea in a white bikini in the 1962 James Bond Film “Dr. No”, Ursula Andress became the first and perhaps the most unforgettable Bond Girl. Ursula Andress was born on March 19, 1936 in Switzerland.

It must have been for her beauty that Andress was given the role of Honey Ryder in the movie, since her voice was dubbed by two others. Nikki van der Zyl gave the character her speaking voice, while Diana Coupland was her singing voice.

Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, mentioned her by name in a later novel “On Her Majesty Secret Service”, where he described her as a “beautiful movie star.” She was one of only two performers to appear in a James Bond Film and mentioned in one of Ian Fleming’s books. The other was David Niven, who appeared as an older James Bond in the 1967 Bond parody “Casino Royale”. Andress also appeared in the film as Vesper Lynd.

In 1957 she became the second wife of John Derek. It was during their marriage that she portrayed Honey Ryder. Also while they were married she posed nude in Playboy Magazine. Those photos were taken by Derek.

Even though she will always be considered the first Bond Girl she was not the first to appear. That honor goes to Eunice Gayson who portrayed Sylvia Trench, who Bond meets at the beginning of the film at a Baccarat Table. Gayson’s Trench would also appear at the beginning of the second Bond film, “From Russia with Love”.

The classic moment of Ryder emerging from the sea would be redone in “Die Another Day” by Halle Berry who wore an Orange Bikini.

Edward Everett Horton

March 18 is the anniversary of the birth of Edward Everett Horton. It’s possible that you don’t know who he is, but nearly everyone over the age of 40 will be familiar with his voice. He was the narrator of the Fracture Fairy Tales from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

Horton was born in 1886 and died 84 years later on September 29, 1970. He had a long entertainment career beginning on the Vaudeville stage in 1906 then on Broadway, motion pictures, radio and television.

Even though he is perhaps best remembered for his narration of Fracture Fairy Tales, he is also considered a master of the supporting role, appearing in many films of the 1930′s. His film career began in silent pictures with his last role in the film Cold Turkey, released after his death. He also appeared as Medicine Man Roaring Chicken in the 60′s TV series F-Troop.

Horton developed his own variation of the double-take for his supporting roles. He would smile and nod in agreement when encountering a possible embarrassing situation and once he realized what was happening his face turned into a sober, trouble mask.

Edward Everett Hale, author of The Man Without a Country was Horton’s grandfather and he was named after him. Horton used his full name as his stage name through the encouragement of his father, who said there may be others using the name Edward Horton, but no one else else would be using Edward Everett Horton.

After his death the city of Los Angeles named a street in the district where he lived Edward Everett Horton Lane in his honor.