GrooveCentralLA

07 Jan 2013

Go to Heaven for the Climate. Go to Hell for the Company

It was 1861 and the Civil War was beginning it’s bloody boil. Because of the conflict, Samuel L. Clemens (aka Mark Twain) was forced to give up his life as a steamboat Captain seeing how the Mississippi was closed to peace time traffic. In New Orleans, when Louisiana seceded Sam returned to Hannibal, Missouri where he joined a local group of Confederate militia. Two weeks of running around the woods of Missouri were more than enough for Second Lieutenant Clemens, whose commitment to the cause was less than noble, but honest to himself. “I was incapacitated by fatigue through persistent retreating” he later joked. For the rest of the war he was far away from any fighting which suited Sam just fine.

Hangovers are rough stuff and we all have different methods for their demise. Some prefer saunas or

Montgomery Block

steam baths, some choose rigorous labor or exercise, while I prefer to consume deep fried foods, more alcohol and to move as little as possible for fear of upsetting my delicate composition and balance. On a rainy San Francisco day in June 1863 halfway through a 2 month stay in San Francisco that stretched into 3 years, Sam chose to battle his heavy hangover at the steam rooms of the fashionable Montgomery Block, also known as the Monkey Block. When built in 1853 the four story structure was the tallest building west of the Mississippi and was the home and work place for hundreds of writers, lawyers and painters for over 100 years. Those who spent time there include Jack London, George Sterling, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Ambrose Bierce, Bret Harte, Dorothea Lange, Diego Rivera, and Frida Kahlo. The building bested the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, but couldn’t stop the bulldozers which toppled it in 1959 and is now home to the Transamerica Pyramid.

So anyway, there is Mark Twain with a mountainous hangover in the steam room, overhearing a conversation from a gentleman covered in soot. Turns out that the stout round faced gent was a customs inspector, volunteer fireman, special policeman and bona fide hero by the name of Tom Sawyer. Tom and Mark soon became great friends and patrolled the bars and gambling joints of San Francisco acquiring the best of hangovers and losing copious amounts of money, but having the time of their lives. Sawyer remembered “He beat the record for lyin’ — nobody was in a race with him there. He never had a cent. His clothes were always ragged and he never had his hair cut or a shave since ’60. I used to give him half my wages and then he borrow from the other half, but a jollier companion and a better mate I would never want. He was a prince among men, you can bet, though I allow he was the homeliest man I ever set eyes on, Sam was.” Throughout 1863 and into 1864 Mark Twain published unsigned stories in the “Call” newspaper. ” They’d send him out down at the paper to write something up, Sawyer remembers, ” and he’d go up to the Blue Wing Saloon and sit around telling stories and drink

Tom Sawyer (left) at the Gotham saloon

all day then go back to the office and write something up. Most of the times he’d get it all wrong, but it was mighty entertaining.” Twain used to loathe working at the “Call”. “It was awful drudgery for a lazy man and I was born lazy. I raked the town from end to end and if there weren’t no fires to report I’d start one.” Twain said.

Tom Sawyer earned his hero status not only for being an excellent fireman but for gallantry when a steamer “The Independence” blew it’s boilers off the Baja coast and Tom was credited with saving 90 lives at sea, 26 singlehandedly.

On September 28th, Sawyer and Twain hit the town hard. “Mark was as sprung as I was and in a short time we owned the City,

cobblestones and all.” Sawyer recalled. “Toward the morning Mark sobered up a bit and we got to telling yarns. The next day Mark walks up to me and puts both hands on my shoulders. Tom, he says, I’m gonna write a book about a boy and the kind I have in mind was just about the toughest boy in the world. Tom, he was just such a boy as you must of been….How many copies will you take, Tom, half up front? ”

San Francisco

Mark Twain started a lecture tour which was a big deal back then, just telling stories and make people laugh. Tom sat in the front row at one of the lectures in San Francisco and his hearty laugh could be heard at all the bars on Montgomery Street. Afterwards, Twain decided to take his leave of San Francisco and at the age of 31 he leapt into a most glorious writing and lecturing career that arguably made him the most famous American of the late 19th and early 20th century. Tom Sawyer hugged his friend and said goodbye and despite Tom Sawyer’s wishes that his friend would come join him at his own saloon ” The Gotham,” which he owned for 21 years, they would never see each other again.

The non fictional Tom Sawyer died in 1906 – 3 1/2 years before Twain. “Tom Sawyer, Whose Name Inspired Twain Dies at Great Age,” read the headlines of the local paper. Sawyer’s saloon was destroyed by fire that same year.

