WA2K Radio is now on the air

Thanks, Bob, for that interesting bio about Bram Stoker. The fact that Dracula was not intended to be a bad guy was rather like Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, right?

Ah, Hollywood. What a wonderful fairyland of tales. <smile>

Katharine Hepburn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 - June 29, 2003) was an iconic star of American film, television and stage, widely recognized for her sharp wit, New England gentility and fierce independence. A screen legend, Hepburn holds the records for the most Oscars (4) and also Best Actress nominations (12). Hepburn won an Emmy Award in 1975 for her lead role in Love Among the Ruins, and was nominated for four other Emmys and two Tony Awards during the course of her more than 70-year acting career. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Hepburn the greatest actress of all time. Hepburn had a famous and longtime romance with Spencer Tracy, both on- and offscreen.


Hepburn's early years

Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut, to Dr. Thomas Norval Hepburn, a successful urologist, and Katharine Houghton, a suffragette and birth control advocate, who, along with Margaret Sanger, helped to found the organization that became Planned Parenthood. Hepburn's father was a staunch proponent of publicizing the dangers of venereal disease in a time when such things were not discussed, and her mother campaigned for birth control and equal rights for women. The Hepburns demanded frequent familial discussions on these topics and more, and as a result the Hepburn children were well versed in social and political issues. Once a very young Katharine Hepburn even accompanied her mother to a suffrage rally. The Hepburn children, at their parents' encouragement, were unafraid of expressing frank views on various topics, including sex. "We were snubbed by everyone, but we grew quite to enjoy that," Hepburn later said of her unabashedly liberal family, who she credited with giving her a sense of adventure and independence.

Her father insisted that his children be athletic, and encouraged swimming, riding, golf and tennis. Hepburn, eager to please her father, emerged as a fine athlete in her late teens, winning a bronze medal for figure skating from the Madison Square Garden skating club, shooting golf in the low eighties, and reaching the semifinal of the Connecticut Young Women's Golf Championship. Hepburn especially enjoyed swimming, and regularly took dips in the frigid waters that fronted her bayfront Connecticut home, generally believing that "the bitterer the medicine, the better it was for you." She continued her brisk swims well into her 80s. Hepburn would come to be recognized for her athletic physicality ?- she fearlessly performed her own pratfalls in films such as Bringing up Baby, which is now held up as an exemplar of screwball comedy.

When Hepburn was young, she found her older brother Tom, whom she idolized, hanging from the rafters by a rope, dead of an apparent suicide. Her family denied that it was self-inflicted, arguing that he had been a happy boy; rather, they insisted that it must have been an experimentation gone awry. Hepburn was devastated by his death, and for years used his birthday as her own. It was not until she wrote her autobiography, Me: Stories of my Life, that Hepburn revealed her true birth date.

She was educated at Bryn Mawr College, receiving a degree in history and philosophy in 1928, the same year she debuted on Broadway after landing a bit part in Night Hostess.

A banner year for Hepburn, 1928 also marked her nuptials to socialite businessman Ludlow ("Luddy") Ogden Smith, whom she had met while attending Bryn Mawr and married after a short engagement. Hepburn and Smith's marriage was rocky from the start ?- she insisted he change his name to S. Ogden Ludlow so she would not be called "Kate Smith." They were divorced in Mexico in 1934. Fearing that the Mexican divorce was not legal, Ludlow got a second divorce in the United States in 1942 and a few days later remarried. Although the marriage was a failure, Hepburn often expressed her gratitude toward Ludlow for his financial and moral support in the early days of her career.


Hepburn's acting career begins


Theater

Hepburn cut her acting teeth in plays at Bryn Mawr and later in revues staged by stock companies. During her last years at Bryn Mawr, Hepburn had met a young producer with a stock company in Baltimore, Maryland, who cast her in several small roles, including a production of The Czarina and The Cradle Snatchers.

