243rd day of 2009 - 122 remaining
Monday, August 31, 2009
DINNER, NEWS AND WALTER DAY
Walter Cronkite started showing up in living rooms during the dinner hour, starting this night in 1963 as anchor of the CBS Evening News (a job he took over from Douglas Edwards on April 16, 1962). Previous to this night, CBS Evening News had been shown from 7:30-7:45 p.m. and 7:15-7:30 p.m.
A familiar face to TV audiences, Walter Cronkite had been the host of You Are There, a CBS Sunday night program that ran from 1953 through 1957. A CBS news correspondent, Walter Cronkite served as reporter, host, and anchorman as major events in history were reenacted. Those who were viewers of You Are There can probably still recite Walter’s closing lines: “What sort of a day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times ... and you were there.”
Seven days after You Are There ended, the sincere face and friendly, yet authoritative voice of Walter Cronkite showed up in our living rooms again. This time he was narrator and host of The 20th Century, a program that presented filmed reports of major events and personalities that had shaped modern history. In January of 1967, the show changed its name and format. The 21st Century looked into the future rather than the past. Walter Cronkite remained at the helm. This was double duty for the consummate journalist as he continued to anchor the CBS Evening News.
While Mr. Cronkite was busy narrating, and reporting and anchoring, he was also the moderator in 1951 for The Facts We Face (which became Open Hearing); for the interview show, Man of the Week (1952-53); of the quiz show, It’s News to Me in 1954; narrator of Air Power, a documentary series (1956-58); host of Pick the Winner, a series of political telecasts in 1952 and again in 1956; anchor of the 1960 presidential campaign conclusion, Presidential Countdown; the 1980 CBS wrap-up of political news, Campaign Countdown, and the CBS news analysis program, Eyewitness to History, from 1961 to 1962. Cronkite was also the anchor and chief correspondent for Universe, a CBS science magazine-type program, in the summers of 1980, 1981 and 1982.
His CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite won a multitude of Emmy Awards. Walter, himself, took home several individual Emmys for Outstanding Achievement Within Regularly Scheduled News Programs; specifically, for The Watergate Affair and Coverage of the Shooting of Governor Wallace in 1972-1973; and Solzhenitsyn, a CBS News Special in 1974. When the Emmy Awards were presented on September 9, 1979, Walter Cronkite received the coveted ATAS Governor’s Award.
Walter Cronkite, voted the ‘most trusted man in America’, left "CBS Evening News" on March 6, 1981. Throughout his retirement years, Cronkite continued to report special news events. On July 17, 2009, Walter Cronkite and news as we knew it died. "And that's the way it is...”
Events
August 31
1852 - The United States Congress passed legislation creating the first prestamped envelopes.
1939 - Frank Sinatra recorded All or Nothing at All with the Harry James Band. The tune failed to become a hit until four years later -- after Ol’ Blue Eyes had joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.
1940 - Actor Lawrence Olivier and actress Vivian Leigh were married.
1941 - The Great Gildersleeve, a spin-off of Fibber McGee and Molly, started on NBC radio.
1942 - “Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!” Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound ... the caped crusader started on network radio on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Bud Collyer, later of TV’s Beat the Clock, played Clark Kent aka Superman on the radio series. His identity had been well guarded for years. Most people didn’t have a clue as to the identity of Superman until a TIME magazine article about Collyer appeared in 1946.
1950 - Gil Hodges of the Brooklyn Dodgers hit four home runs in a single game. He got homers off of Boston Braves pitchers Warren Spahn, Normie Roy, Bob Hall and Johnny Antonelli.
1955 - Nashua defeated Swaps in a match-up of the thoroughbred horses at Arlington Park in Chicago, IL.
1959 - Sandy Koufax set a National League record by striking out 18 hitters. Wally Moon connected for a three-run homer as the LA Dodgers downed the San Francisco Giants, 5-2.
1964 - California officially became the most populated of the United States.
