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Born on February 8:
Lana Turner (1920-1995)
Jack Lemmon (1925-2001)
Audrey Meadows (1926-1996)
James Dean (1931-1955)

Jules Verne
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Jules Gabriel "Gabby" Verne (February 8, 1828 - March 24, 1905) was a French author and a pioneer of the science-fiction genre. Verne was noted for writing about cosmic, atmospheric, and underwater travel long before air travel and submarines were commonplace and before practical means of space travel had even been devised.


Autobiography

Early years

Verne was born in Nantes, France, to Pierre Verne, an attorney, and his wife, Sophie. The oldest of the family's five children, Jules spent his early years at home with his parents, on a nearby island in the Loire River. This isolated setting helped to strengthen both his imagination and the bond between him and his younger brother, Paul. At the age of nine, the pair were sent to boarding school at the Saint Donatien College (Petit séminaire de Saint-Donatien) in Nantes.

There Jules studied Latin, which he later used in his short story Le Marriage de Monsieur Anselme des Tilleuls (mid 1850s). One of his teachers may also have been the French inventor Brutus de Villeroi, who was professor of drawing and mathematics at the college in 1842, and who later became famous for creating the US Navy's first submarine, the USS Alligator. De Villeroi may naturally have been an inspiration for Jules Verne's conceptual design for the Nautilus in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", although no direct exchanges between the two men have been recorded.

Verne's second French biographer, Marguerite Allotte de la Fuye, formulated the myth that Verne's fascination with adventure asserted itself at an early age to such a degree that it inspired him to stow away on a ship bound for Asia, but that Jules's voyage was cut short when he found his father waiting for him at the next port.

Literary debut

After completing his studies at the lycée, Verne went to Paris to study for the bar. About 1848, in conjunction with Michel Carre, he began writing librettos for operettas. For some years his attentions were divided between the theatre and work, but some travellers' stories which he wrote for the Musée des Familles seem to have revealed to him the true direction of his talent: the telling of delightfully extravagant voyages and adventures to which cleverly prepared scientific and geographical details lent an air of verisimilitude.

When Verne's father discovered that his son was writing rather than studying the law, he promptly withdrew his financial support. Consequently, he was forced to support himself as a stockbroker, which he hated, although he was somewhat successful at it. During this period, he met the authors Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo, who offered him some advice on his writing.

Also during this period he met Honorine de Viane Morel, a widow with two daughters. They got married on January 10, 1857. With her encouragement, he continued to write and actively try to find a publisher. On August 4, 1861, their son, Michel Jean Pierre Verne, was born. A classic enfant terrible, he married an actress over Verne's objections, and had two children by his underage mistress. He and his father barely ever talked again because of this.

Verne's situation improved when he met Pierre-Jules Hetzel, one of the most important French publishers of the 19th century, who also published Victor Hugo, George Sand, and Erckmann-Chatrian, among others. When they met, Verne was 35 and Hetzel 50, and from then, until Hetzel's death, they formed an excellent writer-publisher team. Hetzel's advice improved Verne's writings, which until then had been rejected and rejected again by other publishers. Hetzel read a draft of Verne's story about the balloon exploration of Africa, which had been rejected by other publishers on the ground that it was "too scientific". With Hetzel's help, Verne rewrote the story and in 1863 it was published in book form as Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon). Acting on Hetzel's advice, Verne added comical accents to his novels, changed sad endings into happy ones, and toned down various political messages.

From that point on, and for nearly a quarter of a century, scarcely a year passed in which Hetzel did not publish one or more of his stories. The most successful of these include: Voyage au centre de la terre (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1864); De la terre à la lune (From the Earth to the Moon, 1865); Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers (20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, 1869); and Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (Around the World in Eighty Days), which first appeared in Le Temps in 1872. In 1870, he was appointed as "Chevalier" (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur. After his first novel, most of his stories were first serialised in the Magazine d'Éducation et de Récréation, a Hetzel biweekly publication, before being published in the form of books. His brother, Paul Verne, contributed to the 40th French climbing of the Mont-Blanc, added to his brother's collection of short stories Doctor Ox in 1874. Verne became wealthy and famous. He remains the most translated novelist in the world, in 148 languages, according to the UNESCO statistics.


The last years

On March 9, 1886, as Verne was coming home, his twenty five year old nephew, Gaston, with whom he had entertained lengthy and affectionate relations, charged at him with a gun. As the two wrestled for it, it went off. The second bullet entered Verne's left leg and Gaston spent the rest of his life in an asylum. The incident was hushed up by the media.

After the deaths of Hetzel and his beloved mother in 1887, Jules began writing works that were darker, such as a story of a lord of a castle infatuated with an opera singer who turns out to be just a hologram and a recording, and others concerned with death. In 1888, he entered politics and was elected town councillor of Amiens where he championed several improvements and served for 15 years. In 1905, while ill with diabetes, Verne died at his home, 44 Boulevard Longueville, (now Boulevard Jules-Verne). Michel oversaw publication of his last novels Invasion of the Sea and The Lighthouse at the End of the World.