Hepburn's first leading role was in a production of The Big Pond, which opened in Great Neck, New York. The producer had suddenly fired the play's original leading lady and asked Hepburn to assume the role. Terror stricken at the unexpected change, Hepburn arrived late and, once on stage, flubbed her lines, tripped over her feet and spoke so rapidly that she was almost incomprehensible. She was fired from the play, but continued to work in small stock company roles and as an understudy.

Later, Hepburn was cast in a speaking part in the Broadway play Art and Mrs. Bottle. Hepburn was fired from this role as well, though she was eventually rehired when the director could not find anyone to replace her. After another summer of stock companies, in 1932 Hepburn landed the role of Antiope the Amazon princess in The Warrior's Husband (an update of Lysistrata), which debuted to excellent reviews. Hepburn became the talk of New York City and began getting noticed by Hollywood.

In the play, Hepburn entered the stage by leaping down a flight of steps while carrying a large stag on her shoulders ?- an RKO scout (Leland Hayward, whom she would later romance) was so impressed by this display of physicality that he asked her to do a screen test for the studio's next vehicle, A Bill of Divorcement.

In true Hepburn fashion, she demanded an outlandish $1,500 per week for film work (at the time she was earning between $80 and $100 per week). After seeing her screen test, RKO agreed to her demands and cast her, launching her film career aside legendary actor John Barrymore and director George Cukor, who would become a lifetime friend and colleague.

Film

RKO was delighted by audience reaction to A Bill of Divorcement and signed Hepburn to a new contract after it wrapped. But her nonconformist, anti-Hollywood behavior offscreen, which would make her one of the silver screen's most beloved stars and a feminist icon, at the time made studio executives fret that she would never become a superstar. Off-set, Hepburn, who had begun to attract significant press attention, would wear overalls and ratty tennis shoes instead of glamorous clothing fit for a starlet, prompting RKO executives to confiscate her overalls when she refused to change her wardrobe. After RKO refused to return her clothing, Hepburn followed through with her threat to walk across the studio lot in her underwear in full view of several cameras. Embarrassed, the RKO executives confiscated all the photographs and gave her back her overalls.

Though she was headstrong, her work ethic and talent were undeniable, and the following year (1933), Hepburn won her first Oscar for best actress in Morning Glory. That same year, Hepburn played Jo in the screen adaptation of Little Women, which broke box-office records.

Intoxicated with her success ?- an Oscar followed by a smash hit at the box office ?- Hepburn felt it time to make her return to the theater. She chose The Lake, but was unable to obtain a release from RKO and instead went back to Hollywood to film the forgettable movie Spitfire in 1933. Having satisfied RKO, Hepburn went immediately back to Manhattan to begin the play, in which she played an English girl unhappy with her overbearing mother and wimpy father. Generally considered a flop, Hepburn's acting in The Lake resulted in Dorothy Parker's famous quip that the actress "ran the gamut of emotions from A to B."

In 1935, in the title role of the film Alice Adams, Hepburn earned her second Oscar nomination. By 1938 Hepburn was a bona fide star, and her foray into comedy with the films Bringing Up Baby and Stage Door was well-received critically. But audience response to the two films was tepid, and the good reviews from critics were not enough to rescue her from an earlier string of flops (The Little Minister, Spitfire, Break of Hearts, Sylvia Scarlett, A Woman Rebels, Mary of Scotland, Quality Street). Her career began to decline.


Box office poison


Some of what has made Hepburn greatly beloved today ?- her unconventional, straightforward, anti-Hollywood attitude ?- at the time began to turn audiences sour. Outspoken and intellectual with an acerbic tongue, she defied the era's "blonde bombshell" stereotypes, preferring to wear pantsuits and disdaining makeup. She also had a famously difficult relationship with the press, turning down most interviews, which did not help her exposure to the public. When she did speak with the press, occasionally she fed them lies to amuse herself. On her first outing with the Hollywood press corps after the success of A Bill of Divorcement, Hepburn talked with reporters who had invaded her and her husband's cabin aboard the ship City of Paris. A reporter asked if they were really married; Hepburn responded, "I don't remember." Following up, another reporter asked if they had any children; Hepburn's answer: "Two white and three colored." Hepburn's aversion to media attention did not thaw until 1973, when she appeared on The Dick Cavett Show for an extended two-day interview.

