Jerry Lieber

Lyricist Jerry Lieber along with composer Mike Stoller wrote the soundtrack of the 50′s generation. Some of their songs were Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley and Charlie Brown, Poison Ivy and Yakety Yak for the Coasters. Jerry Lieber died in 2011 on August 22nd.

Jerry Lieber, born on April 25, 1933, and was raised mostly in Baltimore, Maryland. He meet Mike Stoller in Los Angeles in 1950 and the pair was soon writing songs. Both loved Blues and R&B. Their first recorded composition was Jimmy Witherspoon’s “Real Ugly Woman.”

Their song “Hound Dog” was written in 1953 and recorded by Big Momma Thorton. But it was the rock beat of the Elvis Presley version that took off in 1956. Elvis recorded a number of their songs.

In the late 1950′s they worked as producers at Atlantic Records in a deal that allowed them to produce on other labels. This made them as close to independent Record Producers as was done during that time.

In the 60′s they produced or wrote a number of popular songs including ay and the Americans (“She Cried”), The Exciters (“Tell Him”), and The Clovers (“Love Potion #9)”

The 1995 Broadway musical revue Smokey Joe’s Cafe was based on their work. It was also nominated for seven Tony awards, and became the longest-running musical revue in Broadway history.

John Barry

For the past couple of years between the week of Christmas and New Year I have written about a couple of those that we lost during the past year. Usually it’s about someone who is familiar but didn’t realize they had passed away. This year I will be doing three with this being the first.

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Music Composer John Barry died on January 30, 2011. He was 77 years old and will be best remembered for composing many of the early James Bond films.

John Barry was born in York, North Riding of Yorkshire, on November 3, 1933. It may not be to surprising that he took his musical career into doing film music since as a youth he worked in movie theatres owned by his father.

In 1957 he formed the John Barry Seven.

After the film makers of the first James Bond movie adventure, Dr. No, became disenchanted with the work done by Monty Norman, Barry came in to complete the movie soundtrack. Although the James Bond Theme is officially and legal credited as being composed by Monty Norman, it was Barry’s arrangement that is known.

John Barry would compose the music for 11 of the next 14 Bond movies with his last being in 1987, The Living Daylights. The ones he didn’t compose were Live and Let Die (George Martin), The Spy Who Loved Me (Marvin Hamlish and For Your Eyes Only (Bill Conti), although they both had elements of themes he had written.

He won Five Academy Awards:
1966 Best Original Song for “Born Free” from Born Free,
1966 Best Original Score for Born Free,
1968 Best Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical) for The Lion in Winter,
1985 Best Original Score for Out of Africa,
1990 Best Original Score for Dances with Wolves.

He was nominated for two others:
1971 Best Original Dramatic Score for Mary, Queen of Scots,
1992 Best Original Score for Chaplin.

Merry Christmas

We will be taking the next few days off to enjoy the holiday with friends and family, but before we do we are:

Items to Keep in Your Car – Winter

A first-aid kit
Actually for this one the season doesn’t matter. You should always have a first-aid kit in your car. Accidents, (I’m not referring to an auto accident, but a cut finger or nose bleed) alway seem to happen when you least expect it. In the winter part of your first-aid kit should include food and snacks.

Jumper Cables
Again this doesn’t depend on the season, although it seems as if a weak battery always appear during colder weather. So long as it’s done correctly there is little danger in jump-starting a dead battery. There are many ‘How-To’ instruction on-line. Print one, place it in a plastic bag for protections and put the instructions with the cables.

A good spare tire
When was the last time you checked the spare tire? Check it a few times during the year and especially before winter to be sure that it is ready just in case it’s needed.

Ice scrapper
In snow or on a frosty morning, clean all of the windows so you can see.

Blankets, gloves and a warm jacket
These will be a blessing if the car decides to die in the middle of the night far from the nearest help.

Sand or Kitty litter and a small shovel
If the car gets stuck in snow or on a slippery surface you can place the sand or kitty litter around the tires to help get traction.

Did You Know – Christmas

In 336 AD. Pope Julius I declared the birth and celebration of Jesus’ birthday as Christmas. He chose the day December 25th because it coincided with the pagan traditions of Winter Solstice. The idea was to bring pagans into the christian religion and selecting that day helped in this cause.

No one knows the exact day not year of Jesus’ birth. With Bible references it is thought that he was born around 4 BC in the spring. Shepherds bring their sheep in during the winter and not tend to them as related in the Bible.

Christmas was not celebrated in the early days of the American Colonies. In some places the practice of celebrating Christmas was actually banned. It wasn’t until the Victorian times that it restored with a lot of assistance from Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, Clement Moore’s ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and the Santa drawings of Thomas Nast.