In 1863, Jules Verne wrote a novel called Paris in the 20th Century about a young man who lives in a world of glass skyscrapers, high-speed trains, gas-powered automobiles, calculators, and a worldwide communications network, yet cannot find happiness, and comes to a tragic end. Hetzel thought the novel's pessimism would damage Verne's then booming career, and suggested he wait 20 years to publish it. Verne put the manuscript in a safe, where it was discovered by his great-grandson in 1989. It was published in 1994.


Reputation in English-speaking countries

While in France and many other countries Verne is considered an author of quality youth books with good command of his subjects - especially technological, but also political ones, his reputation in English-speaking countries has for a long time suffered from poor translation.

Characteristically for much of late 19th century writing, Verne's books often take a quite chauvinistic point of view. Especially the British Empire was frequently portrayed in a bad light, and so the first English translator, Reverend Lewis Page Mercier writing under a pseudonym, cut out many such passages, for example those describing the political actions of Captain Nemo in his incarnation as an Indian nobleman. Mercier and subsequent British translators also had trouble with the metric system that Verne used - sometimes simply dropping significant figures, at other times keeping the nominal value and only changing the unit to an Imperial measure. Thus Verne's calculations, which in general were remarkably exact for his age, were converted into mathematical gibberish. Also, artistic passages and whole chapters were cut because of the need to fit the work in a constrained space for publication, regardless of the effect on the plot.

For those reasons, Verne's work initially acquired a reputation in English-speaking countries of not being an adult work in any regard. This in turn prevented his works to be taken seriously enough to merit a new translation, leading to those of Mercier and others being reprinted decade after decade. Only from 1965 on were some of his works re-translated more accurately, but until today Verne's work is not fully rehabilitated in the English-speaking world.


Hetzel influence

Hetzel's influence on Verne's writings was substantial, and Verne, happy to at last find somebody willing to publish his works, agreed on almost all changes that Hetzel suggested. Not only did Hetzel reject at least one novel (Paris in the 20th Century) completely, he asked Verne to change significant parts of his other drafts. One of the most important changes Hetzel enforced on Verne was to change the pessimism of his novels into optimism. Contrary to common perception, Verne was not a great enthusiast of technological and human progress (as can be seen from his early and late works, created before he met Hetzel and after his death). It was Hetzel's decision that the optimistic text would sell better -- a correct one, as it turned out. For example, the original ending of Mysterious Island was supposed to show that the survivors who return to mainland are forever nostalgic about the island, however Hetzel decided that the ending should show the heroes living happily -- so in the revised draft, they use their fortunes to build a replica of the island. Many translations are like this. Another thing that Hetzel eliminated from Verne's drafts were his antisemitic views, again visible only in Verne's early (Martin Paz) and late (Hector Servadac) works. Finally, in order not to offend France's then-ally, Russia, the origin and past of the famous Captain Nemo were changed from those of a Polish refugee avenging the partitions of Poland and the death of his family in the January Uprising repressions to those of a Hindu fighting the British Empire after the Sikh War.

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

Charles Ruggles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Charles Sherman Ruggles (February 8, 1886 - December 23, 1970) was a comic American actor. In a career spanning six decades, Ruggles appeared in close to 100 feature films. He was also the brother of director, producer, and silent actor Wesley Ruggles (1889 - 1972).

Charlie Ruggles was born in Los Angeles, California in 1886. Despite training to be a doctor, Ruggles soon found himself on the stage, appearing in a stock production of Nathan Hale in 1905. He moved to Broadway to appear in Help Wanted in 1914. His first screen role came in the silent Peer Gynt the following year. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s Ruggles continued to appear in silent movies, though his passion remained the stage, appearing in long-running productions such as The Passing Show of 1918, The Demi-Virgin and Battling Butler. His most famous stage hit was one of his last before a twenty year hiatus, Queen High, produced in 1930.

From 1929, Ruggles appeared in talking pictures. His first was Gentleman of the Press in which he played a comic, alcoholic, newspaper reporter; a role he was to repeat several times over the years. He struck up a comic partnership with the formidable actress Mary Boland with whom he appeared with in half-a-dozen farces in the 1930s. In other films he played the "comic relief" character in otherwise straight films. In all, he appeared in about 100 movies.

In 1949, Ruggles halted in his film career to return to the stage and to move into television. He was the headline character in the TV series The Ruggles, where he played a character also called Charlie Ruggles, and The World of Mr. Sweeney. He was a guest star on The Beverly Hillbillies, and had a recurring role as Lowell Redlings Farquahr, father-in-law of Milburn Drysdale (Raymond Bailey).

He returned to the big screen in 1961, playing Charles McKendrick in The Parent Trap and Mackenzie Savage in The Pleasure of His Company.

Ruggles died of cancer at his Hollywood home in 1970 at the age of 84. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.

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

Lana Turner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Lana Turner (February 8, 1921 - June 29, 1995) was an American actress famed early in her career for her appearances in tight sweaters, and her smoldering sensuality, and later in her career for sudsy romance films with maximal glamorous evening gowns and tragedy.