So just think about all the authors, painters, and song writers who at this moment are creating something beautiful, sad, dangerous, ridiculous, and deeply moving about the times they have spent drinking massive amounts of alcohol with you. Perhaps it is time for a steam bath. Groove.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged booze., groove, hangover, History, laughter, Mark Twain, San Francisco, Tom Sawyer

06 Dec 2012

11 Comments

I Refuse to Eat Wheaties: The Sad Intrigue of Jim Thorpe

Jim’s trailer park

Have you ever been to Lomita, CA? I spent a little while there, kind of lost, on a rainy afternoon on a return trip from showing my gal the broken shell that was once wonderful Marineland. It is a small hamlet (total area 1.9 square miles) just east of Palos Verdes, once home to Louie Zamperini Field (the great Zamp the Champ immortalized in the book ” Unbroken,” by Laura Hillenbrand) which has been recently annexed by the city of Torrance. An unremarkable little town (population of just over 20,000) with the exception that on March 28, 1953, arguably the greatest athlete in American history died there of heart failure in a dilapidated trailer park. The great Jim Thorpe spent his last years in Lomita battling alcoholism, poverty and health issues. He died at the age of 64.

Jim is not buried in Lomita or Prague, Oklahoma where he was born and wished to be buried. Jim Thorpe is buried in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania – a place he had never been to or seen, but more about that later.

In 1950, Jim Thorpe was overwhelmingly voted by America’s sports writers the greatest athlete of the first half century. The 300 writers gave Babe Ruth 86 first place votes, Jim received 252. Many years later, in a poll by ABC Sports, Thorpe was voted the Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century. In the 1912 Olympics Jim won both the pentathlon and the decathlon, the only athlete to ever do so. His record scores in both events would not be broken for decades. Prior to the 1500 meters Jimmy’s track shoes were stolen, he found some shoes in the trash, but they were mismatched. So on one foot he had to wear extra socks to compensate for the larger shoe. In that race his time was faster than anyone in the 1960 Olys, in fact, Jimmy’s time was 9 seconds faster than the great Rafer Johnson. Bryan Clay, the American gold medal winner of the decathlon at the 2008 Oly’s,was timed at his career best in the 1500 meters just one-second faster than Jim’s time in 1912. King Gustav

Mismatched shoes

presented Thorpe with his medals and said “You are the greatest athlete in the world”. Jim responded “Thanks King.” Thorpe’s successes had not gone unnoticed in the US and he was honored with a ticker-tape parade on Broadway in New York City. He remembered later,”I heard people yelling my name, and I couldn’t realize how one fellow could have so many friends”. Later, Thorpe was stripped of his Oly medals when it came to light that he had participated in some semi-professional baseball games, thus no longer an amateur. The only good that came from this was that he soon received many offers from professional teams and went on to have success in professional basketball, baseball, and the early NFL. The days of professional athletes making the big lettuce were many, many years to come.

Jim played professional sports until he was 41 and the end of his sporting career coincided with the start of the Great Depression. Working odd jobs such as nightwatchman, gas station attendant and as a merchant marine, nothing stuck and the booze became his constant buddy. The people who knew him always said he carried himself as a gentleman – quiet and unassuming. Married 3 times and with 7 children scattered across the country, Jim ‘s heart called it a day in Lomita, California sitting across from his shrill of a wife Patsy. Then things got weird.

The Native American funeral had begun in Prague, Oklahoma with most of Jim’s children in attendance and when 3rd wife Patsy arrived with a hearse and a Oklahoma Highway Patrolman in tow everybody knew something bad was going to happen. Nobody who had ever met Patsy would accuse her of being kind nor pleasant, especially Jim’s kids from his previous marriages, but Patsy would find a way to raise the bar of her non-groove status. She barged into the service and announced that her dead husband was “too cold”. Then ordered the coffin loaded into the hearse and drove away handing Thorpe’s body to a mausoleum. Those attending the service were slack-jawed, dumbfounded, but did nothing.

Five months after Thorpe’s death Patsy showed up at the mausoleum and had the body shipped to Tulsa hoping the city would build a memorial. Tulsa turned her down. Patsy continued to shop old Jim around asking for a monument and some cash for Patsy. Even Carlisle, Pennsylvania where Jim went to college had to say no “Patsy was asking for too much money” said a Carlisle official.

After alienating almost everyone she wound up in the Poconos of Pennsylvania where two tiny boroughs straddling the Lehigh River, Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk’s, brilliant civic leaders decided they could combine the towns, build a monument of glory to Jimmy, pay off Patsy, and rename themselves Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. Surely, doing this would put them on the path to grooveland. There was talk of the NFL Hall of Fame coming, a 500 bed hospital, a sports stadium, and a sporting goods factory. With a parade, honking horns, marching high school bands, and by a margin of 10 to 1 the Chunks signed the deal. A red marble mausoleum was built, some Oklahoma dirt was found, they threw Jimmy in there, officially changed the name of their towns to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, and waited for the good times.