She could also be prickly with fans ?- though she relented as she aged, in her early career Hepburn often denied requests for autographs, feeling it an invasion of her privacy. On the set she was saddled with the label "difficult to work with", an attitude that earned her the nickname "Katharine of Arrogance" among directors and crew. Soon audiences began staying away from her movies.

Hepburn was already reeling from a devastating series of earlier flops when in 1938 she (along with Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford and others) was voted "box office poison" in a poll taken by motion picture exhibitors. In 1939, Hepburn's career came to what was perhaps its lowest point when she lost out on the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.

Smarting, Hepburn returned to her roots on Broadway, appearing in The Philadelphia Story, a play written especially for her by Philip Barry, a year after Hepburn had starred in the movie version of his play Holiday. She played spoiled socialite Tracy Lord to rave reviews. With the help of Howard Hughes, who at one time had been her lover, she purchased the rights to the play and turned it into a hit movie. She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her work in the movie, in which she appeared with Cary Grant and James Stewart. Her career was revived almost overnight.


Hepburn and Spencer Tracy


In 1942, Hepburn made her first appearance opposite Spencer Tracy in Woman of the Year. Behind the scenes the pair fell in love, beginning what would be one of Hollywood's most famous romances.

They are one of Hollywood's most recognizable pairs both on-screen and off, and have in large part become the standard by which other film romances are judged. Hepburn, with her agile mind and New England brogue, complemented Tracy's easy working-class machismo. Tracy seemed to be the only one Hepburn would allow to tame her. When Joseph Mankiewicz introduced them, Hepburn, who was wearing special heels that added several inches to her lanky frame, said, "I'm afraid I'm too tall for you, Mr. Tracy." Mankiewicz retorted, "Don't worry, he'll soon cut you down to size."

As the London Telegraph observed in Hepburn's obituary, "Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were at their most seductive when their verbal fencing was sharpest: it was hard to say whether they delighted more in the battle or in each other."

The pair carefully hid their love from the public, using back entrances to studios and hotels and assiduously avoiding the press. Hepburn and Tracy were undeniably a couple for decades, but didn't live together regularly until the last few years of Tracy's life. Even then, they maintained separate homes to keep up appearances. Tracy, a devout Catholic, had been married to another woman since 1923 and remained so until his death. Friends and biographers have speculated that Tracy's Catholicism was not the main reason why he never sought a divorce ?- rather, he would have felt too guilty about abandoning his deaf son, John. Hepburn, out of respect for Tracy's family, did not attend his funeral.

Hepburn appeared in a total of nine movies with Tracy, including Adam's Rib and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, for which Hepburn won her second Best Actress Oscar.

Before Tracy, Hepburn had relationships with several Hollywood directors and personalities, including her agent Leland Hayward. Hepburn also had a famous affair with billionaire aviator Howard Hughes.

Hepburn figures in Martin Scorsese's 2004 biopic of Hughes, The Aviator. However, the movie is a highly fictionalized portrayal of Hepburn and Hughes's relationship, and many portions of the movie involving the relationship are inaccurate. Hepburn was portrayed by Cate Blanchett, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the role. As noted in the film, Hepburn did not leave Hughes for Tracy (Hepburn and Hughes split up years before, in 1938).


The African Queen


Hepburn is perhaps best remembered for her role in The African Queen (1951), for which she received her fifth Best Actress nomination, although she did not win (losing to Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire). She played a prim spinster missionary in Africa who convinces Humphrey Bogart's character, a hard-drinking riverboat captain, to use his boat to attack a German ship.

Filmed mostly on location in Africa, almost all the cast and crew suffered from malaria and dysentery ?- except director John Huston and Bogart, neither of whom ever drank any water. Hepburn, ever the urologist's daughter, disapproved of the two men's boozing and piously drank gallons of water each day to spite them. She wound up so sick with dysentery that even months after she returned home the famously vigorous actress was still ill. The trip and the movie made such an impact on her that later in life she wrote a book about filming the movie: The Making of The African Queen: Or, How I Went to Africa With Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind, which made her a best-selling author at the age of 77.