1976 - A judge ruled that George Harrison was guilty of copying from the song He’s So Fine (a 1963 Chiffons hit). The judge said that the chorus to Harrison’s My Sweet Lord was identical to He’s So Fine and it eventually (appeals went on for about five years) cost the former Beatle over half a million dollars.
1981 - Tickets went on sale for the highest-priced play in Broadway history. Nicholas Nickleby, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Plymouth Theatre in New York, included a 45-minute dinner break -- all for $100 per person.
1981 - The 30-year contract between ‘Mr. Television’, Milton Berle, and NBC-TV expired. Uncle Miltie had received $6 million for NOT being on the air since his show, The Texaco Star Theatre, went off the air in the mid-1950s. NBC held Berle to the contract to keep him from appearing on competing networks.
1987 - This day saw the largest preorder of albums in the history of CBS Records. 2.25 million copies of Michael Jackson’s Bad album were shipped to record stores. The LP followed in the tracks of the Jackson album, Thriller, the biggest Jackson-seller of all time (35 million copies sold). The Bad album was successful -- but sold only 13 million copies.
1990 - Ken Griffey & Ken Griffey Jr were the first father-and-son teammate combo to play on same baseball team: the Seattle Mariners. Both men hit singles in the first inning. And, that September 14 they hit back-to-back home runs in a game at the California Angels.
1997 - Diana, Britain’s Princess of Wales, was killed in an early-morning car crash in Paris, France. Also killed was her millionaire companion, Harrods department store heir, Dodi Fayed. The couple was being chased by aggressive paparazzie (photographers) on motorcycles at the time of the crash.
Birthdays
August 31
1870 - Maria Montessori
educator: first woman to attend medical school, first female Doctor of Medicine in Italy, worked with handicapped and socially deprived children, developed unique educational method known as the Montessori method; Montessori Schools named for her; died May 6, 1952
1897 - Fredric March (Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel)
Academy Award-winning actor: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [1931-32], The Best Years of Our Lives [1946]; Seven Days in May, Inherit the Wind, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Desperate Hours, The Bridges at Toko- Ri, Executive Suite, A Christmas Carol, A Star is Born, Mary of Scotland, Anna Karenina, The Barretts of Wimpole Street; Tony Award- winner: Long Day’s Journey into Night [1957]; died Apr 14, 1975
1903 - Arthur (Morton) Godfrey
ukulele playing, TV/radio entertainer: Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, Arthur Godfrey and Friends; Lipton Tea commercials; died Mar 16, 1983
1907 - William Shawn
magazine editor: The New Yorker; died Dec 08, 1992
1908 - William Saroyan
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright: The Time of Your Life [1940]; The Human Comedy; died May 18, 1981
1914 - Richard Basehart
actor: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea; Marilyn: The Untold Story , The Andersonville Trial, The Brothers Karamazov, Moby ****; died Sep 17, 1984
1916 - Daniel Schorr
journalist: CBS News, CNN; Senior News Analyst: National Public Radio
1918 - Alan Jay Lerner
Songwriters Hall of Famer: Academy Award-winner: Gigi [score and title song, 1958], An American in Paris [screenplay, 1951]; lyricist: Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, Camelot, My Fair Lady ; half of songwriting team of Lerner & Loewe; Grammy Award-winner: On a Clear Day You Can See Forever [1969]; died June 14, 1986
1920 - G.D. Spradlin
actor: Riders of the Purple Sage, The War of the Roses, Tank, North Dallas Forty, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Part 2, Zabriskie Point, Rich Man, Poor Man - Book II
1924 - Buddy Hackett (Leonard Hacker)