The good times did not follow. It flopped badly, nobody came, nobody cared. No Hall of Fame, no hospital, no factory, no nothin. As one of the townsfolk said “all we got was a dead indian”. But as the decades folded up, the fortunes of the town began to change, but not because of Jimmy. Mountain biking, clean air, and white water rafting have improved the financial world of Jim Thorpe, PA.

Some of Jim’s sons have made moves through the courts to get his body back to Oklahoma, but most of the relatives have now passed on. The motion is still in the courts with no closing in sight.

Jim Thorpe finally got on a Wheaties box, but it wasn’t until 2001 and only after a huge letter writing campaign. (Fake wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin gets the nod, but the greatest American athlete almost doesn’t ? I shall refuse to eat Wheaties ever again! Do not serve them to me or I shall fling the bowl like a frisbee at your youngest child.) I am not going to go with a Rodney Dangerfield line here, but it is pretty clear that in most of his life and in his death the respect factor has been pretty low for Jimmy.

So I say, go to a bar and have seven cocktails and raise a toast to America’s Greatest athlete and hope that your body doesn’t end up in some strange place you’ve never heard of or been to like in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. But maybe, just maybe, I like the sound of Groovemaster, Uzbekistan. Hmmm…. Groove.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged groove, History, Jim Thorpe, Native American, NFL, Olympics, truth

05 Nov 2012

10 Comments

Rock n’ Roll and the White Whale

Herman Melville

OK, it is a reach – but I want to talk Rock n Roll and Herman Melville. I know you are thinking “GrooveCentral has thrown a few curveballs in his day, but R and R and the main Herman together?”

We all know Herman from days long ago when we were forced to read “Moby Dick – or the Whale “. It was cool, a bit verbose, and I was slightly wierded by the “Marriage Bed” scene between Ishmael and Queequeg and the boys getting a little too into it with “the Squeeze of the Hand” chapter where the joyful camaraderie of the sailors goes to high levels when extracting spermaceti from a dead whale. My projected life as a sailor was never that strong, and after reading Moby Dick it was extinguished like an ant versus a shoe on the streets of America. Things didn’t really work out for Herm cause nobody really dug MD when he was alive and by the age of 35 any semblance of popularity was swept away like the Atlantic City boardwalk was by Big Sandy. Moby Dick was dedicated to Herm’s pal Nat Hawthorne, who later backed away from their friendship and the book never sold its initial printing of 3,000 copies in his lifetime. The total dough received by Herm was just $556.37 from his American publisher. He spent the rest of his days as a Customs House inspector and when he called it a day in 1891 no one really cared.

Moby

Jump ahead 100 years and we all remember the 1990’s electronica-house music craze. Wasn’t that me with my shirt off, a baby pacifier in my mouth, sweating profusely, jumping up and down wildly, with glow sticks coming out of my ears, and hugging equally sweaty strangers? (No, it wasn’t.) But if that was me, perhaps I was listening to a guy who has sold over 20 million albums named Richard Melville Hall whose ancestrial relationship was that Herman Melville was his great-great-great grand uncle. You might know him as Moby.

In the 1920’s there was a confluence of publishing events called “the Melville Revival”. This occurred when a fellow named Ray Weaver came out with a sucessful biography on Herm and in doing his research he came across an unfinished manuscript given to him by Herm’s grandaughter. It was called ” Billy Budd” and in 1962 it was made into a motion picture debuting a young actor named Terrace Stamp who was nominated for an oscar

Terry

for best supporting actor. We all know Terry from ” The Adventures of Pricilla, Queen of the Desert” , as General Zod in “Superman 1 and 2”, and of course as English tycoon Sir Lawrence Wildman from “Wallstreet” (“Gekko, you’re a two bit pirate”). It turns out that Terry’s brother Chris Stamp was the long time manager of The Who and also helped shape Jimi Hendrix’s early career in England. Didn’t someone on the Pequod play the accordion? ( The Who’s hit single” Squeeze Box” a coincidence?)

The Who

So there must have been a time when Herm was sitting by himself, sipping a glass of mead somewhere in the Big Apple, contemplating why his literary career lasted the length of time it takes to burn a match. But little did he know that through fate, some convoluted reasoning, and a big stretch of the imagination Herman Melville would be connected to rock and roll.

Groove.