Later Film Career


Following The African Queen Hepburn often played spinsters, most notably in her Oscar-nominated performances for Summertime (1955) and The Rainmaker (1956), although at 49 she was considered by some to be too old for the role. She also received nominations for her performances in films adapted from stage dramas, namely as Mrs. Venable in Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer (1959) and as Mary Tyrone in the 1962 version of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night.

Hepburn received her second Best Actress Oscar for what some said was essentially a pedestrian role in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. She always said she believed the award was meant to honor Spencer Tracy, who died shortly after filming of the movie was completed. The following year she won a record-breaking third Oscar for her role as Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter, an award shared that year with Barbra Streisand for her performance in Funny Girl.

Hepburn continued to do filmed stage dramas, including The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), The Trojan Women (1971) by Euripides, and Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance (1973). In 1973 she first appeared in an original television production of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie.

Two years later Hepburn received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Special Program (Drama or Comedy) for Love Among the Ruins, which costarred Laurence Olivier and was directed by George Cukor. Hepburn also appeared opposite John Wayne in Rooster Cogburn, which was essentially The African Queen done as a western. Hepburn won her fourth Oscar for On Golden Pond (1981) opposite Henry Fonda. In 1994, Hepburn gave her final two movie performances ?- as Ginny in the remake of Love Affair and in One Christmas, which was based on a short story by Truman Capote.


Hepburn's legacy


Hepburn died on June 29, 2003, at 2:50 p.m., at Fenwick, the Hepburn family home, in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. She was 96. In honor of her extensive theater work, the bright lights of Broadway were dimmed for an hour.

Her autobiography, Me: Stories of My Life, was published in 1991. The book Kate Remembered, by A. Scott Berg, was published just 13 days after her death. It documents the friendship between the actress and Berg. The book bills itself as an authorized biography, but that has been called into question by The New York Times [1]. Berg was also criticized for inserting himself into the book too much, including by a columnist for the Hartford Courant. New York Post columnist Liz Smith called the book a "self-promoting fakery," and suggested that Hepburn "would have despised it and his betrayal of her friendship." [2]

Hepburn's professional legacy is today carried on within her family. Hepburn's niece is actress Katharine Houghton, who appeared with her in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). Hepburn's grandniece is actress Schuyler Grant; the two appeared together in the 1988 television movie Laura Lansing Slept Here.

In 2004, in accordance with Hepburn's wishes, her personal effects were put up for auction with Sotheby's in New York. Hepburn had meticulously collected an extraordinary amount of material relating to her career and place in Hollywood over the years, as well as personal items such as a bust of Spencer Tracy she sculpted herself and her own oil paintings. The auction netted several million dollars, which Hepburn willed mostly to her family and close friends.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Hepburn

Patti Page
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Patti Page (born Clara Ann Fowler on November 8, 1927) is one of the best-known female singers in traditional pop music. She is unusual in that she came to traditional pop from country music, and some of her recordings are somewhat country flavored. She is sometimes considered the first major crossover artist to popularize country music to the general public. Her records span the era from 1949 to 1981.

Records vary as to whether Clara Ann Fowler was born in Claremore or Muskogee, Oklahoma. In either case, she was born into a large and poor farming family, whose mother and older sisters picked cotton. They went without electricity, so young Clara could not read after dark, as she related on TV many years later. However, she became a featured singer on a 15-minute radio program on radio station KTUL, Tulsa, Oklahoma, at age 18. The program was sponsored by Page Milk Company and so young Clara Ann Fowler became songstress Patti Page.

In 1946, Jack Rael, a band manager, came to Tulsa to do a one-nighter. He turned on the radio, and heard the musical program with the 18-year-old featured vocalist. He liked what he heard, and asked her to join the Jimmy Joy band, which Rael managed. Eventually both left the band; and Rael became Patti's personal manager and leader of the backup orchestra for many of her recordings.

In 1948, she recorded a song called "Confess," which had a portion requiring one singer to answer another. (The other hit version involved a duet of Doris Day and Buddy Clark.) Because of a low budget, a second singer could not be hired, so Jack Rael suggested that Patti sing the second part as well. The novelty of her doing two voices on one record probably contributed to the song becoming a top twenty hit for her. At the time, most record companies had a director of Artists and Repertory (the "A&R man") who tightly controlled all the choices of artist-song assignments, and Mercury Records' A&R man was Mitch Miller (who became famous later on as the A&R man who brought Columbia Records into a dominant position in pop music in the early 1950s). After doing "Confess," Patti (or Jack Rael, or both) liked the multiple-voice idea so much that she asked to do an entire song as a quartet. Miller was skeptical until Patti recorded a four-bar song demo in four different voices and played the sample for Miller. Reluctantly, he permitted it, and the song, "With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming," became another big hit for Patti, her first to sell a million. Although both Mary Ford and Jane Turzy became known for it, Patti Page was the first singer to record multiple tracks on the same song, on "Confess." On some of the records, she was billed as "Vocal by Patti Page, Patti Page, and Patti Page," in at least one case ("With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming") being given quadruple billing.

As stated above, "Confess" became her first charted hit, in 1948 for Mercury Records, and reached #12 on the Billboard chart. Her first #1 hit was "All My Love", based on Maurice Ravel's Bolero, which was #1 for 5 weeks in 1950. Her biggest hit was "The Tennessee Waltz", which was #1 for 13 weeks, coming a few months later in 1950. In 1963 she changed companies, going to Columbia, but returned to Mercury in 1971. In 1973 she went back to the Columbia family, recording for Epic Records (a subsidiary). In 1974 and 1975 she had a pair of records for Avco Records, then, after a hiatus of a few years, started in 1981 to record for Plantation Records, her last label. In the 1990s she started her own label, C. A. F. Records.

In 1998 she won a Grammy as "Best Traditional Pop singer."

Many of her songs have a strong beat to them that prelude rock 'n' roll. These titles include "Mister and Mississippi", "Detour" and "Cross Over the Bridge".

In 1956 she married choreographer Charles O'Curran. They adopted two children, a daughter Kathleen, who suffers from serious drug problems, as Patti Page recounted on the O'Reilly Factor, and is incapable of taking care of her own children, as well as a son, Danny O'Curran. Patti Page and Charles O'Curran divorced in 1972. In 1990 she married again, to Jerry Filiciotto, with whom she runs a maple syrup business in New Hampshire, when not at home near San Diego, California.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patti_Page


Tennessee Waltz :: Patti Page

I was dancing with my darling
To the Tennessee Waltz
When an old friend I happened to see
I introduced her to my loved one
And while they were dancing
My friend stole my sweetheart from me

I remember the night and the Tennessee Waltz
Now I know just how much I have lost
Yes, I lost my little darling
The night they were playing
The beautiful Tennessee Waltz

Oops, listeners, missed a couple of bios by our Bob, but I did find this song from old blue eyes as a companion piece to Margaret Mitchell:


Frank Sinatra - Gone With The Wind Lyrics
Gone with the wind, just like a leaf that has blown away.
Gone with the wind, my romance has flown away.
Yesterday's kisses are still on my lips,
I had a lifetime of heaven on my fingertips.
But now all is gone, gone is the rapture that thrilled my heart.
Just like a flame, love burned brightly
Then became an empty smoke dream that has gone,
Gone with the wind.

Alain Delon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Alain Delon (born November 8, 1935) is a French actor, one of the best known outside his native country.

Delon was born in Sceaux, France, and at 17 he enlisted in the French Marines, serving in Indochina as a parachutist. His breakthrough as a film star came with Plein Soleil, a 1960 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley. He also gave tremendous performances in Luchino Visconti's The Leopard and, perhaps his finest moment, Le Samouraï. His later work has not reached these heights, and his decline is characteristic of the nouvelle vague of French actors, such as Jean-Paul Belmondo.

