"It's About TV"

My appreciation to Mitchell Hadley, who writes the very enjoyable blog "It's About TV."  His December 31st post includes some very kind comments about my book: 

http://www.itsabouttv.com/2013/12/raging-against-machine.html

Snooky Lanson, and Lucky Strike

This is a Lucky Strike advertisement from the early 1950s. It features Snooky Lanson, one of the singing stars of Your Hit Parade, on NBC-TV.  (The Hit Parade was often referred to as The Lucky Strike Hit Parade, because of its Lucky Strike sponsorship.)

The ad is from a Metropolitan Opera playbill/program.

Morgan White, Jr., and "The Morgan Show"

I am so delighted to make note of the following:  that my friend Morgan White, Jr.--the Boston-based trivia expert, entertainer, author, and radio host--is starting a new talk show on Boston's WBZ Radio.  It is called The Morgan Show, and will air Saturday nights--beginning tomorrow--from 10 p.m.-midnight.  I hope you'll tune in!

http://boston.cbslocal.com/station/wbz-news-radio/

www.morganwhitejr.com

Hurricane Sandy

As a New Jersey resident, I was (like millions of others) affected by Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall in the Garden State a year ago yesterday. 

But that which I experienced was minimal.  I was, for example, without power for a couple of days.  There were shortages of gasoline, for a time. After the supermarket near my apartment reopened--I cannot recall how long it was closed; probably a day or two--there were certain relatively minor food shortages, for a period.

To emphasize this: what I encountered, a year ago (as disorienting as parts of the experience may have felt), was simply nothing--just nothing--when compared to the ways in which the storm disrupted and changed the lives of so many others.

I am thinking, this week, about the families and individuals who endured so much, last year--and about those whose lives, today, continue to be so profoundly altered by the storm.

The great Lou Reed

I was very saddened, today, to read of the death of Lou Reed, at age 71.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/arts/music/lou-reed-dies-at-71.html?ref=obituaries

Here is one of his many outstanding songs, via YouTube.  It is "Satellite of Love," from his album Transformer (1972):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJoHspUta-E&list=RDkJoHspUta-E&start_radio=1

"Your Hit Parade," NBC-TV, March of 1952

Last year, I posted a couple of pictures I had found in my father's apartment.  They were photographs of 1952 telecasts of Your Hit Parade, on NBC, taken of a television screen while the show was airing.  I don't know who took the pictures.

Here is another of the photos.  It is from March 29, 1952, and shows Hit Parade star Eileen Wilson, in the foreground. She is singing the song "Wheel of Fortune," which was the number one song on the Hit Parade that week.  The script for the program notes that the song's fictional setting, that week, was a casino in Monte Carlo.

(Photograph, circa 1978; used by permission of artist Jenny Lynn.)