1953: "The naked spur" is a great movie

What a great movie.  I caught "The naked spur" with James Stewart and Janet Leigh a few days ago.   It was worth every second.   

The movie was released in 1953 and this is a summary:    

The title of The Naked Spur refers to a piece of gear worn by the main character, introduced during the credits with an abrupt pan from picturesque mountains in the distance to a jarring closeup of the spur. With the flair and economy that distinguish Mann's best movies, this prepares us for both the setting of the story-it starts and finishes on mountain heights--and its emphasis on the characters' intense, sometimes brutal emotions.

The plot centers on Howard Kemp, a former rancher who's hunting down Ben Vandergroat, a nasty galoot with a $5,000 price on his head. Unable to climb a steep mountainside and capture Ben at the top, Howard accepts help from two strangers who happen to cross his path: Jesse Tate, a gold prospector with rotten luck, and Roy Anderson, recently kicked out of the Union army for his "unstable" character. They soon get hold of Ben and his reluctant girlfriend, Lina Patch, and all five characters start a trek to Kansas, where the three "good" guys plan to turn Ben in and split the reward.

The rest is up to you.  Watch the movie. 

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Our friend Bill Katz remembers the 1960 election!

The 1960 election was one of the most controversial in US history.  It was Kennedy vs Nixon:  110,000 votes out of 76 million cast.

Everything changed when JFK was assassinated in Dallas. He became a legend and myth.

Today, Democratss remember whatever they want to remember about Pres. Kennedy.  What most of them forget is that JFK would not fit in today's party.  In fact, it's very likely that JFK would have joined Joe Lieberman and walk out on the party's irresponsible national security agenda.

Bill Katz was a college student and a party volunteer on Election Night 1960.  Today, he runs Urgent Agenda, one of my favorite websites.

This is an audio history. Listen here! You will enjoy it!

The tragedy of the 1919 Chicago White Sox

On this day in 1921, the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series.  

They were one of the greatest teams of their generation.    

The roster included Eddie Cicotte who won 209 games, as well as 28 and 29 in 1917 and 1919 respectively.    He was one of the masters of the “junk pitch”!    

The other big name was Joe “Shoeless” Jackson, perhaps the greatest hitter of the decade after Ty Cobb.     Jackson was a .356 career hitter, including .382 in 1920 and .408 in 1911!    His On Base Average was .413!   We can safely predict that he’d challenged Ty Cobb for career batting average and hits.     Jackson would have definitely been selected to The Hall of Fame.

The trial was a circus and the players were eventually acquitted.   Nevertheless, MLB Commissioner banned 8 of the players from ever playing again.      

It was not a good moment for baseball, specially the owners and justice.   The players never got the money from the criminal elements but I agree with the Commissioner’s ultimate decision. 

Again, it was very sad, specially the case of Jackson, Cicotte and Buck Weaver, another great player on that team.

In the late 1980’s, the story came back when Eliot Asinop published “Eight men out”.   It was also a great movie released in the 1990’s. 

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Why did our parents have so many babies? Listen to their music!

Why did our parents have so many babies?   I guess it depends but music had a lot to do with it!   

 LITTLE ANTHONY & THE IMPERIALS

TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD

"There's just two kinds of people in the world Why can't we fall in love? Just two kinds of people in the world They are a boy and girl Boy meets girl and love begins Oh, what a feeling you get from within Oh, I should know for I'm i-in love I'm the boy, you're the girl, all the stars up above Just two kinds of people in the world Why can't we fall in love? Just two kinds of people in the world They are a boy and girl Boy meets girl and love begins Oh, what a feeling you get from within Oh, I should know for I'm i-in love I'm the boy, you're the girl, all the stars up above Just two kinds of people in the world Why can't we fall in love? Just two kinds of people in the world Why can't we fall in lo-lo-lo-love? Lo-ove?"

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We remember Noel Neill (1920-2016)

As we remember from the comics,  Lois Lane and Clark Kent worked at "The Daily Planet".   

Noel Neill played Lois in the TV series in the 1950s.   She died at age 95 on this day in 2016.

Noel was born in Minnesota in 1920.  She retired after the cancellation of the TV series in 1957. 

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1946: "The dark corner" a movie with Lucille Ball

Not long ago, I clicked channels and found myself watching "The dark corner" from 1946 with Lucille Ball as a detective's secretary.

For me, it's hard to watch Lucille Ball without thinking that Desi Arnaz is about to enter into the scene.    

Nevertheless, it was a good movie with Clifton Webb, William Bendix and a few other faces that I recognized.