Biography

The name on her birth certificate, as she stated in her autobiography, was Julia Jean Turner, not Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner as many sources claim. In any case, she was called "Judy" as a child and became Lana Turner when she became an actress. She was born in Wallace, Idaho. Her father was John Virgil Turner, who was born and raised in Hohenwald, Tennessee. John Virgil Turner was a clerk and a gambler who was murdered when she was a child. Her mother was Mildred Frances Cowan who was about 15 when she married John Virgil Turner.

Lana was discovered at the age of 15 in 1936 at the Top Hat Café in Hollywood by film journalist William R. Wilkerson, who introduced her to actor/comedian/talent agent Zeppo Marx. She was soon signed by MGM.

Turner earned the nickname the "Sweater Girl" due to a scene in her debut movie They Won't Forget (1937), in which her bosom bounced in a tight sweater. She reached the height of her fame in the 1940's and 1950's. During World War II, Turner became a popular pin-up girl due to her popularity in such films such as Ziegfeld Girl, Johnny Eager, and two films with MGM's king of the lot: Clark Gable (the films' successes were only heightened by gossip column rumors about a relationship between the two).

After the war, Turner's career hit a new high with the classic 1946 film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice, co-starring John Garfield. During the 1950's, Turner's films started to flop at the box-office, until she starred in Vincente Minnelli's masterpiece The Bad and the Beautiful and later the big screen adaptation of Grace Metalious's best-selling novel Peyton Place in which she earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life also proved a big commercial success. Critics and audiences couldn't help noticing that both Peyton and Imitation borrowed from Turner's private life -- a single mother coping with a troubled teenage daughter.

Off-screen, Turner was married eight times to seven different husbands, and had many lovers, including Tyrone Power (whom she calls the love of her life in her autobiography), Howard Hughes (who is reported to have given her syphilis), and a minor gangster named Johnny Stompanato who was fatally stabbed by Turner's daughter, Cheryl Crane. (The killing was deemed a justifiable homicide by coroner's inquest.)

Her husbands were bandleader Artie Shaw (1940); actor-restaurateur Josef Stephen Crane (1942-1943, 1943-44); millionaire socialite Henry J. Topping, Jr. (1948-52); actor Lex Barker (1953-57), whom she divorced after her daughter Cheryl claimed that he molested her; rancher Fred May (1960-62); businessman Robert Eaton (1965-69); and nightclub hypnotist Ronald Peller (a.k.a. Ronald Dante) (1969-72). She married Crane a second time, after their first marriage was annulled because a previous marriage of his had not yet been finalized.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Turner appeared in several television roles, but the majority of her final decade was spent out of the public eye.

She died rather suddenly at the age of 74 in 1995 of complications from the throat cancer which was diagnosed in 1992, and which she had been battling ever since, at her home in Century City, California.

She was survived by her only child, her daughter, Cheryl Crane, and Cheryl's female life partner, whom she said she accepted "as a second daughter". They inherited Lana's sizeable estate, built through shrewd real estate holdings and investments.
[edit]

Influence

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Lana Turner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6241 Hollywood Blvd.

The eminent American poet Frank O'Hara wrote a poem titled "Lana Turner Has Collapsed" inspired by Turner after seeing a headline about her soon after her lover Stompanato's murder. The Stompanato incident is also alluded to in a short scene in the film L.A. Confidential (1997).

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

Jack Lemmon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Jack Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 - June 27, 2001) was a Hollywood movie star.

He was born in an elevator in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, where his father was a successful businessman. After attending Phillips Academy and Harvard University (becoming whilst there president of the Hasty Pudding Club) Lemmon joined the Navy, received V-12 training and served as an ensign. On being discharged he took up acting professionally, working on radio, television and Broadway.

Lemmon's film debut was a bit part in the 1949 film The Lady Takes a Sailor but he was not noticed until his official debut opposite Judy Holliday in It Should Happen to You (1954). He became a favorite actor of director Billy Wilder, starring in his films Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Irma La Douce and Avanti.

Lemmon was the first actor to have won a Best Actor award and a Best Supporting Actor award. He was awarded Best Supporting Actor for Mister Roberts (1955), and Best Actor for Save the Tiger (1973). In 1988 the American Film Institute gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lemmon was one of the best-liked actors in Hollywood. He is remembered as taking time for people, as the actor and director Kevin Spacey recalled in a tribute. When already regarded as a legend, he met the then teenager Spacey backstage at a theater after a performance and spoke to him about pursuing an acting career. Spacey would later work with Lemmon in the critically acclaimed film Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), where one of its most powerful scenes involves Lemmon's character begging Spacey's character for another shot at making a sale.

Lemmon was twice married. His second wife was the actress Felicia Farr.

Jack Lemmon died of cancer on June 27, 2001. He was 76. He is interred at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Westwood, Los Angeles, California, where Walter Matthau, who had co-starred with him in several films, was also buried. After Matthau's death in 2000, Lemmon had joined other friends and relatives on a Larry King Live show in tribute to Matthau; a year later, many of the same people appeared on the show again, this time in tribute to Lemmon.

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

Audrey Meadows
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Audrey Meadows (February 8, 1926 - February 3, 1996), born Audrey Cotter, was an American actress best known for playing the deadpan housewife, Alice Kramden in the 1950s American television comedy, The Honeymooners.

