MINISTER OF RANTS

UNSUBSCRIBED: GUITAR LEGEND; LONGEST LIVING HEART RECIPIENT; AUTHOR; ROCKABILLY ORIGINAL

LES PAUL - My all-time favorite guitarist - the legendary Lester William Polfuss, AKA LES PAUL - tripped over a rainbow today in White Plains, New York. I have been hooked on Les Paul (and Mary Ford) for 60 years.

From: LALATE NEWS
News of the death of Grammy winner Les Paul today. Les Paul has died, the enormous talent who with Mary Food delivered “How High the Moon”, “The Tennessee Waltz,” “Vaya con Dios”.

Les Paul was 94 and passed in White Plains from pneumonia. His Les Paul Guitars were used by Eric Clapton:

“I wanted people to hear me. That’s where the whole idea of a solid-body guitar came from. In the ’30s, the archtop electric was such an apologetic instrument. On the bandstand, it was so difficult battling with a drummer, the horns, and all the instruments that had so much power.

“With a solid-body, guitarists could get louder and express themselves. Instead of being wimps, we’d become one of the most powerful people in the band. We could turn that mother up and do what we couldn’t do before.”

Read: BBC Story

Les Paul Photos - Washington Post

The Original Les Paul Guitar

Tony Huesman (51) Ohio man who lived the longest on one transplanted heart. Huesman got his heart transplant in 1978 at Stanford University Medical Center. He later founded the Huesman Heart Foundation in Dayton and was its president; the foundation seeks to reduce heart disease by educating children. He died of cancer in Dayton, Ohio on August 9, 2009.

Budd Schulberg (95) screenwriter who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for the Marlon Brando classic On the Waterfront (1954). Schulberg was the son of onetime Paramount Pictures chief B. P. Schulberg and earlier had exposed the Hollywood hustle with the novel What Makes Sammy Run? (1941). His other screenplays included A Face in the Crowd (1957), Andy Griffith’s first film. Schulberg died in Westhampton Beach, Long Island, New York on August 5, 2009.

Billy Lee Riley (75) one of the early singers and studio musicians who recorded at Memphis’s legendary Sun Records but was overshadowed by Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Riley’s singles included “Red Hot” and “Flyin’ Saucers Rock & Roll." His band played on the original Sun recording of Lewis’s “Great Balls of Fire." Riley had been suffering from colon cancer, and it had moved to his bones. He died in Jonesboro, Arkansas on Aug. 2, 2009.

UNSUBSCRIBED: Koko Taylor & Sam Butera

Koko Taylor (80) Grammy-winning blues singer, the “Queen of the Blues” who belted out her signature hits, “Wang Dang Doodle” and “Hey Bartender!” at hundreds of concerts. Taylor died after intestinal surgery in Chicago, Illinois on June 3, 2009.

Sam Butera (81) saxophonist, with band “The Witnesses”, fused N’awlins Swing with R& B Jump music. He shared the Las Vegas stage as sidekick of singer and trumpet player Louis Prima (d. 1978) and Prima’s wife, singer Keely Smith, since 1954. Their hits included “Jump Jive an’ Wail,” “Hey Marie,” and “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody." Butera, who performed until 2004, died of pneumonia in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 3, 2009.

UNSUBSCRIBED: FAMOUS CLINTON KITTY; RADIO ICON; GRAND OLE OPRY SINGER; SHOW-DRUMMER, PEARLIE MAE'S HUSBAND; KIDS' SHOW LEGEND.

"Socks" - a popular figure during the Clinton years, Socks was Chelsea's cat. Since the family left the White House, Socks has been living with the president's secretary, Betty Currie. A Tuxedo Cat - he was 18.

Our Sylvia is also 18 and a Tuxedo Kitty - but she doesn't sport a Hitler moustache.

SOURCE: Life In Legacy

 

Paul Harvey (90) news commentator and talk-radio pioneer whose distinctive style made him one of the nation's most familiar voices. Known for his resonant voice and trademark delivery of "The Rest of the Story," Harvey had been heard nationally since 1951, when he began his News & Comment for ABC Radio Networks. He became a heartland icon, delivering news and commentary with a distinctive Midwestern flavor. He was credited with inventing or popularizing terms such as "skyjacker," "Reaganomics," and "guesstimate." In 2005, Harvey was one of 14 notables chosen as recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His death came less than a year after that of his wife and longtime producer, Lynne Harvey. Paul Harvey died in Phoenix, Arizona on February 28, 2009.

Harvey was a radio fixture for over 70 years. His political philosophy was a mixture of Midwestern populism and Goldwater conservatism, with a good measure of sappy patriotic fervor and religiosity. He opposed the Vietnam War.



Ernie Ashworth (80) Grand Ole Opry singer since 1964 who had a No. 1 hit in '63 with "Talk Back Trembling Lips." Ashworth began his career writing songs for Little Jimmy Dickens, Carl Smith, Johnny Horton, and pop idol Paul Anka. As a recording artist, he scored hits with "Everybody But Me" and "I Love to Dance with Annie." He died after a sudden illness, in Hartsville, Tennessee on March 2, 2009.

Rev. Art, appearing as "Art Wild", emceed a weekly live outdoor country music show at Wild Cherry Park, near West Milton, Ohio in the early '70s. Ernest Ashworth was one of our headliners. Yes, I have his autographed photo...



Al Lewis (84) host known as "Uncle Al" on a long-running Cincinnati children's TV show that aired nationally on ABC affiliates on Saturday mornings over two years in the late '50s. A Cincinnati TV icon, Lewis produced and starred in The Uncle Al Show, dressed in a straw hat and a bow tie and with an ever-present accordion. The show, which aired locally for 35 years (1950-85), combined music, education, drawing, and exercise activities for children. Lewis died in Hillsboro, Ohio on February 28, 2009.



Louie Bellson (84) big-band and jazz drummer, a master musician who performed with such greats as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and his late wife, singer/comedienne Pearl Bailey (d. 1990). The youngest and last of the "great three" showman-drummers in jazz (the others were Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich), Bellson died of complications from Parkinson's disease after breaking his hip in November 2008, in Los Angeles, California on February 14, 2009.

 

 
Billy Powell  (56) Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player who played on such hits as "Sweet Home Alabama" and survived the 1977 plane crash that killed three band members. Powell had a history of heart problems, and a heart attack was suspected when he died in Orange Park, Florida on January 28, 2009. Life In Legacy

"HAMMER OF THOR" 
Ingemar Johansson (76) Swede who stunned the boxing world by knocking out Floyd Patterson to win the heavyweight title on June 26, 1959. Johansson floored the American seven times in the third round before referee Ruby Goldstein stopped the fight 2:03 into it. Hundreds of thousands of Swedes listened to the live radio broadcast at 3 a.m. as Johansson became only the fifth heavyweight champion born outside the US. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and dementia more than 10 years ago, when he lived in Stockholm. He spent the rest of his life in Kungsbacka, on Sweden's west coast, only a few miles from the house where he grew up. He had been hospitalized with pneumonia and died in Kungsbacka, Sweden on January 30, 2009.Life In Legacy

THIRD RAY CHARLES SAX MAN TO DIE THIS MONTH...


 Hank Crawford (74) jazz saxophonist whose solos as a sideman for Ray Charles led to a long career as a leader of jazz and soul bands and a lengthy discography. Along with David ("Fathead") Newman and Leroy ("Hog") Cooper, Crawford was the third of Charles's saxophonists to die this month. He died of complications from a stroke he suffered in 2000, in Memphis, Tennessee on January 29, 2009. Life In Legacy

PATRICK McGOOHAN... RICARDO MONTALBAN...

 

 

Patrick McGoohan (80) British TV star in the '50s and '60s best known for two shows that crossed over to American TV, Secret Agent and The Prisoner. McGoohan won two Emmys for his guest appearances as a villain on the TV detective series Columbo and gave a memorable performance as ruthless King Edward "Longshanks" in the Oscar-winning film Braveheart, starring Mel Gibson. He died suddenly after a brief illness, in Los Angeles, California on January 13, 2009.
Life In Legacy

Remember "THE PRISONER" - with PATRICK McGOOHAN writing, directing, and portraying the title character?

 

 

NUMBER TWO: You Are Number Six!

THE PRISONER: "I am not a number, I am a FREE MAN!"

THE GENERAL: "You're a fool Number Six, that's my opinion. You'll be here as long as you live...No point in fighting battles you can't win."
and ... "You wouldn't want to be disharmonious..."

_________ Be Seeing You!

We have the complete 17-episode set of the singular puzzling allegory"The Prisoner"; & about 4 of its precursor, "Secret Agent Man"...

 
(Click image to ENLARGE)

Mr. Montalban broke early ground for future generations of Latino actors in leading roles; Remember his commercials for the Chrysler Cordoba - with "fine Corinthian Leather"? His hair died around 1945...

Ricardo Montalban (88) actor best known as the debonair and mysterious Mr. Roarke on the popular TV series Fantasy Island. Mexican-born Montalban had a long career in Hollywood but found broad fame as the star of ABC-TV's Fantasy Island (1978-84), in which he fulfilled the dreams of his guests with the help of his sidekick, Tattoo. In 1982, Montalban starred as arch-villain Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, reprising a role he had played on a single episode of the TV show in 1967. He died in Los Angeles, California on January 14, 2009.
Life In Legacy

William Zantzinger, Murderer of Hattie Carroll, "Untouchable" Soul Singer-Guitarist Robert Ward, Rev. Claude Jeter of The Swan Silvertones, Actor Pat Hingle, Jimmy Crum, Freddie Hubbard, Cornelia Wallace, wife of George, Pat Hingle

 

Jimmy Crum (80) longtime Columbus TV sportscaster, known for both his loud sport coats and his charitable work. Crum joined WCMH-TV in Columbus shortly after its launch in 1949 and retired in '94. He was sports director for much of that time and helped to raise millions of dollars for charities, particularly those helping children with disabilities. He died in Columbus, Ohio on January 5, 2009.

 

Robert Ward (70) who founded the Ohio Untouchables blues band in 1959, in Dayton. Ward eventually left the blues band after it split and the band, minus Ward, became the Ohio Players.

Mr. Ward died Christmas Day at his Georgia home. He was 70-years-old.

In '59 or '60, I went with a girl who was a student at the old St. Joe's Commercial High School on E. Second Street. She invited me to a "prom" in the gym of the old school. When we arrived I was surprised to see the band was a black quartet playing for this dance where all the attendees were white.

Of course, the group was Robert Ward's "The Untouchables" - with the name painted on the bass drum. I was blown away by the caliber of blues & r&b this band put out. Robert played through a Vibraphone amp - which provided a sustained tremolo effect that was unmatched at the time. The Vibraphone amp was developed to accomodate the accordion, which was popular in the '50s. The sound was close to what Lonnie Mack developed a couple of years later - with instrumental hits, "Memphis" & "Wham".

I never forgot that mind-blowing experience and I have never tired of listening to "I Found A Love". Later it was respectably covered by Wilson Pickett - but the original by Robert Ward captures all the tension and energy that cannot usually be duplicated. Ward had a long, productive recording and performing career, as a studio musician and, in the '90s, with several CD projects.

"I Found A Love" is available as a re-do on Rhythm Of The People, 1993.

Robert had never recovered from a stroke in 2001.

Another thing - a curiosity... The drummer was a light-skinned fellow with freckles and a mop of carrot-top hair, long and parted in the middle, and bouncing up and down on his head all night as he masterfully beat the skins.

Rev. Claude Jeter (94) founder of the gospel group the Swan Silvertones whose falsetto had a wide influence on both pop and religious singers in the '50s and '60s. Jeter died in the Bronx, New York on January 6, 2009.

 

Cornelia Wallace (69) former Alabama first lady who threw herself over Gov. George C. Wallace (d. 1998) when he was shot in a 1972 assassination attempt. The Wallaces divorced in 1978, amid claims she had bugged his phone in the Governor's Mansion. Cornelia Wallace died of cancer in Sebring, Florida on January 8, 2009.

Pat Hingle (84) veteran character actor whose 50-plus-year career in movies and on TV included a recurring role as Commissioner Gordon in several Batman movies in the ‘90s. Also a stage actor, Hingle was nominated for a Tony in 1958 for his title role in J. B., Archibald MacLeish's poetic play based on the Bible's Book of Job. That show was still running in 1959 when Hingle survived a 50-foot fall down an elevator shaft in his New York apartment building that cost him his left little finger and the title role in the film Elmer Gantry (1960), for which Burt Lancaster won an Oscar. Over the years, Hingle took on a dizzying variety of roles and played them all with ease and considerable skill. He was diagnosed with myelodysplasia, a blood cancer, in 2006 and died in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, where he had lived for 15 years, on January 3, 2009.

Freddie Hubbard (70) Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter who collaborated with such greats as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins. Hubbard played on more than 300 recordings, including his own albums and those of scores of other artists, in a career dating back to 1958. He won his Grammy in 1972 for best jazz performance by a group for the album First Light. He had been hospitalized since suffering a heart attack in November and died in Sherman Oaks, California on December 29, 2008.

William Devereux Zantzinger (69) man whose six-month sentence in the fatal caning of a black barmaid named Hattie Carroll at a Baltimore charity ball in 1963 moved folksinger Bob Dylan to write a dramatic, almost journalistic song that became a classic of modern American folk music. Zantzinger died in Charlotte Hall, Maryland on January 3, 2009.

UNSUBSCRIBED: EARTHY EARTHA KITT

Eartha Kitt (81) sultry singer, dancer, and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality.

A self-proclaimed "sex kitten" famous for her catlike purr, Kitt was one of America's most versatile performers, winning two Emmys and nabbing a third nomination. She also was nominated for several Tonys and two Grammys.

Her career spanned 60 years, from her start as a dancer with the famed Katherine Dunham troupe to cabarets and acting and singing on stage, in movies, and on TV, notably as the Catwoman on the '60s Batman series.

She died of colon cancer in Connecticut on December 25, 2008.
Life In Legacy

Eartha Kitt had an aura of danger, of sexual aggressiveness, along with her signature beauty and that wonderful purring vibrato.

She did the original "Santa Baby" - which always makes me hot...

Eartha Kitt with daughter and granddaughter

Who is white? Who is black? Who cares?

Sharon Cullers comments...

UNSUBSCRIBED: MIRIAM MAKEBA

 

MAMA AFRICA