In 1968, Delon and his wife Natalie were at the center of a massive sex, drug and murder scandal when their bodyguard Stefan Markovitch was found shot dead in a garbage dump.

In 1973, he made a duet with the French pop singer Dalida on "Paroles... Paroles...", which was a big hit in France, Japan, Canada, etc...

After a string of box office failures in the 80s and 90s, culminating in the surprising box-office failure of Patrice Leconte's film, Une Chance sur deux, Delon announced his decision to give up acting in 1997 at the age of 62.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Delon

Never heard of Delaine Delon, Bob, but thanks for the info.

Speaking of France, folks. Wonder where our Francis is?

Well, listeners, Letty has a bunch of stuff to do today, and I guess I've procrastinated long enough, but it does help to write.

Bonnie Raitt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Bonnie Raitt, (born November 8, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitar virtuoso who was born in Burbank, California, the daughter of Broadway musical star John Raitt.

She began playing guitar at the age of 12, something not a lot of her high school girlfriends did, and after leaving college she began playing the rhythm and blues clubs. While admired by those who saw her perform, and respected by her peers such as blues legend Howlin' Wolf, she gained little public acclaim for her work. In 1983, struggling with alcohol and drug abuse, she was dropped by her record label, Warner Bros., and all but disappeared from the music scene.

In late 1987 she joined k.d. lang and Jennifer Warnes as female background vocals for Roy Orbison's television special, Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night. Following this highly acclaimed broadcast, she began working on new material, recording a bluesy mix of hard rock under the production guidance of Don Was at Capitol Records. After more than twenty years of singing and recording popular music, Bonnie Raitt achieved immense success with her 10th album. Released in 1989, "Nick of Time" went to the top of the U.S. charts and won three Grammy Awards. At the same time, she walked away with a fourth Grammy Award for her duet "In the Mood" with John Lee Hooker on his album "The Healer".

She followed up this success with three more Grammy Awards for her 1991 album, "Luck of the Draw", then, in 1994 she added two more Grammy's with her album "Longing in Their Hearts". "Souls Alike" was released September, 2005.

She appeared on Warren Zevon's self-titled album in 1976 with Warren Zevon's friend Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.


Political activism

Bonnie Raitt is a member of the Green Party of California. [1]

Raitt's web site urges fans to learn more about preserving the environment. She was a founding member of Musicians United for Safe Energy.

In July 2004, she drew thunderous applause at the Stockholm Jazz Festival for dedicating a classic to U.S. President George W. Bush. She was quoted as saying, "We're gonna sing this for George Bush because he's out of here, people!" before she launched into the opening licks of "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)," a cover that was featured on her 1979 album The Glow.


Personal life

Raitt and Michael O'Keefe married on April 27, 1991 and announced their divorce on November 9, 1999.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_Raitt


I ain't let you gonna break my heart again :: Bonnie Raitt

there ain't no use in me trying to tell you how I feel
'cause what I feel ain't what you're feeling
I don't know what we did wrong
I just know if you come home
I ain't gonna let you break my heart again

there ain't no use in me trying to find out where you've been
where you've been ain't where I'm going
'cause if I ask you where you've been
the hurting starts and it don't end
so I ain't gonna let you break my heart again , no
I ain't gonna let you break my heart again , no o

(bridge)
tears don't become me
pain ain't my friend
it seems like you enjoy my crying , baby
you always said that I was strong
but I believe that you were wrong
lately , God knows , I have been trying

there ain't no use in you trying to kiss away the hurt , baby
'cause it hurts where it's deep down inside of me and it's hiding
if you decide you're coming home
you walk in , it won't be like before
'cause I ain't gonna let you break my heart again , no
ain't gonna let you break my heart again , no no

Miss Letty, I've seen Francis

here<smile>

Ah, there's our Frenchman and chatting with Heracles' prisoner.