Born in Wuchang (formerly Wu-ch'ang), China where her father Reverend James Cotter and mother Ida Cotter were missionaries, who had four children, two boys and two girls. The family settled in Connecticut when she was six years old, and they had sometimes physical confrontations with the William F. Buckley family that lived nearby. Some of the Buckley sisters vandalized the Cotters' property.

After high school, she moved to New York City and became a singer on the Broadway show Top Banana before breaking becoming a regular on the Bob and Ray Show. She was then hired to play Alice on Jackie Gleason's show and played Alice when The Honeymooners became a half-hour situation comedy on CBS, then returned to play Alice after a long hiatus, when Gleason produced occasional "Honeymooners" specials in the 1970s. Meadows had auditioned for Gleason and was initially turned down for being too chic and pretty for the drab Alice. Meadows later submitted an unglamorous photo of herself to Gleason, who reconsidered. Pert Kelton had originated the role of Alice when the Honeymooners was a skit on Gleason's variety show, but lost the role due to the blacklist. After the show's run, Meadows played in a number of films, worked with Dean Martin on his variety hour, and then returned to situation comedy in the 1980s playing the mother-in-law on Too Close for Comfort. She had a notable appearance in an episode of the Simpsons, "Old Money", where she did the voice of Bea Simmons, Grampa Simpsons' girlfriend.

She died of lung cancer at the age of 69. A heavy life-long chain smoker, she had been diagnosed the year before and declined treatment, but did not tell her family. She is interred in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California, although she was not known to be a Roman Catholic. Audrey Meadows was the younger sister of actress Jayne Meadows, and sister-in-law to the late Steve Allen, and she also had 2 brothers who predeceased her.

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

James Dean
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Born: February 8, 1931
Marion, Indiana
Died: September 30, 1955
Cholame, California


James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 - September 30, 1955) was a charismatic American film actor who epitomized youthful angst.[1] Dean's mainstream status as a cultural icon is best embodied in the title of his most cited role in Rebel Without a Cause.


Childhood and education

Born in a Marion, Indiana, apartment house to Winton and Mildred Wilson Dean, James Dean and his family moved to Santa Monica, California six years after Winton had left farming to become a dental technician. Dean was enrolled in Brentwood Public School until his mother died of cancer in 1940.

At age nine, after his mother's death, Dean was sent by his father to live with his Aunt Ortense and Uncle Marcus Winslow on a farm in Fairmount, Indiana where he was brought up with a Quaker influence. In high school Dean played on the school basketball team and participated in forensics and drama. After graduating from Fairmont High School in 1949 Dean moved back to California to live with his father and stepmother.

He enrolled in Santa Monica College, pledged to the Sigma Nu fraternity and majored in pre-law. Dean transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles and changed his major to drama, resulting in a parental fight that left him turned out of his father's home.


Acting career

Dean began his acting career with a Pepsi-Cola television commercial followed by a stint as a stunt tester in the game show Beat the Clock. He quit college to focus on his budding career but struggled to get jobs in Hollywood and succeeded in paying his bills only by working as a parking lot attendant at CBS studios.

Following the advice of friends Dean moved to New York City to pursue live stage acting, where he was accepted to study under Lee Strasberg in the storied Actors Studio. His career picked up and Dean did several episodes on early-1950s episodic television programs such as Kraft Television Theater, Studio One, Lux Video Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, Danger and General Electric Theater. Positive reviews for his role in André Gide's The Immoralist led to calls from Hollywood and paved the way to film stardom.


East of Eden

Further information: East of Eden (1955 film)

Director Elia Kazan was looking for a new actor to play the role of Cal; Dean and another relatively unknown actor, Paul Newman, were the final two chosen. Following a screen test in New York City the part was given to Dean.

On March 8, 1954 Dean left New York City and headed for Los Angeles to begin shooting East of Eden. Dean played the son of a constantly disapproving father played by Raymond Massey, while strangely enough, their onscreen conflict was heightened by an apparently mirrored relationship off-screen.

The relationship between Cal and his father was one similar to that for Dean and his own father, thus Dean had a special infatuation with the role of Cal. He became known on the set for his improvisational contributions to the script; his creativity proved to be very important as some of the most famous scenes were not originally scripted as they appear today. Dean would apparently drive past cinemas during the release of the film and stare in amazement as people lined up to see him in East of Eden. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role (the first posthumous acting nomination in Academy Awards history).


Rebel Without a Cause

Further information: Rebel Without a Cause


He followed this up in rapid succession with the starring role in Rebel Without a Cause , a film that would prove to be hugely popular amongst teenagers. The film is widely cited as an accurate representation of teenage angst of the early 1950s.

The film co-starred Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo. Director Nicholas Ray encouraged Dean's creative side which he had showed during the filming of East of Eden.

During filming, he purchased one of only 90 Porsche 550 Spyders, and, while still in production, introduced himself to the world of competitive racing, entering a number of small competitions and achieving a high degree of success.

Giant

Further information: Giant (film)

Giant which was posthumously released in 1956, saw Dean play a supporting role to both Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson.

