Eric Hanson's Blog, page 13

Graceland

On this day in 1977, Elvis Presley died on the floor of his bathroom. He was 42.

Tea Party

On August 16, 1773, Paul Revere dressed up like an Indian and took part in the violent takeover and looting of a commercial merchant vessel sitting in Boston harbor. He was 38, a successful silversmith, engraver and part-time dentist, a businessman with a family to support and plenty to lose if he were caught and tried for this kind of hooliganism. But he did it anyway. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Paul Revere appears four times in A Book of Ages.

Victory over Japan

On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japanese forces in a radio broadcast to the nation. He was 44. It was the first time the Japanese public had heard his voice, and since he was speaking in an archaic form of the language no one could understand what he was saying. On New Year's Day 1946, he announced that he wasn't divine.

Elvis Presley and Colonel Tom Parker

On August 15, 1955, Elvis Presley signed a contract with Colonel Tom Parker. Elvis was 20 years-old. Later in the year, Sun Studios would sell his contract to RCA. The first song Elvis records for RCA will be Heartbreak Hotel, which will stay at number one for for eight weeks.

So Lonesome I Could Cry

On August 15, 1952, Hank Williams bought the baby blue Cadillac he'd eventually die in. On August 16, "Jambalaya" hit #1. On August 17, he was jailed for public drunkenness in Alexander City, Alabama, where he was vacationing. He was 28. Williams appears seven times in A Book of Ages.

Social Security

On this day in 1935, Congress passed the Social Security Act. It had originated as a pension for old people without means––until 1935 most old people lived in poverty. But conservatives insisted it be a pension for rich and poor alike. The tax to cover it was capped to make sure wealthier Americans weren't paying too much in. And the provision for health care would have to wait until Medicare was passed in the 1960s. But Social Security did alleviate poverty among the elderly. It was efficient,

Hitchcock

Today is the birthday of Alfred Hitchcock. He was born in 1899 in London. The most formative episode in his young life took place at the age of six when his father sent him down the police station with a note instructing the officer in charge to lock him in a cell for ten minutes. Throughout his film career, respectable characters played by Cary Grant and James Stewart and Henry Fonda were repeatedly menaced by policemen, picked up and held on mysterious charges, stopped and questioned, watched,

"I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille"

Today's the birthday of Cecil B. DeMille, born in 1881, in the Berkshires where his parents were vacationing. He was 31 when he directed a film called The Squaw Man. It was the first feature produced by the Paramount film studio and one of the very first to come out of an obscure little town in southern California called Hollywood.

DeMille became the most famous film director in the world, his name associated with glamor and spectacle. He instructed famous actors how to act. He parted the Red Se

Hemingway's Cojones

On August 11, 1937, Ernest Hemingway tore open his shirt showing his hairy chest to Max Eastman and shouted "What do you mean accusing me of impotence?" Then he wrestled Eastman to the floor. Hemingway was 38, Eastman was 44. Both were practitioners of what is known as "muscular prose." The event took place in a publisher's office.

Rin Tin Tin

On August 10, 1932, Rin Tin Tin died at his home in Los Angeles. In dog years he would have been 98. Popular legend has him dying in the arms of screen siren Jean Harlow. Tin had retired from pictures the year before. He starred in 40 feature films, 26 of them for Warner Brothers, and is credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy.