Writer Lorrie Moore

The terrific novelist and short story writer Lorrie Moore (Self-Help; Birds of America; a number of other works) has brought out a collection of non-fiction.  I was reading about the new book, and then did some browsing online about Ms. Moore.

I came across an enjoyable interview with her from New York magazine, 2005.  Said Ms. Moore (b. 1957):

"I grew up with Life magazine on the coffee table, Life cereal on the breakfast table, and the game of Life on the card table. People were just so happy to be alive, I guess."

I also enjoyed this, in the interview:  

"I do a very reverential Billie Holiday imitation that’s a complete room-emptier."

http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/books/12234/

Here, too, is the amazon link for Ms. Moore's new non-fiction collection, See What Can Be Done: Essays, Criticism, and Commentary (Knopf):

https://www.amazon.com/See-What-Can-Done-Commentary-ebook/dp/B073P9WT42/

Five years ago today: terrorism at the Boston Marathon

As The Boston Globe reported, today:

"On the fifth anniversary of the day bombs placed near the Boston Marathon finish line left three dead and more than 260 wounded, Governor Charlie Baker reflected on the resilience of survivors, both those injured in the terror attack and those who lost loved ones on that indelible day."

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/04/15/boston-marathon-bombings-remembered-somber-events/bU7o2QoxCNVIirHe1tdCWI/story.html

On Sunday, the Globe's weekly magazine carried an essay by Denise Richard.  Her son Martin died in the bombing; he was eight years old.  Her daughter Jane, at the time six years old, lost a leg.  Her husband Bill was injured; she was blinded in one eye.

In the Globe essay, Mrs. Richard writes  "Five years ago, our own City of Boston was the recipient of the world’s love, compassion, and generosity when two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon in 2013, killing my son, Martin, along with Lingzi Lu and Krystle Campbell and injuring our family as well as hundreds of others. In turn, we, the families of the deceased and injured, were treated with the utmost care and empathy. Our families were embraced by the spirit of goodness and the determination of a community willing to help."

She writes, in the essay, about the work of the Martin Richard Foundation; she is the Foundation's acting Executive Director. As noted on its website, the Foundation "helps young people to learn, grow and lead through volunteerism and community engagement. We look to advance sportsmanship, inclusion, kindness and peace."

http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2018/04/14/paying-kindness-forward/SYCwS5K0CKUV0ONgI1ve8I/story.html

Here, too, is a 2014 story from The Globe about the Richard family; it appeared a year after the Marathon catastrophe:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/04/12/loss-and-love/a19pcWz6WF5nNozPPItwYI/story.html

Dr. King's last speech

This is a film of the very powerful (and haunting) conclusion of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last speech, delivered on April 3, 1968.  He was, of course, killed the next day, at age 39.  It is hard to fathom that it has been fifty years since his death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcJWWBIro00

Fred Rogers, and "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood"

Fred Rogers is one of the great figures in television history. His remarkable children's program--a gentle, meaningful and beautiful show--began airing nationally fifty years ago.

On March 23rd, the United States Postal Service will be releasing a "Mister Rogers" stamp.  It is a much-deserved honor.

A ceremony will be held by the Postal Service, on the 23rd, at Pittsburgh public station WQED-TV, the station from which, for decades, the show originated. 

The last first-run episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
were taped at the end of 2000, and broadcast in 2001. The program continued to air on PBS for several more years. It is still aired by some PBS stations; some of the stations carry the show on weekends.

Fred Rogers died in 2003--fifteen years ago, last month--at age 74.

Here is a New York Times story about the stamp, from February:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/arts/mister-rogers-stamp.html

"Neuromancer," by William Gibson

For some time I've had a copy of William Gibson's 1984 science fiction work Neuromancer, but haven't read it.  I recently took it off the shelf, and loved its opening sentence:

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

"The Sue Bennett Show," 1950s, WBZ-TV, Boston

These are rehearsal and publicity photographs from The Sue Bennett Show, a weekly musical program on Boston station WBZ-TV (Channel 4).  The show aired in 1954 and 1955, and featured my mother and the vocal group The Freddy Guerra Trio.

As was true of a number of early television's musical shows (one thinks of network programs starring Perry Como, Dinah Shore, and Roberta Quinlan), The Sue Bennett Show was fifteen minutes long.

The first picture, above, is from a 1954 Boston Sunday Globe story. The photo (cropped, at the bottom, because of damage to it) shows my mother rehearsing a song; the bass player is to the right of the table.  The Freddy Guerra Trio is at the left.

The next three photos are also from 1954.  In the picture below, The Freddy Guerra Trio rehearses before the television cameras (the singers are dressed, for the particular number, in western outfits); my mother watches, near the center/rear of the picture.

In the third photo, my mother is seated to the left; musicians from the show can be seen, off-camera, to the right.
















The next photo is a portrait of The Freddy Guerra Trio. From the top to the bottom are: Charles Bean, Freddy Guerra, and Joe McPherson.






















Though he performed as a vocalist on the show, Freddy Guerra was best known as a musician, and bandleader.  He is familiar to Glenn Miller fans for having played saxophone with Miller's Army Air Force Band during World War Two. After the war, Guerra played both saxophone and clarinet with The Glenn Miller Orchestra, now led--due to Miller's death, during the war--by vocalist and saxophonist Tex Beneke.  Guerra later led his own orchestra, for many years, in the Boston area.

The final photograph is from a 1955 story from The Boston Sunday Post; my mother is sitting on a piano, during a rehearsal for the show.

Vic Damone, singing on "The Morey Amsterdam Show," 1949

The fine singer Vic Damone died on February 11th.  He was 89.

The following is a video/kinescope of Mr. Damone, from YouTube.  It is from an April of 1949 telecast of the DuMont Network's Morey Amsterdam Show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LwC0hZqDeY

Vic Damone, on The Morey Amsterdam Show, 1949

 

Morey Amsterdam's program, a variety show, made its debut on CBS-TV in December of 1948.  Its setting was the fictional "Golden Goose Cafe," and its cast included Art Carney (who played Charlie, the cafe's doorman).   

The show was cancelled by CBS in March of 1949, and reappeared the next month, on the DuMont Network  Its setting became the (also fictional) "Silver Swan Cafe"; Art Carney now portrayed "Newton the Waiter."  The show aired until 1950.

The appearance by Vic Damone took place on the show's debut broadcast on the DuMont Network. He sang with The Johnny Guarnieri Orchestra, which was featured on both the CBS and DuMont versions of Morey Amsterdam's program. 

The website IMDB.com lists no television appearances by Mr. Damone prior to his 1949 appearance with Morey Amsterdam. It is therefore possible that this was his first television appearance.

Here is the New York Times's obituary of Mr. Damone:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/obituaries/vic-damone-singer-dies.html