On another subject, GrooveCentral reached and paid off one of the winners of the GrooveCentralla Quiz we had a while back. As promised, 3 drinks were purchased for the Great Tom Collins, who is always generous to a fault and the good times were ours (see picture). The cloudiness of the evening’s events prevents a clear picture of the goings on, but Sir

Sir Tom & GrooveCentral

Tom always gives back more than he takes. Good luck follows him closely because of the groove he spreads to the people. Nelson (the other winner), you will be hearing from me shortly. Again, Congrats to both.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Good Times, History, Melville, Moby, Moby Dick, rock, The Who

23 Oct 2012

Answers to questions you don’t need to know

Congrats again to Nelson Holder and Tom “Dusty Starr” Collins for answering all 11 questions correctly. Your booze awaits. Martin Valade and Rob Perez deserve a nod of approval, but came up a little short.

Here are the answers:

The Hoff

1) Yes, the Hoff crab is named after the hairy chested David “The Hoff” Hasslehoff, the great actor from Baywatch and Knight Rider (my friend Bob Buena used to tell chicks that he was the voice of Kitt, the Trans Am that told ” The Hoff ” what to do…. I am sure it worked for him, though perhaps currently not as well.) It proves that there are scientists that have a semblance of a sense of humor.

2) General Lew Wallace did write Ben-Hur which became the best selling book of the 19th century. It has never been out of print and has been adapted for film 4 times.

3) Gilligan’s first name is Willie (there are a variety of spellings). In one of the Brady Bunch movies it was hinted that Mrs. Brady’s first husband was a professor who was lost at sea. Both Gilligan’s Island and The Brady Bunch were created by Sherwood Schwartz.

4) Warren Zevon’s Dad, Willie Stumpy Zevon was a boxer and a bookmaker for notorious gangster Mickey Cohen. He was best man for Mickey first marriage.

5) The answer is 6,000,000 to 7,000,000. The deaths of the American Civil War exceed the deaths of all U.S. wars combined. An example of this is the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery’s charge at Petersburg, Virginia where 635 of it’s 900 men were lost in 7 minutes. The Christian family of Virginia lost 18 family members during the war.

6) The answer is Big Bill Taft. Bill was morbidly obese and suffered from loud belches and chronic flatulence. After his presidency he became Chief Justice of the United States. Sounds like a cool guy to groove with at an outdoor picnic, but not a fellow to get stuck in an elevator with.

7) Chuck Lindbergh had 7 kids outside of his marriage to Anne Morrow with 3 different German gals (two of them sisters). I suppose there is a reason Chuck is buried in Maui and Anne is buried back east.

8) Freddie Mercury was born a Parsi, with the name Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar. He lived there and in India until his mid teens. He is known as Britain’s first Asian rockstar.

9) Gaylord Wilshire was a wild guy, but had very little to do with the magnificent street we know as Wilshire Blvd., owning just 4 blks which he donated to the city of Los Angeles under the agreement they name the street after him. Go to HMS Bounty bar which is connected to the Gaylord Apartments (named after Gaylord W.) and have a drink for every block he owned . You will groove.

10) In his youth Daryl Gates was one time arrested for punching a police officer after getting a parking ticket. “Big D” as he was sometimes called, was Chief “I’m so hammered that I find stairs a hazard” Parker’s driver and later became chief himself. Known as an arrogant leader and foolish with words (“casual drug users should be taken out and shot”) he resigned shortly after the Rodney King riots.

11) The answer here is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Though one does not hear much from the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Club or the Rabbiteers and I think one has to look very hard to find him at the Magic Kingdom, this does not diminish his groove to

Oswald

the Disney folks because he is one of the original characters.

So that’s it. Again, congratulations to Nelson and Tom for they are champions for the rest of their days. I would like to thank all that tested their useless knowledge in the hope of drinking alcohol with me . Perhaps next time you might be the one wrestling with 3 Samoan Fog-cutters . Groove.

Fog Cutter

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged civil war, Daryl Gates, Gilligan's Island, Good Times, groove, History, Hoff, truth | Leave a comment

19 Oct 2012

3 Comments

Winners of the highest degree

Ladies and Gents, we have a couple of winners. The Fantastic Nelson Holdo and the Great Tom Collins will have some drinks on my tab. I shall arrange these meetings and look forward to being across the table from these men of gallantry and groove. Very good , very very good. May the both of you give Hoff Crabs to family members for Xmas.

Posted in Uncategorized

19 Oct 2012

2 Comments

Let’s light the candle…

OK my pretties, this is not bathtub gin we’re talkin’ here. I am talkin’ the good stuff from a fine establishment. Good free booze at a decent joint. You won’t cut your feet on crack vials at the place I’m taking you to, so get it together and get all 11 of the questions right. Try again and remember, the 1st 2 folks who answer all 11 questions right get 3 fine cocktails with yours truly.