The film is highly memorable in that it takes place over thirty years, thus, all the characters must age progressively during the film. Dean dyed his hair grey as opposed to wearing a wig and shaved some of his hair off to give himself a receding hairline. This is particularly special in that although his character ages considerably in the film, Dean himself will never grow old.

Giant would be Dean's last film. Towards the latter end of the film, an old Dean is at a banquet set to make a speech, which would be his last ever on-screen appearance. That scene has been dubbed "The Last Supper".

Dean was nominated for an Academy Award after the release of the film.

Death

Dean had become friends with fellow auto enthusiast and multi-millionaire Lance Reventlow, one of the last people to speak to Dean when they met on their way from Los Angeles to a sports car race at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. A few hours later Dean was driving his Porsche 550 Spyder west on U.S. Highway 466 (later California State Route 46) near Cholame, California when a car driven from the opposite direction by 23-year-old Cal Poly student Donald Turnupseed, attempting to take the fork onto California State Route 41, crossed into Dean's lane without seeing the very low-slung silver-grey Porsche roadster in the twilight. The two cars hit almost head on. According to a story in the Oct 1, 2005 edition of the Los Angeles Times[2], California Highway Patrol officer Ron Nelson and his partner had been finishing a coffee break in Paso Robles when they were called to the scene of the accident, where they saw a heavily-breathing Dean being placed into an ambulance. His mechanic Rolf Wutherich had been thrown from the car but survived with a broken jaw and other injuries. Dean was taken to Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 5:59PM at the age of 24. His last known words, uttered right before impact, are said to have been: "That guy's got to stop... He'll see us." [3]

Contrary to reports of excessive speed which persisted decades after his death, Nelson said "the wreckage and the position of Dean's body indicated his speed was more like 55 mph (88 km/h)." Turnupseed received a gashed forehead and bruised nose, was not cited by police for the accident, though research has indicated he was exceeding the speed limit. He died of lung cancer in 1995. While completing Giant, Dean had recently filmed a driving safety announcement targeted at teenaged drivers. "The life you save," he had said in conclusion, "may be mine."


Porsche 550 Spyder

In 1955, Dean purchased one of only 90 Porsche 550 Spyder, nicknaming it "Little Bastard". Since the actor's death, the car has been infamous as being the vehicle that killed not only him, but others in the years following his death.

Over the years, many groups of people believed that the actor's vehicle and all of its parts were cursed. George Barris, who customized the car for Dean, bought the wreck for $2,500, only to have it slip off its trailer and break a mechanic's leg.

Soon afterwards, Barris sold the engine and drive-train to physicians Troy McHenry and William Eschrid respectively. While racing against each other, the former would be killed instantly when his vehicle spun out of control and crashed into a tree, while the latter would be seriously injured when his vehicle rolled over while going into a curve.

Barris later sold two tires, which malfunctioned as well. The tires, which were unharmed in Dean's accident, blew up simultaneously causing the buyer's automobile to go off the road.

Two young would-be thieves were injured while attempting to steal parts from the car. One tried to steal the steering wheel from the Porsche; his arm ripped open on a piece of jagged metal. Later, another man was injured while trying to steal the bloodstained front seat. This would be the final straw for Barris, who decided to store "Little Bastard" away, but was quickly persuaded by the California Highway Patrol to loan the wrecked car in a highway safety exhibit.

The first exhibit from the CHP featuring the car ended unsuccessfully, as the garage storing the Spyder went up in flames, destroying everything except the car itself, which suffered almost no damage whatsoever from the fire. The second display, at a Sacramento High School, ended when the car fell, breaking a student's hip. "Little Bastard" also found itself causing trouble while being transported several times. On its way to Salinas, the truck containing the vehicle lost control, causing the driver to fall out, only to be crushed by the Porsche after it fell off the back. On two separate occasions, once on a freeway and again in Oregon, the car came off other trucks, although no injuries were reported, another vehicle's windshield was shattered in Oregon.

Finally in 1959, one last exhibit would plague the CHP, in which the 550 Spyder would spontaneously break into eleven pieces. This would mark the end of the car, as in 1960, when being returned to George Barris in Los Angeles, California, the car and the truck holding it, as well as its driver, would mysteriously vanish. "Little Bastard" has not been seen since.


Legacy


James Dean is one of only five people to have been nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for their first feature role and the only one nominated twice posthumously. He is buried in Park Cemetery in Fairmount, Indiana.

Two films from 1955, Rebel Without a Cause and Blackboard Jungle, are most often cited as having symbolized the growing post-war rebellion of 1950s teenagers along with playing a part in the emergence of Rock and Roll as a lasting cultural phenomenon. Many young people of that and later generations modeled themselves after James Dean. His charismatic screen presence and very brief career combined with the publicity surrounding his death at a young age transformed Dean into a cult figure and pop icon of apparently timeless fascination.


Sexuality



James Dean's sexual life is a matter of some debate. Often considered a gay film icon [4], there are many published accounts of Dean having had bisexual relationships. In literary critic Ron Martinetti's biography, "The James Dean Story," Martinetti writes, "Only one of Dean's homosexual relationships is dealt with in this book--and that in his early days in Hollywood and New York with a director named Rogers Brackett. Toward the end of his own life, however, when he was stricken with cancer, Rogers granted me the only interviews he ever gave on Dean. He was tired of the "half-truths" that had been published and wanted "to set the record straight."