So, folks, that leads us to the question for the day:

What exactly does the expression, " a sop for Cerberus" really mean?

Its me.

I like Bonnie Raitt, too

Whoops! Lots of trouble posting today. Didn't even notice Katharine Hepburn born in May. How'd she slip in there? Gotta go beat up the computer again.

Good Day WA2K.

Today's birthdays:

35 - Nerva, Roman Emperor (d. 98)
1491 - Teofilo Folengo, Italian poet (d. 1544)
1622 - King Charles X of Sweden (d. 1660)
1656 (N.S.) - Edmond Halley, British astronomer and mathematician (d. 1742)
1694 - Leonhard Trautsch, German composer (d. 1762)
1706 - Johann Ulrich von Cramer, German judge and philosopher (d. 1772)
1710 - Sarah Fielding, English writer (d. 1768)
1715 - Elisabeth Christine von Braunschweig-Bevern, queen of Frederick II of Prussia (d. 1797)
1836 - Milton Bradley, American lithographer and game manufacturer (d. 1911)
1847 - Bram Stoker, Irish novelist (d. 1912)
1847 - Jean Casimir-Périer, French politician (d. 1907)
1848 - Gottlob Frege, German mathematician and logician (d. 1925)
1866 - Herbert Austin, English automobile pioneer (d. 1941)
1868 - Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (d. 1942)
1883 - Arnold Bax, English composer (d. 1953)
1884 - Hermann Rorschach, Swiss psychiatrist (d. 1922)
1893 - Clarence Williams, American jazz pianist and composer (d. 1965)
1896 - Bucky Harris, baseball player (d. 1977)
1898 - Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (d. 1937)
1900 - Margaret Mitchell, American author (d. 1949)
1900 - Charlie Paddock, American athlete (d. 1943)
1904 - Cedric Belfrage English-born writer (d. 1990)
1908 - Martha Gellhorn, American writer and journalist (d. 1998)
1918 - Hermann Zapf, German designer
1919 - P.L. Deshpande, Indian author (d. 2000 )
1920 - Esther Rolle, American actress (d. 1998)
1922 - Christiaan Barnard, South African heart surgeon (d. 2001)
1923 - Jack Kilby, American electrical engineer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 2005)
1927 - Patti Page, American singer
1927 - Nguyen Khanh, Prime Minister of South Vietnam
1931 - Morley Safer, Canadian journalist
1931 - Darla Hood, American actress (d. 1979)
1935 - Alain Delon, French actor
1942 - Angel Cordero Jr., Puerto Rican jockey
1947 - Minnie Riperton, American singer (d. 1979)
1949 - Bonnie Raitt, American singer
1952 - Jan Raas, Dutch cyclist
1953 - Alfre Woodard, American actress
1954 - Michael D. Brown, former Director of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency
1954 - Jeanette McGruder, American musician (P Funk)
1954 - Rickie Lee Jones, American singer and composer
1958 - Don Byron, American clarinetist
1961 - Leif Garrett, American singer and actor
1967 - Courtney Thorne-Smith, American actress
1968 - Parker Posey, American actress
1968 - Zara Whites, Dutch porn actress
1975 - Tara Reid, American actress
1976 - Brett Lee, Australian Cricketer
1979 - Aaron Hughes, Northern Irish footballer
1981 - Joe Cole, English footballer
2000 - Madison Poer, American actress


Alain Delon

McTag, that is a fantastic picture of you, Manchester.

For those of you who can't see McTag, just drop by our studio and take a look at all the marvelous pictures tacked on our bullentin board.

Any requests, Brit?

I would like to hear the old music hall song "I've Never Seen a Straight Banana", please

Here ya go, McTag:

I'VE NEVER SEEN A STRAIGHT BANANA
by Waite
as performed by "The Happiness Boys", Billy Jones & Ernest Hare


You may have seen some funny things in your time
But there's one thing you've not seen, I'd like to bet.
Would you like to know just what you have been missing?
I'll tell you in the chorus but not yet.
Now I've got you puzzled, so I'll tell you what I mean.
The thing that's in my mind, I must confess, I haven't seen.