Posted in Uncategorized

17 Oct 2012

18 Comments

Quizmasters & Booze for the People

All right Cool Cats and Kittens, you steel souled gatherers of groove, you lusters of the crooked smile, the neon spandex jacket, and the all messy, dirty thoughts that cannot be helped by prayer. It is time to put on your metallic colored caps of thinking and squeeze out the delicious strains of useless knowledge like the yellow matter custard that John spoke of. Here’s the Daddy: First two people who answer all eleven questions correctly will have 3 cocktails purchased for them at one of my favorite bars. This deal is “on the belly” – so step up and be counted. The questions, like my blog, mean nothing and everything, so pour yourself a tall cool one and tax those dark shadows in your brain. “Luck is the residue of design” the Old Branch said, so let’s start crackin.

Hoff crab

1. The Hoff crab is a type of yeti crab discovered in 2010 on the Southern Ocean floor near Antarctica. It is named after:

A) Abbie Hoffman , political and social activist who co-founded the Yippies and was thrown off the stage at Woodstock in 1969 by Pete Townsend when he tried to interrupt The Who’s performance.

B) David “the Hoff” Hasselhoff because the crab has many hairs on its abdomen and it reminded the scientists of the strapping hairy chested actor.

C) The great relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman, one time save leader in the MLB.

D) For Helsinki, Finland – home of crab discoverer Vaanta Kaajanokka.

2. Lew Wallace was a Civil War general and Governor of the New Mexico territory. He broke his promise to pardon Billy the Kid after the Lincoln County Wars in 1879. He is also famous for :

Lew Wallace

A) inventing the Graham Cracker

B) making the first baseball glove

C) writing the religious classic Ben-Hur

D) is distantly related to Frankie Valle of the Four Seasons

3. We all love that wacky yet pleasantly attractive Gilligan from ” Gilligan’s Island”. What was his first name on the show?

A) Willie

B) Gill as in Gill Egan

C) Buddy

D) Ezra

4. Rockstar Warren Zevon ‘s (“Werewolves of London”, “Poor,Poor,Pitiful Me” ) father was:

A) A minor league catcher in the Los Angeles Dodger organization

B) Part of L.A. Gangster Mickey Cohen’s gang

C) Invented a life saving tool used today by lifeguards in Santa Monica

D) Invented the Pez dispenser

Warren Z

5. If the amount of soldiers who died in the American Civil War were to be computed to the current population of the United States population there would be

A) 700,000 – 1,000,000 dead

B) 2,000,000 – 3,000,000 dead

C) 4 ,000,000 – 5 ,000,000 dead

D) 6,000,000-7,000,000 dead

6. The Powers that Be took over Bob Lee’s pad during the Civil War and turned it into Arlington National Cemetery. (Bob’s estate sued and it was returned to his family, then they sold it back to the Government). Besides JFK, only one other President is buried there. Which one ?

A) Ike Eisenhower

B) Andy Jackson

C) Billy Taft

D) Ted Roosevelt

7. Charlie Lindberg was known for being the first to fly across the Atlantic on a solo. He was also known to have spread his seed counting 12 children he called his own. How many of those were illegitimate (conceived outside of his marriage to Anne Morrow)?

A) all 12

B) 23

C) 7

D) 4

Fred

8. The word is that Sasha Baron Cohen is going to play Fred Mercury of the rock group Queen in a up and coming movie bio. Who didn’t dig that stick microphone and his huge overbite ? Fred is from what descendants ?

A) English

B) Indian

C) French

D) Brazilian

9. Wilshire Blvd is named after Gaylord Wilshire, the socialist millionaire, who made and lost a number of fortunes and had even less respect for the mighty dollar than I do. How much of this famed street did he actually own?

A) 16 miles

B) 7 miles

C) 1 mile

D) 4 blocks

10. Los Angeles was a delicious cesspool of corruption and vice until the new police chief Bill Parker (Parker Center) took over in 1950. Sure, he cleaned up Los Angeles, but don’t we all miss the days when the L.A. Vice squad ran their own prostitution ring and the coppers were extorting dough from the local hoodlums? Chief Bill had his issues : “After trying to absorb Parker’s brilliance by day, I would, too often by night, drive him home drunk. And I mean loaded. He drank until words slurred and stairs became a hazard. He would repeat the same thought over and over until he became a terrible bore.” Who said this about the Chief ?

A) Future L.A. mayor Sam Yorty

B) Jack Webb of Dragnet fame

C) Future Police chief Darrell Gates

D) L.A. Ram Quarterback Roman Gabriel

11. In 1928 Walt Disney lost one of his cartoon characters to Universal Pictures. 78 years later the Walt Disney Company through a trade with NBC Universal got the characters back when NBC got the rights to sportscaster supreme Al Michaels. What cartoon character did the Disney Company get back?

A) Mickey Mouse

B) Arnold Schwarzenegger

C) Donald Duck

D) Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

So there you have it. Enter as many times as you like. Free booze is in the future of the 2 winners. Good luck and cocktails are on me. Groove.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged booze., civil war, freddy mecury, Good Times, groove, History, truth, warren zevon.

29 Sep 2012

3 Comments

Lucky Lindy we dug you as a flyboy, but what’s the deal with all the chicks ?

OK, we can give the nod to Charles Lindbergh as the first flyboy who flew solo from New York to Paris (has Jimmy Stewart ever been finer?), but the whole America First Committee (AFC) thing, where as the chief spokesman, he campaigned to keep the United States out of World War 2 and was branded an anti-semite for statements he made on behalf of that cause (” The Jews are a race with undue influence in the media, warning that the passions and prejudices of such ” other people” would lead the country to ruin.”) We knew then that there was something dark, twisted, and acheiving a high mark on the weirdo meter, behind his big blues. He was a supporter of racial purity and a staunch eugenicist, which is someone who believes in the improvement of the human species through control of hereditary factors in mating. Lindbergh’s knowledge of this came from breeding animals on the farms of Minnesota. More black marks on his resume – he never really retracted his groove of Nazi Germany in the 1930’s and made public the invincibilities of the Nazis and their value as a bulwark against the hated Russians, who he regarded as a much greater evil.

(By the way, the AFC was the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into WW2 that was not started by a bunch of extremest weirdos – but by Yale law student R.Douglas Stuart, future president Gerry Ford, future Peace Corps director Sargent Shriver, and future U.S. Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart. Members included Chairman of the Board of Sears, Robert E. Wood, Sterling Morton of Morton Salt, novelist Sinclair Lewis, poet e.e. Cummings, film producer Walt Disney, actress Lillian Gish and author Gore Vidal. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright was rejected on “a reputation for immorality.” (That would leave out all my friends.)

Lindy’s private life was no day at the beach, most of which was his own doing. He married Anne Morrow, daughter of the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, and stayed married for 45 years. Towards his own family Lindbergh could be cruel, locking his 18 month old son out of the house to foster independence and forbidding his wife to cry when the baby was famously kidnapped and murdered a few months later. Anne was a very accomplished author and a champion of women’s flight but Lindy was ” physically and emotionally absent” and was a control freak of the highest degree. Needing someone to tell her she was a groove, Anne entered into an affair with her own physician who provided support and fun – something that Charlie was never good at.

Lindbergh’s real weirdness emerged when after he died of cancer, it was revealed that in addition to his five kids he had with Anne, Charlie had not one, not two, but three separate families living in Germany and Switzerland from which he had 7 more kids. All were perfectly concealed until after he was gone. The three lovers bore him 7 kids between the years 1958 and 1967. The children recall a tender father who always arrived in a Volkswagon beetle wearing a beret (was it raspberry in color ?) Their mothers told the children that their father was a famous writer from the United States who had been trusted with a secret mission and they should never speak of him. Their birth certificates declare “father unknown”. No wonder that the very popular dance ” The Lindy Hop” was named for Charlie.

Then in 1972 , at age 72 , the ” Lone Eagle” crashed to earth, dying of lymphatic cancer at his home in Maui, Hawaii. Always the control freak, he specified the exact dimensions and constructions of his grave (” Father was obsessed with drainage” said son Jon.) (Aren’t we all?) He wanted his body wrapped in all cotton sheets, but had to settle on a cotton- polyester blend (all they had at the local store – don’t you hate that). Only his wife Anne was allowed to sit at his deathbed when” Lucky Lindy ” exhaled his last breath and only then by instructions could she kiss him. He hated to be touched.

Charlie Lindbergh was an excellent flyer, but a flawed man who was a cold customer with deep rooted weirdness. Maybe he is guy who could fly you out of a sky full of trouble, but let’s not call Charlie for the good times. Groove.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged chicks, flight, groove, History, Lindbergh, truth, WW2

26 Sep 2012

7 Comments

Sandy – Baseball’s Reluctant Icon

” There are two times in my life when the hairs on my arms stood up : When I saw the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the first time I saw Sandy Koufax throw a fastball.”

As said by Al Campanis, future Dodger General Manager, who at the time was a Dodger scout and gave Sandy a tryout. The Dodgers signed him to a $6000 salary and a $14,000 signing bonus. Koufax said he planned to use the signing bonus for tuition when his baseball career failed. To make room for Sandy on the Dodgers, a left hander named Tom Lasorda was optioned to the Montreal Royals of the International League. There are those who say the resentment from Lasorda remains to this day.