Further, Boze Hadleigh, a Hollywood biographer who focused on film figures who he asserted were gay or bisexual, published a 1972 interview with Sal Mineo in which the actor said, "Nick (Adams) told me they had a big affair." Further sources support the view that Dean could have had homosexual relationships. John Gilmore, a member of Dean's "Night Watch" motorcyle riders, wrote a book on James Dean claiming they had a homosexual encounter. In his Natalie Wood biography, Gavin Lambert, himself homosexual and part of the Hollywood gay circles of the 50s and 60s, describes Dean as being bisexual. In her memoir of her brief affair with Dean, actress Liz Sheridan states Dean had an affair with Rogers Brackett, a radio director for an advertising agency whom Dean met in the summer of 1951 while working as a parking attendant at CBS. In Val Holley's James Dean: the Biography (1997) gay studies scholars will also find evidence of a homosexual social life. Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon's book Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History: From World War II to the Present Day (2001) includes an entry on James Dean. "Live Fast, Die Young - The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause," a recent book by Lawrence Frascella and Al Weisel, states that Rebel director Nicholas Ray knew Dean to be bisexual.


Memorial

In 1977 a Dean memorial was built in Cholame, California. The stylized sculpture composed of concrete and stainless steel around a tree of heaven growing in front of the Cholame post office was made in Japan and transported to Cholame, accompanied by the project's benefactor, Seita Ohnishi. Ohnishi chose the site after examining the location of the accident, now little more than a few road signs and flashing yellow signals. In September 2005, the intersection of Highways 41 and 46 in Cholame was dedicated as the James Dean Memorial Highway as part of the celebration for the 50th anniversary of his death.

The dates and hours of Dean's birth and death are etched into the sculpture along with one of his favorite lines from Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince - "What is essential is invisible to the eye."

Walz Hardcore Cycles also built a memorial bike for James Dean with the number 130 on it. The number comes from his silver Porsche 550 Spyder, he had the number 130 painted on the hood, and on the back end of the car, he commissioned car customizer George Barris to paint his nickname "Little Bastard".

In September 2005, the intersection of Highways 41 and 46 in Cholame was dedicated as the James Dean Memorial Highway as part of the celebration for the 50th anniversary of his death.

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

John Williams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is one of the most widely recognized composers of film scores. As of 2006, he has received 45 music-related Academy Award nominations, an accomplishment surpassed only by Walt Disney.

Williams is best known for heroic, rousing themes to adventure and fantasy films. This includes some of the highest grossing films of all time, such as Star Wars, Superman, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, and the first three Harry Potter movies. His richly thematic and highly popular 1977 score to the first Star Wars film was selected by the American Film Institute as the greatest American movie score of all time. Five of his film scores won Oscars.

His long career has also included many sensitive dramatic scores (such as Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan) and more experimental concert works.

While skilled in a variety of 20th century compositional idioms, his most familiar style may be described as a form of neoromanticism, informed by the large-scale orchestral music of the late 19th century and that of Williams's film-composing predecessors. The influence of Korngold and other Hollywood Golden Age composers is strong in much of Williams' most famous work.


Early life

John Williams was born in Floral Park, New York. In 1948, John Williams and his family moved to Los Angeles, California, where he attended UCLA. He also studied composition privately with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who also taught another famous film score composer, Jerry Goldsmith.

In 1952, Williams was drafted and entered the United States Air Force, where he conducted and arranged music for Air Force bands. When discharged in 1954, he returned to New York. There, he went to Juilliard, the alma mater of musicians including the composer Philip Glass and violinist Itzhak Perlman (with whom Williams released an album, Cinema Serenade, in 1997). He studied piano at the school with Rosina Lhevinne. In New York, he worked as a jazz pianist. He also played with noted composer Henry Mancini and even performed on the recording of the famous Peter Gunn theme. In the early 1960s, he served as arranger/bandleader on a series of popular albums with singing great Frankie Laine.


Film scoring

Williams later returned to Los Angeles, where he started working in the film studios. There he worked with some of the finest film score composers of that time: Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman. He began his career composing TV scores for series including Gilligan's Island, Lost in Space, and The Time Tunnel.

In the early 1970s, he established himself as a composer for big-budget disaster films with scores for The Towering Inferno, Earthquake, and The Poseidon Adventure. In 1974, Williams was approached by a young Steven Spielberg to write the music for his feature debut, The Sugarland Express. They re-teamed for the director's second film, Jaws, featuring an ominous two-note motif representing the shark. Spielberg's friendship with director George Lucas led to Williams's composing for the Star Wars movies. Over thirty years later, the Williams-Spielberg collaboration has proven to be one of Hollywood's most enduring and fruitful. To date, Williams has composed the music to all but one of Spielberg's movies (Quincy Jones was composer for 1985's The Color Purple).

He has been nominated for 45 Academy Awards, of which he has won five (for Jaws, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler's List, and for arrangements in Fiddler on the Roof). He currently holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person and has the same number of Oscar nominations as Alfred Newman. He also holds the record for the most Academy Award losses ever.

