We remember David Soul (1943-2024)

David Richard Solberg was born in Los Angeles on this day in 1943.  We know him as David Soul and he died in January 2024.

In the late 1970s, Soul had a lot of success on TV as Detective Kenneth "Hutch” Hutchison, the other half of  "Starsky & Hutch".     It was on the air from 1975 to 1979 for a total of 92 episodes.  Then Soul recorded "Don't give up on us" and it jumped to # 1 on Billboard this week in 1977.

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1939: "The Wizard of Oz" makes its debut

On this day in 1939, "The Wizard of Oz" opened in theaters around the US.  The movie was based on the 1900 novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum (1856-1919).   It turned into one of the most popular movies of the century.  

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We remember Oscar Hijuelos (1951-2013)

The very talented Oscar Hijuelos was born in New York City on this day in 1951 and died of a heart attack in 2013.  

He wrote "The mambo Kings", one of the most entertaining books I've read and movies I've watched.  

What could be better than a story about two "hungry" Cubans who come here without a penny and a bag full of songs?   Didn't we all land here penniless and full of "making it in America" dreams?

As far as I'm concerned, Oscar Hijuelos added a nice story to our Cuban American library. We will always be grateful for that.

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1858: Lincoln Douglasdebates

We remember another anniversary of The Lincoln-Douglas debates:

"Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Abraham Lincoln, a Kentucky-born lawyer and one-time U.S. representative from Illinois, begin a series of famous public encounters on the issue of slavery. 

The two politicians, the former a Northern Democrat and the latter a Republican, were competing for Douglas' U.S. Senate seat. 

In the seven Lincoln-Douglas debates--all about three hours along--Lincoln argued against the spread of slavery while Douglas maintained that each territory should have the right to decide whether it would become
free or slave. 

Lincoln lost the Senate race, but his campaign brought national attention to the young Republican Party."

The debates were a good example of how two people could debate complex and difficult issues.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could debate complicated issues like that today?

What if we had a debate about the role of government?  the level of taxation?  our foreign policy?

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We remember Fred Thompson (1942-2015)

We remember Senator Fred Thompson who was born in Indiana on this day in 1942 and died in 2015.  He was 73.  

My first memory of Mr Thompson was the Watergate hearings, then movies, a US Senator and candidate for president in 2008.  

I always had a good opinion of him.   He was a great man!

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We remember Rose Marie Mazetta (1923-2018)

We remember Rose Marie Mazetta who was born in the UK on this day in 1923.  She died in 2018.   For many of us, she was "Sally Rogers" in The Dick Van Dyke Show.     She was a very funny woman and the show was wonderful.  

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PS: You can lise

We remember Mike Connors (1925-2017)

The great Mike Connors was born on this day in 1925.  He died in 2017.

Connors was "Mannix" for so many of us who followed his very successful TV show.     I remember watching him on "Tightrope", a short lived TV show that was pretty good.

By the way, the complete "Mannix" series is now available for sale.

We remember Mike Connors.

 

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1945 and the bomb

We remember another anniversary of one of the most consequential days of the 20th century.

Back on this day in 1945, many people heard about Hiroshima on the radio or perhaps saw the scenes on one of those newsreels.

In the summer of 1945, President Truman was confronted with one of those decisions that only a president faces.  He looked at the horrible options and made the right call, as my friend Bill Katz explained.   The bomb stopped the war and the killing:

Of course we regret the lives that were lost, as we always regret death and destruction in war, but guilt is not required.  In what is sometimes called the  bloody arithmetic of war, the nuclear bombs reduced the ultimate death toll of World War II dramatically.  And as the late historian Paul Fussell, a soldier in the Pacific at the time of Hiroshima later wrote, recalling his thoughts when he learned of the atomic bomb's use, "We were going to live.  We were going to grow to adulthood after all."  For that we can be grateful.

We will probably hear the usual criticism of President Truman's decision, specially from those who were not alive back then nor have taken the time to study the real options on his desk.   In other words, President Truman was not choosing between war and peace but rather war and more war.   He also knew that there would be huge casualties on both sides, if he decided to invade Japan.

Today's anniversary reminds us that presidents often face awfully difficult choices.  In this case, President Truman made the right decision. 

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