Santa Claus is a fairly modern invention although he has basis in history. There was a St. Nicholas, a third century saint. But it’s the Dutch Sinterklaas that is the biggest basis. The Sinterklaas feast celebrates the birthday of Saint Nicholas. In 1809 Washington Irving’s Knickerbocker’s History of New York features Sinterklaas.

Bing Crosby has not one but three of the biggest Christmas recording. Everyone knows that his White Christmas was a big hit, but so was his recording of Silent Night in 1935 and I’ll Be Home for Christmas first recorded in 1943 were also big hits. Crosby donated all of his royalties from Silent Night to charity.

The city of North Pole, Alaska with a population of 1750 and located 14 miles southeast of Fairbanks was incorporated on January 15, 1953. The name was selected in an effort to attract business. Many streets bear holiday names: Santa Claus Lane, Snowman Lane, Kris Kringle, Mistletoe, Holiday Rd., Saint Nicholas Drive, North Star Drive, Blitzen, and Donnor. northpolealaska.com

Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’

A Christmas Carol by English novelist Charles Dickens was first published on December 19, 1843. It had illustrations by John Leech.

The story is divided into Staves and not chapters. A stave, which is similar to a stanza, is found in music as a recurring pattern of meter and rhyme. Dickens felt this added humor as it relates to the title.

When Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his old partner and friend Jacob Marley, Marley’s ghost informs “Expect the first tomorrow, when the bell tolls one. … Expect the second on the next night at the same hour. The Third, upon the next night when the last stroke of Twelve has cease to vibrate.” In the end the three spirits visited him on one night.

A Christmas Carol has been adapted for nearly every form of entertainment including theatre, opera, film, radio and television. The first film version was made in 1901 called Scrooge. In 1908 Thomas Edison also produced a film version of the story.

Lionel Barrymore’s radio production of him playing Scrooge was so popular that plans were made for him to do a film version. However, before it was filmed he was confined to a wheelchair with crippling arthritis and the role was played by Reginald Owen.

One of the best acclaimed film version of A Christmas Carol starred Alastair Sim as Ebeneser Scrooge. The English produced film was released with the title Scrooge in England and A Christmas Carol in the United States. It however did not attain its stature until the 1970′s when it turned up each year on US TV. Prior to this the most popular version of the filmed story in the US was the 1938 version with Reginald Owen.

Pagans and Wiccans

Paganism is an umbrella term to describe pagan religions. Wicca is one of those, as is Hellensimos, Asatry and Kemeticism. It is a worship of deities.

Wicca is a practice of witchcraft, but not all witches are Wiccans or even pagan.

There are 8 holidays during the Wiccan, and generally Pagan, year. Those are Samhain (All Hallow’s Eve), Yule (December 25), Imbolc (February 2), Ostara (Spring), Beltane (May Day), Midsummer, Lugnasadl (August 1), and Mabon (Fall).

Pagans and Wiccans do not believe in Satan or the devil. Satan is part of the One Deity faith while Pagan beliefs relate to many Gods.

Wicca is a modern religion having been introduced by Gerald Gardner in 1954 in a published work on witchcraft.

Many of the Christmas Traditions originate through Pagan beliefs and ceremonies that were transformed and/or adopted by Christians.

The Christmas Season

Many people are away from home or alone on Christmas. Many people will journey home during the holidays, but there are those who won’t be able to with family during the holidays. Some may not be able to afford the expenses to travel. There are others who can’t take the time off from work or have jobs that require them to work on the holidays. People who work in the hospitals and those on active duty in the military would be examples. To those whose love ones can’t be with them or those who can’t be with their love ones, it can be depressing.

There are many common elements in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All three believe in a Divine Being, the source of all that exists. All three religions believe that this God is the origin, cares about the entire creation and desires the well-being of all. God is just and merciful. They believe they are the children of Abraham and that Moses, David and Jesus are prophets. Islam believe in the virgin birth of Mary and accepts Jesus as a prophet and teacher but as Judaism do not believe in him as the savior.

Many of the Christmas traditions come from pagan practices. The date of Christmas was the date that Roman pagans celebrated the Birthday of the Invincible Sun God. It’s possible that December 25 was selected as the date of Christ’s birth in the early days of Christianity as way for all to participate. Yule is one of the pagan holidays and the idea of the Yule log came from that. Decorating a tree has its origins with the Druids who saw evergreen as symbols of everlasting life and decorating the trees may have also come from the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, a celebration of the Winter Solstice.

The vision of Santa Claus we know him today was created by Clement Moore and Thomas Nast. The legend of St. Nicholas can be traced back to 280 A.D. and a Turkish monk. By the time of the Renaissance St. Nicholas was one of the most popular saints in Europe and even when the veneration of saints began to be discouraged he maintain a positive reputation, especially in Holland. In 1822 Clement Moore wrote the classic Christmas poem “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas”. In the poem he calls St Nicholas a ‘jolly old elf’ with the supernatural ability to ascend a chimney and riding a sled led by 8 reindeer. In 1881 Thomas Nast drew upon the poem and created the first likeness that matches our vision of Santa Claus as a cheery man with full, white beard and a sack of toys. Nast gave Santa his bright red suit and a North Pole workshop with elves and Mrs. Claus.

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer was originally an advertising campaign. In 1939 Montgomery Ward, a chain of department stores, asked one of their copywriters, Robert L. May, to create a christmas story to give to shoppers as a coloring book. Prior to that they had been purchasing the books and thought by creating their own they could save money. May had a knack for writing children’s stories and created Rudolph as an ostracized member of the reindeer community because of an abnormality, his red nose. The Montgomery Ward stores distributed 2.4 millions copies of the story in 1939 and by 1946 6 million copies had been given away.

White Christmas by Bing Crosby is the biggest selling song of all-time with over 100 million copies sold. The Song was written by irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant who also wrote God Bless America and was first sung by Bing Crosby in the 1942 movie Holiday Inn. It was released again each Christmas for many years. In 1942 it was number 1 on the music charts and reached number 1 again in 1944 and 1945, becoming the only recording to reach number one in three different years. Holiday Inn was remade in 1954 as White Christmas. White Christmas is the most recorded Christmas song with over 500 versions by over 150 different artists.

Originally posted in 2006

The Death of Washington

George Washington lied dying in his bed at his Mount Vernon home on December 14, 1799 and at 10 PM he breathed his last breaths. The man who had lead the United States first through War as the Commanding General and later as the first President of the United States was dead at the age of 67.

The day before his death Washington was working on improvements to his beloved home. The day became rainy and before he returned to the house he was wet and had been exposed to the weather for a long period of time. Later in the afternoon he was seized with chilliness and nausea.

At the time the treatment of Washington on his final day, Doctors attending to him applied a dried-beetle mixture to his skin to induce blistering; gave him a mercury compound to clear his digestive system; and took five pints of blood, was considered appropriate medical advice. Although there was already science to prove that bleeding should not be done for any sickness. The treatment could have lead to a quicker death.

A special courier was sent to Philadelphia to deliver the news of Washington’s death to President John Adams. John Marshall, a Virginia representative, announced it to the assembled Congress and a public funeral was decreed. His private funeral was held at Mount Vernon on December 18, 1799.

Washington’s final will was dated “the ninth day of July” in 1799. In it he gave detail instructions on the freeing of his slaves and how they and their children as well as those that were old and imfirmed should be supported.

Ten days after Washington’s death a congressional committee recommended the building of a monument to honor the first President and to serve as the tomb for his remains. A lack of funds, disagreement on the type of monument and Washington’s family desires to not move the body prevented progress on the project. However in 1832, the 100th anniversary of Washington’s birth the Washington National Monument Society was formed. They raised money that would begin construction of the Washington Monument that was finally completed and dedicated on February 21, 1885.

Two Geminis Become One

On its third attempt Gemini Mission 6A, with Command Pilot Walter M. (Wally) Schirra and Pilot Thomas (Tom) P. Stafford launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on December 15, 1965.

On its fourth orbit Gemini 6A meet Gemini 7, with Command Pilot Frank F. Borman II and Pilot James A. Lowell Jr., which was already in orbit. Gemini 7 had launched on December 4, 1965 and was already 11 days into their 14 day mission.

Gemini 6A was actually suppose to have been launched before Gemini 7. Gemini 6′s mission was to meet and dock with a vessel in space. It was originally suppose to have docked with an Agena Target Vehicle. The target vessel failed 6 minute into its mission and Gemini 6 mission was aborted.

Had it not been for the quick thinking of Wally Schirra on December 12, the rescheduled launch date, Gemini 6 may never had launched. On launch the engines briefly fired, but stopped cause the mission to be aborted. Mission rules was for the astronauts to eject, but since Schirra and Stafford not feeling any upwards motion they elected not to eject. With the work of many engineers it was decided to try to launch on the 15th.

Before sleep time the two capsule moved to a distance of 10 miles apart. The next day Gemini 6A splashed down 16 kilometers from their target point. They were the first to have a truly accurate reentry.

On December 18 Gemini 7 splashed down even closer to their target point being only 11.8 Kilometers away.