Williams has received two Emmy Awards, eighteen Grammy Awards, and has been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. In 2004 he received a Kennedy Center Honor. He also won a Classical Brit award in 2005 for his soundtrack work of the previous year. On January 16, 2006, Williams won a Golden Globe, his fourth, for his score in Memoirs of a Geisha.

John is also a member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national honorary fraternity for college band members [1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Williams_%28composer%29

A young fella was strolling down a street in San Fransisco when he tripped over an
old oil lamp. Picking it up, he quickly hid it inside his jacket, realising it's potential
worth. Heading swiftly towards the nearest antiques shop, the lamp rubbed against his shirt.
Suddenly - POOF - a genie popped out from his pocket.
Now the Genie looked extremely angry and said, "Alright, I've had it up to hear with
this 3 wish nonsense, and because you stole me away from my favourite HBO
show, I'm only giving you one wish!"
Looking surprised, the man said: "Ok, I wish to live in Hawaii, in a large condo near the
beach, with millions of dollars and a plethora of gorgeous ladies on call...but I'm afraid of
boats and planes so I want you to build a bridge from here to Hawaii."
The genie replied with a smirk: "You're crazy, right? Do you realise just how long that's
gonna take? All those pillars and cement??? Sorry bud, it simply can't happen!"
The man sighed, but smiled and said: "Fair enough then. Instead, I want to understand women."
The genie replied: "Would you like two lanes or four?"

Wow! Raggedy and her wonderful pictures, and Bio Bob and his delightful backgrounds.

Thanks to the "boat of youse" for being so regular here on WA2K radio.

I think most of us know almost all of your celebs, Raggedy and Bob, but I do want to comment on your funny genie joke.

Men, WHAT DO THEY WANT? <smile>

I suppose that of all the sci fi writers, Jules Verne came the closest to accurate predictions.

However, let's hear a song by John Williams:



Artist - John Williams
Album - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Lyrics - Double Trouble

Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble
Double, double, toil and trouble
Something wicked this way comes.

Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing.

Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble
Double, double, toil and trouble
Something wicked this way comes.

In the cauldron boil and bake,
Fillet of a fenny snake,
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf.

Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble

Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble
Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble

Something wicked this way comes.

Well, folks, I don't believe those words were original.

News from the Cape:



Fossett Begins Record Flight Attempt By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 1 minute ago



CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Adventurer Steve Fossett shot down a three-mile runway in an experimental aircraft Wednesday and took off on an attempt to break a 20-year-old flight distance record.


Fossett's lightweight, glider-like airplane lifted off from a runway at Kennedy Space Center normally used for space shuttle landings. It hit two birds during takeoff but wasn't damaged, said Jim Ball, a NASA manager at the Kennedy Space Center. Once it was airborne, the plane's long, flexible wings lifted slightly upward.

"The roll was longer than we anticipated but that's why he wanted to use a 15,000-foot runway," Ball said.

Fossett's goal is a nearly 27,000-mile trip, once around the world and then across the Atlantic again, with a landing outside London.

I'm a bit behind the program, here, but while McTag's doing aerobics, thought it might be worthwhile to hear an uncensored version of Start Me Up

If you start me up
If you start me up I'll never stop
If you start me up
If you start me up I'll never stop
I've been running hot
You got me ticking gonna blow my top
If you start me up
If you start me up I'll never stop
You make a grown man cry
Spread out the oil, the gasoline
I walk smooth, ride in a mean, mean machine
Start it up
If you start it up
Kick on the starter give it all you got, you got, you got
I can't compete with the riders in the other heats
If you rough it up
If you like it you can slide it up, slide it up
Don't make a grown man cry
My eyes dilate, my lips go green
My hands are greasy
She's a mean, mean machine
Start it up
If start me up
Give it all you got
You got to never, never, never stop
Never, never
Slide it up
You make a grown man cry
Ride like the wind at double speed
I'll take you places that you've never, never seen
Start it up
Love the day when we will never stop, never stop
Never stop, never stop
Tough me up
Never stop, never stop, never stop
You, you, you make a grown man cry
You, you make a dead man come
You, you make a dead man come

Great, Mr. Turtle. I know that McTag will appreciate that version while he's pumping iron.

Pretty soon, listeners, our Brit will be the spitting image of Tico's Arnie.

pump up the volume
pump up the volume

pump up the volume
pump up the volume

brothers and sisters
pump up the volume
we're gonna need you

brothers and sisters
pump up the volume
pump that baby

brothers and sisters
pump up the volume
we're gonna need you

brothers and sisters
pump up the volume
pump pump it ay

rock the house
rock the house

ah yea
ah yea

do it
do it do it

Whoa, thought it was a nightmare,
Lo, it's all so true,
They told me, don't go walkin' slow
'cause devil's on the loose.

Better run through the jungle,
Better run through the jungle,
Better run through the jungle,
Woa, don't look back to see.

Thought I heard a rumblin'
Callin' to my name,
Two hundred million guns are loaded
Satan cries, take aim!

Over on the mountain
Thunder magic spoke,
Let the people know my wisdom,
Fill the land with smoke.