Koufax struggled in his first 6 years in the majors finishing his 1960 season with a 8-13 record. After the last game of the season he threw his glove and cleats into the trash (only to be retrieved by the clubhouse supervisor and returned to Sandy the following spring) and vowed to quit baseball and devote himself full time to an electronic business. Persuaded to give it one more year, a hitch was found in his delivery mechanics, and with that correction – the best 6 years of a pitching performance in Major League History was started.

His stats are unmatched in such a short period of greatness (2x World Series MVP, 4x World Series Champ, 3x Cy Young winner (all three were unanimous), 4 no hitters, 1 perfect game, Major League Baseball all Century Team, Major League Baseball All- Time Team, the youngest man ever inducted to the Hall of Fame, best post season ERA (an incredible o.95), but I think Sandy Koufax the Man is much more interesting.

Koufax is remembered for his decision to not pitch Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur. Derided by many, “the Great Jewish Hope” as Walter O’ Malley called him, inadvertently made himself a religious icon and a reluctant celebrity. (When Senator Joseph Lieberman became the first Jewish American to be named to a national political ticket in 2000, he was dubbed ” the Sandy Koufax of politics.”) Just one year later, at the age of 30, he was gone from the game retiring at the peak of his career going 27-9 with a 1.73 era. Suffering from arthritis and concerned what continuing his baseball career might do to his body, he left on top. Words of wisdom that we all should follow. Sandy summed it up this way : ” I’ve got a lot of years to live after baseball and I would like to live them with complete use of my body.”

With Sandy’s retirement came the notion that he was a recluse. Because he chooses not to comment publicly on his life or to refute other’s impressions of it, he is labeled aloof. Sometimes these perceptions are hardened by a mistake, like when his absence at the 1999 All-Star game in Boston, when the top 50 living players of the 20th Century met (including a final appearance of Ted Williams), Sandy’s absence was cited as more evidence of his reclusiveness. In fact, he had never received an invitation. Often when he does show up at events and is asked about being a recluse, he frequently responds: ” My friends don’t think I’m a recluse.” He is someone who knows and values the difference between solitude and loneliness. He is offended by the right things: lack of civility, honesty, and kindness and as Walter O’Malley says of him “He wants to see the best in everybody.” The editors of Sports Illustrated named him their favorite athlete of the 20th Century with an article headlined “The Incomparable and Mysterious Sandy Koufax.” Fans were stunned to learn he hadn’t read the article. “I haven’t disappeared, I’m not lost, and I am not very mysterious.” The only subject matter that doesn’t interest him is himself. He is a genuine modest man who dismisses any talk of idolism with “The older I get, the better I used to be.” Dusty Baker, known as El Lizard in certain circles, ex Dodger, and current manager of the Cincinnati Reds , says” He’s one of the coolest dudes I’ve ever met, ever.”

On a magical night at Dodger Stadium on Sept.9th, 1965 Sandy threw a perfect game. (“2 and 2 to Harvey Kuenn…” the line uttered by Vin Scully that is etched in many of our minds.) It was the first perfect game thrown by a left hander since 1880. The game also featured a quality performance by the opposing pitcher, Bob Hendley of the Chicago Cubs, who pitched a one hitter that night. 35 years after the game Bob Hendley received a package with a note that read ,”We had a moment, a night, and a career. I hope that life has been good to you. -Sandy .” Inside was a signed ball with the inscription “What a game.” When Hendley showed the ball to his son Bart, he noticed it was signed by Warren Giles, the long dead National League president and that it was a ball from the era of the perfect game. It was the game ball of that magical night at Dodger Stadium. “I’ve been offered a lot of money for that ball and a lot of folks ask what was it like to be the other guy that night?, I tell ’em it’s no disgrace to get beat by class.”

” Trying to hit him was like trying to drink coffee with a fork” -Willie Stargell

” Pitching is the art of instilling fear” – Sandy Koufax

” Koufax throws a radio ball, a pitch you hear, but don’t see.” – Gene Mauch

” Koufax – he’ll never amount to much ” -Tom Lasorda

Sandy (at age75)

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged baseball, Dodgers, History, Koufax, perfect game, Sandy Koufax, yom kippur

19 Sep 2012

5 Comments

A Torpedo for Your Thoughts…or a Three Hour Tour

Was it Gilligan’s fault that the S.S. Minnow ran aground on that uncharted desert isle? Maybe, but the Minnow

The Minnow

(not named for the small bait fish, but named for Newton Minow, who Gilligan’s Island executive producer Sherwood Schwartz believed “ruined television.” Minow was chairman of the F.C.C. and was noted for his speech in which he called American television “a vast wasteland”) survived the show and now resides on the east side of Vancouver Island as a charter boat for sightseeing tours. This cannot be said of the escort destroyer USS William D.Porter.

It was 1943 and the “Willie Dee’s” first duties were to be assigned to one of the most secret and critical missions of ww2. They were to escort the mighty USS Iowa (currently docked at the Port of Los Angeles) whose mission was to deliver Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hall, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many others (totaling more than 80 in the President’s party) to French North Africa to meet with Joe Stalin and Winston Churchill. This was the first of the high level summits between the Allied leaders. With maximum speed, the trip would still take up to 8 days in U-Boat infested waters, so the sailors were on high alert and radio silence was imperative.

The Willie Dee’s journey got off to a bad start. As Capt. Wilfred Walter backed his ship out of its berth in Norfolk, Virginia her anchor snagged the ship beside it and ripped off it’s railing, life rafts, a small boat, and various other equipment. It wreaked havoc on its neighbor, but just scratched Willie Dee’s anchor. In a hurry to meet the Iowa, Capt. Walter issued a quick apology and the destroyer was on it’s way.

The sun of ineptitude was shining on the Dee, so within of 48 hrs into her mission a loud explosion startled the convoy and this initiated anti submarine maneuvers. Not to worry signaled the Willie Dee. It was just a depth charge that had accidentally fallen off the ship because the trigger was not on “safe” as it should have been .

Soon after that the ship was hit by a freak “rogue wave” losing a man over the side never to be seen again. The wave caused the engines to temporarily lose power putting the “Porter ” far behind the convoy. The Chief of Operations, Admiral Ernest King, was on board the Iowa and was becoming increasingly embarrassed and frustrated by the actions of the Willie Dee. He made his displeasure known to Capt. Walter who assured the Admiral that things would improve. Improve they did not.

The USS William D. Porter

When the convoy was east of Bermuda, the Iowa’s captain offered to show Roosevelt how the battleship could repulse an air attack. As the Iowa fired its defensive guns at weather balloons sent aloft as targets, the president sat on the deck enjoying the show. Over on the Willie Dee, Capt. Walter thought this would be a good shot at redemption and ordered his crew to battle stations. They conducted a drill in which they would practice torpedo launching at another ship. The crew chose the Iowa, some 6,000 yards away. The trick here is that all the primers, which are needed to launch the torpedoes, are to be removed. The problem is that the crew did not remove all the primers – so when the bridge officer shouted fire #1 there was no sound which was good, when he said fire #2 there was no sound which was also good, but when he said fire #3 and a ‘ whooooooosh’ sound was heard, the astonishment was quickly overcome by pure horror. The crew of the Porter had just sent a torpedo at the Iowa carrying the President of the United States.

Remember, this is a secret mission and radio silence is very important, for breaking it might signal its location to the enemy. A signalman was to alert the Iowa of the terrible situation, but the young inexperienced sailor instead signaled that the Willie Dee was “going in reverse at full speed.” Capt. Walter put on the scale ” Should I break radio silence or possibly kill the Leader of the Free World.” He broke radio silence and after haggling over who was calling, the Iowa obliged to turn hard right missing the torpedo by 350 yards which blew up in its wake. Capt.Walter and crew could breathe again, only to see every gun on the Iowa train their sights on the small destroyer thinking assassination was in the air. Walter tried to soothe the Iowa by saying it was a mistake. Admiral King had had enough of the Three Stooges act and ordered the Willie Dee out of the convoy and to report to Bermuda where the crew was met by fully armed Marines and the entire crew was arrested. A first in American Naval history. Somebody had to take the fall, so a crew member was sentenced to 14 years of hard labor. When Roosevelt heard the sentence he ordered the crewman freed since no harm was done.

The Porter was sent to the chilly waters of the Alaska to cool down, but a drunk crew member was determined to fire one of her guns, sending a 5 inch shell into a commander’s front yard while he was having a party for fellow officers and their wives. No harm, but another notch in the yardarm of the Navy’s goofiest ship.

The “Willie Dee” sinking

It is now 1945 and the Porter eventually found itself patrolling the seas off Okinawa where it was fighting off Japanese kamikazes, blasting several out of the sky. A kamikaze approached the Willie Dee and it successfully shot it down, but the plane was moving so fast that when it went into the water, it continued to moving underwater towards the ship. It moved directly under the William D. Porter and exploded, lifting the ship out of the water.

The ship who had caused so much trouble that it seemed Gilligan might have been their Captain, sunk in less than 3 hours without losing a single crewman. It’s niche in history was kept secret until 1958, when the Navy made the story public. The Minnow or the Willie Dee? Don’t know how many crew members of the Willie Dee looked like Ginger or MaryAnn nor did they have anyone as smart as the professor. Groove.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged FDR, Gilligan's Island, History, SS Minnow, torpedoes, WW2

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