comedian, actor: The Love Bug, The Music Man; cartoon voices: The Little Mermaid; died Jun 30, 2003
1928 - James Coburn
actor: Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, The Great Escape, Our Man Flint, The President’s Analyst, Hudson Hawk, Charade, The Magnificent Seven; died Nov 18, 2002
1935 - Eldridge Cleaver
black activist; died May 1, 1998
1935 - Frank Robinson
Baseball Hall of Famer: Cincinnati Redlegs [ Rookie of the Year: 1956/all-star: 1956, 1957], Cincinnati Reds [all-star: 1959, 1961, 1962, 1965/World Series: 1961/Baseball Writers’ Award: 1961], Baltimore Orioles [World Series: 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971/all-star: 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1974/Baseball Writers’ Award: 1966], LA Dodgers, California Angels, Cleveland Indians; first black baseball manager
1937 - Warren Berlinger
actor: Love American Style, Sex and the Single Parent, The World According to Garp
1939 - Jerry Allison
musician: drums: group: The Crickets: That’ll be the Day; songwriter w/Sunny Curtis
1940 - Jack Thompson
actor: Last Dance, The Killing Beach, Ground Zero, Breaker Morant, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Waterfront, Jack Petersen
1945 - Itzhak Perlman
violinist: recorded with Andre Previn and Scott Joplin
1945 - Van Morrison
songwriter, singer: group: Them: Gloria; solo: Brown Eyed Girl, Domino, Blue Money, She Gives Me Religion
1947 - Carl Garrett
football: Oakland Raiders running back: Super Bowl XI
1949 - Richard Gere
actor: An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, American Gigolo, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, The Cotton Club, Days of Heaven, First Knight, The Jackal
1952 - Rudolph Schenker
musician: guitar: group: Scorpions: LPs: Lonesome Crow, Fly to the Rainbow, In Trance, Virgin Killers, Taken by Force, Tokyo Tapes, Lovedrive, Animal Magnetism, Blackout, Love at First Sting, World Wide Live
1954 - Claudell Washington
baseball: Oakland Athletics [all-star: 1974/World Series: 1974], Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, NY Mets, Atlanta Braves [all-star: 1984], NY Yankees, California Angels
1955 - Edwin Moses
Olympic Gold Medalist [1976, 1984] & Hall of Famer: 400-meter hurdles: the first athlete to use 13 strides between hurdles; 1983 winner of Sullivan Award: the U.S. outstanding amateur athlete
1955 - Anthony Thistlethwaite
musician: saxophone: group: The Waterboys
1958 - Von (Francis) Hayes
baseball: Cleveland Indians, Philadelphia Phillies [World Series: 1983/all-star: 1989], California Angels
1959 - Tony DeFranco
singer: group: The DeFranco Family: Heartbeat, It’s a Lovebeat
1970 - Deborah (Ann) Gibson
singer: Only in My Dreams, Foolish Beat, Lost in Your Eyes, Les Miserables; writer: Between the Lines; perfume: Electric Youth
1972 - Chris Tucker
actor: Rush Hour series, House Party 3, Dead Presidents, The Fifth Element, Money Talks, Jackie Brown
Chart Toppers
August 31
1950Mona Lisa - Nat King Cole
Play a Simple Melody - Bing Crosby
Sam’s Song - Bing & Gary Crosby
Goodnight Irene - Red Foley-Ernest Tubb
1958Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare) - Domenico Modugno
Little Star - The Elegants
My True Love - Jack Scott
Blue Blue Day - Don Gibson
1966Summer in the City - The Lovin’ Spoonful
Sunny - Bobby Hebb
See You in September - The Happenings
Almost Persuaded - David Houston
1974(You’re) Having My Baby - Paul Anka
I Shot the Sheriff - Eric Clapton
Tell Me Something Good - Rufus
The Grand Tour - George Jones
1982Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
Hurts So Good - John Cougar
Abracadabra - The Steve Miller Band
Fool Hearted Memory - George Strait
1990Vision of Love - Mariah Carey
Come Back to Me - Janet Jackson
If Wishes Came True - Sweet Sensation
Next to You, Next to Me - Shenandoah
Chart Topper August 31st, 1990...Next To You, Next To Me-Shenandoah
Guapo Vic.
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