Hey, cowboy. I guess we could run through the jungle or bungle in it, whichever suits the times.


Jethro Tull
» Bungle In The Jungle

Walking through forests of palm tree apartments ---
scoff at the monkeys who live in their dark tents
down by the waterhole --- drunk every Friday ---
eating their nuts --- saving their raisins for Sunday.
Lions and tigers who wait in the shadows ---
they're fast but they're lazy, and sleep in green meadows.

Let's bungle in the jungle --- well, that's all right by me.
I'm a tiger when I want love,
but I'm a snake if we disagree.

Just say a word and the boys will be right there:
with claws at your back to send a chill through the night air.
Is it so frightening to have me at your shoulder?
Thunder and lightning couldn't be bolder.
I'll write on your tombstone, ``I thank you for dinner.''
This game that we animals play is a winner.

Let's bungle in the jungle --- well, that's all right by me.
I'm a tiger when I want love,
but I'm a snake if we disagree.

The rivers are full of crocodile nasties
and He who made kittens put snakes in the grass.
He's a lover of life but a player of pawns ---
yes, the King on His sunset lies waiting for dawn
to light up His Jungle
as play is resumed.
The monkeys seem willing to strike up the tune.

WA2K Radio is now on the air
<sounding of a radio broadcasting tone> We interrupt this program for a special announcement:

"Evolution of the self is fascinating endeavor. As I observe myself from a distance, the changes have been amazing. It wasn't that long ago that I was a devout, fundamental Christian. Not only that, I was very critical of those who didn't believe the way I did, with respect to conservative politics. But as a seeker of understanding, my heart and mind has opened and blossomed into dimensions never-before explored within the past several months.

Because of this more progressive change in me, I decided to re-visit A2K so that I could learn and grow, and experience a different perspective on things. While doing so, I've had much fun. I've also come to realize that what I've perceived as hurtful from others, actually comes from good intentions, although without realizing it, certain personal evaluations might be outdated or one-sided. I must point out, however, that even the most liberal of judges listens to both sides before coming to a conclusion. But sometimes this opportunity isn't afforded, for whatever reasons. That's life, as they say. Nevertheless, I have no complaints, and completely accept everyone here, as they are.

I consider myself a willing student, as I open myself to forming relationships with those from whom I can learn, and even love. In my mind, I most often put myself in the other person's shoes, and imagine how it feels to see things as they do. I do want to understand, in this way, and go out of my way to be as open-minded as possible, without betraying my current beliefs (which continually evolve, as time passes).

Each phase of change that I go through is a stepping-stone to a better "me". A2K has played a part in this path, and want to thank you for it. I wish you well, my friends."

<sounding of a radio broadcasting tone> We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Hey, P.S. Thank you for sharing your personal anecdote. I am not certain what the central idea of your message contains, but we accept it with unbiased views. As a matter of record, we're trying to listen to a song called, "Jesus", but my equipment is rather slow and unwieldy.

My, Gawd, folks. I'm beginning to believe that T.S. was correct. "not with a bang but a whimper."

Full Coverage: Religion
Enlarge Photo ReutersDanish paper refused "offensive" Jesus cartoons
Reuters - 1 hour, 2 minutes ago
COPENHAGEN - The Danish newspaper that first published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad infuriating Muslims worldwide previously turned down cartoons of Jesus as too offensive, a cartoonist said on Wednesday. Twelve cartoons of the Prophet published last September by Jyllands-Posten newspaper have outraged Muslims, provoking violent protests in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

and to think we were concerned with Mick Jagger's censorship.

Since Dys likes his role as a local cowboy, I have an old
German song for him

Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann
Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann
Dabei kommts mir gar nicht auf das Schiessen an
Denn ich weiss, das so ein Cowboy kuessen kann
Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann

Mama sagt: Nun wird es Zeit, du brauchst 'nen Mann
Und zwar noch heut
Nimm gleich den von nebenan, denn der ist bei der Bundesbahn
Da rief ich: No no no no no
Mit dem wuerd ich des Lebens nicht mehr froh

(Mama gesprochen)
Aber warum denn nicht, mein Kind. Da hast du doch deine
Sicherheit. Denk doch mal an die schoene Pension bei der
Bundesbahn. Was willst du eigentlich?

Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann
Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann
Dabei kommts mir gar nicht auf das Schiessen an
Denn ich weiss, das so ein Cowboy kuessen kann
Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann

Papa meint, ich waer sehr schoen, ich haett Figur von der Loren
produzent vom Film kommt an, der wuerde dann mein Ehemann
Da rief ich: No no no no no
Mit dem wuerd ich des Lebens nicht mehr froh

(Papa gesprochen)
Also ick versteh dir nich. Warum nimmste denn nich den
Filmfritzen? Sollst es doch mal besser haben als dein Vater.
Wat willste eigentlich?

Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann
Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann
Dabei kommts mir gar nicht auf das Schiessen an
Denn ich weiss, das so ein Cowboy kuessen kann
Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann
Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann
Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann
Dabei kommts mir gar nicht auf das Schiessen an
Denn ich weiss, das so ein Cowboy kuessen kann
Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann