Groucho Marx was an American comedian and film and television star. He was known for his quick wit and is widely considered one of the best comedians of the modern era. His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included slapstick quirks such as an exaggerated stooped posture, glasses, cigar, and a thick greasepaint mustache and eyebrows. Marx made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers. He also had a successful solo career, most notably as the host of the radio and television game show You Bet Your Life. The famous “Groucho glasses” are a one-piece novelty disguise consisting of horn-rimmed glasses, large plastic nose, bushy eyebrows and mustache.
Charlie Chaplin was a British comic actor and filmmaker who rose to fame in the silent era. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona “the Tramp.” A legendary figure in film history, Chaplin’s career spanned more than 75 years, from a child in the Victorian era to close to his death at the age of 88. Raised in London, his childhood was defined by poverty and hardship. At 19, Chaplin was signed to the prestigious Fred Karno company, which took him to America. By 1918, he was one of the most famous men in the world. In 1919, Chaplin co-founded the distribution company United Artists, giving him complete control over his films, which included The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940). He was born on this day in 1889.
Cy Young was a Major League Baseball (MLB) player. During his 22-year career (1890-1911), he pitched for five different teams, most notably the Boston franchise (Americans/Red Sox). Young established numerous pitching records, some of which have stood for a century. He still holds the MLB records for most wins (511), career innings pitched (7,355), career games started (815) and complete games (749). One year after Young’s death in 1955, the Cy Young Award was created to honor the previous season’s best pitcher. He was born on this day in 1867.
Willie Stargell, nicknamed “Pops” in the later years of his career, was a Major League Baseball (MLB) player. He played his entire 21-year career as the left fielder and first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1962-1982). He helped the Pirates capture six National League East division titles, two National League pennants and two World Series (1971, 1979). He was born on this day in 1940.
Alexander Graham Bell was a scientist, inventor and engineer credited with inventing the first practical telephone. Both his mother and wife were deaf, which led him to research hearing and speech. His experiments with hearing devices culminated with the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876. Many other inventions marked Bell’s later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils and aeronautics. In 1888, Bell became a founding member of the National Geographic Society. He was born on March 3, 1847.
In retrospect, Bell considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study. Over 100 years later, I agree with his assessment. I do not like talking on the phone, or hearing it ring/vibrate/sing pop songs. Bell and I have the same birthday, so perhaps we would agree on many things.
Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He helped develop many influential devices, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera and the electric light bulb. However, to quote the hilarious Nikola Tesla comic by The Oatmeal, “Edison did not invent the light bulb. Edison simply figured out how to sell the light bulb. Edison was not a geek; he was a CEO.” And he was a terrible human being. For example, as a developer of direct current (DC) electricity, Edison put live “dogs and cats on display and publicly electrocuted them using Tesla’s alternating current (AC). His goal was to publicly smear Tesla’s AC and convince the public that it was too dangerous for home use. The only thing Edison truly pioneered was douchebaggery.” Edison was born on this day in 1847.
I will also reiterate what I wrote for my 8-bit Nikola Tesla character last year. I love this Funny or Die episode about Tesla and the evil Thomas Edison: “This is awful. I am inventing electricity and you look like an asshole.”
Ty Cobb was a Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder who spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the last six as the team’s player-manager, and finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics. Cobb is widely credited with setting 90 MLB records during his career. He still holds several records as of 2012, including the highest career batting average (.367). Cobb’s legacy as an athlete has sometimes been overshadowed by his surly temperament and aggressive playing style. He was born on this day in 1886.
Emily Dickinson was an American poet who lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. While Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime. Dickinson’s poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. She was born on this day in 1830.
Joe DiMaggio was a Major League Baseball (MLB) player who spent his entire 13-year career as the center fielder for the New York Yankees (1936-1942 and 1946-1951). He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak (May 15 to July 16, 1941), a record that still stands. DiMaggio was a three-time MVP winner and 13-time All-Star. During his 13 years with the Yankees, the club won 10 American League pennants and nine World Series championships. He was born yesterday in 1914.