Here is the movie:

Lucille Ball...."The Dark Corner"....1946........... https://t.co/R3yOGy2DSX via @amazon

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) July 9, 2018

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July 2, 1964: It was many years ago today....

It was 1964, many years ago today that my dad, mom, and the three kids woke up in Cuba knowing that things would never be the same.  A few hours later, we caught a flight to Mexico City and then Jamaica.  We waited in Kingston for a couple of months until our papers were ready to fly to the U.S.  All five of us slept in a small room, my parents on the bed, our little sister to their side and my brother and I got the floor duty.  We rented the room from a Jamaican fellow who worked in Cuba and now helped other families as well.  He worked in the sugar cane fields as a guest worker or something that many Jamaicans used to do in pre-Castro Cuba. They'd cut sugar, earn a few Cuban pesos and send something to their families.  The Cuban peso was worth something back then.

Nobody said a lot that morning of July 2nd 1964.  My parents had decided to leave after the Cuban Missile Crisis and the “communist radicalization” of Cuba.  They did not want us to attend government schools where kids were taught communist ideas and history was rewritten to justify “la revolucion.”  Does some of that sound familiar if you have kids in school today?  Rewriting of history?  Fidel's version of CRT, or something like that.

My parents knew that this day would come but it was still a bit hard for them to take.  Cuba was all that they knew.  They were born there and never expected to leave their country to pursue a better life anywhere else.  Cubans did not leave the island back then.  Instead, they moved to the island from other countries.

My friend, author Carlos Eire, wrote about this a few years ago:   

Between 1900 and 1930, the first three decades of Cuban independence, about one million immigrants flooded into the island, mostly European, and mostly northern Spaniards. This population tsunami also included Asians, Levantines, and Jews. 

These immigrants doubled the population of the island and changed its complexion, literally. Tens of thousands of immigrants continued to flow into Cuba every year after that, up to 1958. Immigration from the U.S. was comparatively slight, but in 1958 there were more Americans living in Cuba than Cubans in the U.S.A. 

Emigration from Cuba was minimal during this half century.

Rates of immigration as high as this and of emigration as low require a robust and growing economy, and a considerable degree of political stability.

By the way, one of those Spaniards who moved to Cuba was my mother's father who settled in the island looking for a better life.  He found it, along with his brothers who came with him.  They became successful entrepreneurs, but everything was "nationalized" or stolen by the communists.

My father and mother are now gone and my brother and sister have their own lives and families.  I used to call my parents on this day and joke with them about the family anniversary.  I would always say in Spanish something like do you know what day this is?  Of course, they knew and usually remembered something about that day.   

It just does not seem possible that it happened so long ago.  I will always be grateful to my late parents for bringing me here. It was very hard on them but they did it for the three of us.  They did not want us to grow up under communism and I thank them every day for that.

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Had not heard "12:30" in a long time!

The Mamas and Papas were a very popular quartet many summers ago.

From left to right: Denny Doherty, Cass Elliott, a.k.a. Mama Cass, Michelle and John Phillips, the tall one with the hat! (Michelle is the only surviving member of the group. Cass died accidentally. Denny and John died of cancer recently!)

John Phillips wrote most of their big songs. They had hits like "California Dreamin" and "Monday Monday".

However, my favorite was always "12:30":

"I used to live in New York City

Every thing there was dark and dirty

Outside my window was a steeple 

With a clock that always said 12:30

Young girls are coming to the canyon

And in the morning I can see them walking

I can no longer keep my blinds drawn 

And I cant keep myself from talking.

At first so strange to feel so friendly 

To say good morning and really mean it

To feel these changes happening in me 

But not to notice till I feel it.

Young girls are coming to the canyon 

And in the morning I can see them walking

I can no longer keep my blinds drawn 

And I cant keep myself from talking.

Cloudy waters cast no reflection 

Images of beauty lie there stagnant

Vibrations bounce in no direction 

And lie there shattered into fragments.

Young girls are coming to the canyon 

And in the morning I can see them walking

I can no longer keep my blinds drawn

And I cant keep myself from talking."

The Critters and "Younger girl"

The Critters were young guys from New Jersey.

Like many youngsters, they played rock in their garage and dreamed of a recording contract.

Eventually, their persistence was rewarded. They got a contract and recorded a couple of the nicest pop tunes ever.

The group had a wonderful sound.    Here is John Sebastian's "Younger girl" and "Mr. Diengly sad", their second best seller!

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World War II # 4: Hitler's Blitzrieg, Denmark, Norway & the fall of France with Barry Jacobsen

 

World War II # 4: 

Hitler's Blitzrieg, Denmark, Norway & the fall of France... 

click to listen..

 P.S.  You can listen to my show.  If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.