I have never, never, never, never, I've never seen a straight banana.
I guess I must admit
That I have searched quite a bit.
They're even curved when they are served in my banana split.
I have seen them by the car-load on the Delaware & Lacawana
But have you ever?
No, I've never
I've never seen a straight banana.

I recall when I was in Alaska
I saw the sun at twelve-o'clock at night.
I've seen the waterfalls at old Niagara
I can vouch it is a most impressive sight.
But I'd like to see one certain thing
But if it's not to be,
I'd like to meet somebody else
Who saw what I can't see.

I've never, never, never, never seen a straight banana.
Although the things I hate,
Hundreds I have ate.
But I've never yet seen one banana that was straight.
I have traveled far to find one.
I've been to Chili and Havana.
But I've never, never, never, never seen a straight banana.

I've never, never, never, I have never seen a straight banana.
Once I chanced to see
A real life murder mystery
The jury found the prisoner guilty in the first degree.
All at once we heard the prisoner
Holler out, "This is the truth, your honor,
I've never, never never, never
Never, never, never, never
I've never seen a straight banana.

Hey, Raggedy. Thanks for the celeb updates, PA. Back later to comment

Hey, Bob, just don't beat up the hamster, ok? There are animal rights activists in our listening audience. <smile>

My word, Raggedy. Hardly know one of your celebs, but thanks for allowing us to see Alain Delon. Nice looking man, too. Pity about his life, however.

News from France:



State of Emergency Declared in France By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer
17 minutes ago



PARIS - President Jacques Chirac declared a state of emergency Tuesday, paving the way for curfews to be imposed on riot-hit cities and towns in an extraordinary measure to halt France's worst civil unrest in decades after 12 nights of violence.



Police, meanwhile, said overnight unrest Monday-Tuesday, while still widespread and destructive, was not as violent as previous nights.

"The intensity of this violence is on the way down," National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said, citing fewer attacks on public buildings and fewer direct clashes between youths and police. He said rioting was reported in 226 towns across France, compared to nearly 300 the night before.

Perhaps Francis will give us his analysis.

a bit of a straight second banana

Great, Mr. Turtle. Wonder where that "banana" expression originated?

You know, listeners, we use expressions that are familiar to us and really don't stop to explore the origins.

New from Virginia and New Jersey:


Some See Off-Year Races As Test for GOP By MARK KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer
30 minutes ago



U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine (news, bio, voting record) acknowledged a little nervousness as he voted Tuesday in his race for governor of New Jersey, one of several contests being closely monitored for evidence of how the GOP's recent struggles are influencing voters.


Tuesday's voting in New Jersey concluded a campaign that featured more personal attacks than actual talk about the issues. The races there and in Virginia ?- together the biggest contests in this off-year election season ?- broke spending records in both states, got progressively nasty and yet remained close.

Corzine, facing Republican businessman Doug Forrester, voted shortly after the polls opened at a fire station in Hoboken. Coming out of the voting booth, he told reporters he was "a little nervous, a little worried but confident."

A few hours later, Forrester voted at a senior center, giving a thumbs-up and expressing only optimism about his chances.

In Virginia, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine chatted with neighbors in his Richmond neighborhood before going to the polls with his wife, Anne Holton.

Kaine's Republican challenger, Jerry Kilgore, got a boost Monday from President Bush, who made a last-minute dash into Virginia to urge die-hard conservatives to help turn out voters for the former attorney general.

"The thing I like about this fellow is he grew up on a farm," Bush said in a brief stop on his return from a South American trade thing.

OK Letty, you had me wondering.


Top Banana
This expression originated in the burlesque era. There was an extremely popular comedy skit in which the main comic was given a banana after delivering the punch line to a particularly funny joke. The skit and joke were so widely known that the term "top banana" was coined to refer to anyone in the top position of an organization. I assume the term "second banana," referring to someone in a lesser position, had a similar origin from the same skit.