Note: DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe eloped in 1954, but divorced less than a year later. In 1962, they were on the verge of remarriage when Monroe was found dead in her bedroom. Suicide by barbiturate overdose, or was she murdered?
Ted Williams was a Major League Baseball (MLB) player who spent his entire 22-year career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox (1939-1942 and 1946-1960). Williams led the league in batting six times, won the American League MVP twice and won the Triple Crown twice. A 19-time All-Star, he had a career batting average of .344 with 521 home runs. Williams was the last player to bat over .400 in a single season (.406 in 1941).
Harry Houdini was an Austrian-Hungarian-born American stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts in the early 1900s. For most of his career, Houdini was a headline act in vaudeville. His career began with handcuff-escape gimmicks and expanded to include shackles, chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers and underwater straitjackets. Houdini was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent magicians who gave practitioners a bad name. He was also quick to sue anyone who pirated his own escape stunts. He died, somewhat mysteriously, of a ruptured appendix on this day in 1926.
Lou Gehrig was a Major League Baseball (MLB) player who spent his entire 17-season career with the New York Yankees. His durability earned him the nickname “The Iron Horse.” Gehrig played first base until his career was cut short by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disorder now commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He played in 2,130 consecutive games over a 15-season span (1925-1939). This streak ended only when Gehrig became disabled by the fatal neuromuscular disease that claimed his life two years later. He is one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
Jim Henson was an American puppeteer, best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various TV programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, and numerous Muppet films. He created advanced puppets for projects like Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. He was also an Oscar-nominated film director, Emmy Award-winning television producer and the founder of The Jim Henson Company. He was born on this day in 1936.
Lyndon B. Johnson was the 36th President of the United States. John F. Kennedy asked him to be his running mate for the 1960 presidential election. Johnson succeeded to the presidency following the assassination of JFK in 1963 and was elected President in 1964. He was responsible for Great Society social reforms designed to eliminate poverty and racial injustice. Johnson also escalated U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which stimulated a large antiwar movement.
Jesse Owens was a barrier-breaking American track and field athlete. At a Big Ten track meet in 1935, Owens set three world records and tied a fourth in a span of 45 minutes. He was the most successful athlete at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Nazi Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 relay and long jump.
Simón BolÃvar was a Venezuelan military and influential political leader. He played a key role in Hispanic-Spanish America’s successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire. In Latin America, BolÃvar is regarded as a hero, visionary, revolutionary and liberator. He led Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia to independence, and helped lay the foundations for democratic ideology in much of Latin America. He was born on this day in 1783.
Ernest Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His minimalist style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s. In 1954, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature following the publication of The Old Man and the Sea. He was born on July 21, 1899 and committed suicide in 1961.
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed “Lady Day,” she pioneered a new vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists. Holiday is perhaps most celebrated for singing “Strange Fruit,” a protest song that became one of her standards and was made famous with her 1939 recording. She died on this day in 1959.
George H. W. Bush was the 41st President of the United States. During his presidency, the U.S. started the Persian Gulf War (codenamed Operation Desert Storm) in 1991 response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Bush was born on this day in 1924. His eldest son served as the 43rd President of the United States.
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect and interior designer who believed in designing harmonious structures of organic architecture. This philosophy was best exemplified by his design for Fallingwater (1935) in Pennsylvania, which has been called “the best all-time work of American architecture.” Wright was born on this day in 1867.
Of Wright’s over 400 works, only one structure is located in Oregon. It’s the Gordon House at the Oregon Garden in Silverton. I plan to visit the Fallingwater property when I’m back in Pennsylvania later this month.
Alexander Graham Bell – No. 582
Alexander Graham Bell was a scientist, inventor and engineer credited with inventing the first practical telephone. Both his mother and wife were deaf, which led him to research hearing and speech. His experiments with hearing devices culminated with the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876. Many other inventions marked Bell’s later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils and aeronautics. In 1888, Bell became a founding member of the National Geographic Society. He was born on March 3, 1847.
In retrospect, Bell considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study. Over 100 years later, I agree with his assessment. I do not like talking on the phone, or hearing it ring/vibrate/sing pop songs. Bell and I have the same birthday, so perhaps we would agree on many things.