My name is Jim Hendrickson and I have list of things I am trying to collect and it must be complete,my friends have called me a completeist(my spelling)for many years and this is my blog. I cover just about everything, so you never know what will show up here. I have very eclectic taste ranging from pop music to history to horse racing and many more things that catch my interest. Come along and see whats out there.
Featured on the cover was Congressional Medal of Honor winner Samuel D. Dealey USN
Commander Dealey is the nephew of George B. Dealey, publisher of the Dallas News and for whom Dealey Plaza is named.
Samuel Dealey was a submarine commander who was killed in action August 24th 1944 during action in the Philippines. He was awarded the Navy Cross 4 times but was awarded the medal of honor posthumously on August 29th 1945 for gallantry in action during the USS Harder's sixth war patrol.
James Bama handles the cover chores, illustrating Edward Newman's story “The P.O.W.s Who Broke Out of Rat Hell Stockade,” which deals with a group of Union soldiers during the U.S. Civil War who tunneled their way out of Richmond's Libby Prison. The story is true. The escape was one of the most successful breakouts of the war. The escapees were highly motivated due to the fact that Libby Prison was a hellhole that generated high mortality rates due to abuse, starvation, exposure to severe weather, and terrible overcrowding.
The 1959 "Go-Go" White Sox were the the American League champions and would face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series but lose the series 4 games to 2. 1959 was the first White Sox AL championship since 1919 and their last until 2005.
The White Sox also had the 1959 American League MVP in 2nd baseman Nellie Fox (L) who had 191 hits, 34 doubles, 70 RBI and batted .306.
Leading the way in pitching was the 1959 American League Cy Young Award Winner Early Wynn who had 22 wins, 10 losses, 3.29 ERA with 179 strikes, which led the league.
Al Lopez was named the 1959 American League Manager of the Year after leading the White Sox to a 94-60 regular season record
September 6, 1959 "Matt's Decision" The first show of the season Matt Dillon is getting fed up with the Marshal's job, but an Indian problem and gun-runners show him where he's really needed.
The Vintage Comedy Vault posted this great episode of the classic showThis is Your Life,hosted by Ralph Edwards.
This episode from November of 1956 features the legendary Lou Costello of Abbott and Costello comedy team. This is such a bittersweet episode as they discuss the tragic death of Lou's son Lou Jr as a toddler but even more so to know that in 1959 both Lou and his wife Anne would both die way too young. Lou would die of an apparent heart attack in March of 1959 and his widow Anne would die of a stroke in December of that same year. They had 3 daughters and the youngest, Chris, would write his biography in 1981 Lou's On First.
One of the most famous short stories of the 19th century was Ambrose Bierce's 1890 tale of the civil war hanging of confederate sympathizer Peyton Farquhar,Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.
In the 20th century this story was interpreted in both radio and television, during the Golden Age of Radio by Escape and Suspense to tremendous effect.
On television, first by Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the 5th season, episode 13 aired December 20th 1959.
Thanks to Buck Benny's OTR podcast he brought us this version
The radio adaptations began with Escape's airing on December 10th 1947, starring Harry Bartell as Peyton Farquhar.
Suspense gave us its adaptation in July 9th 1959 with Vincent Price as Farquhar.
Maybe the most famous adaptation on American television was the airing on The Twilight Zone (Season 5, episode 22, Feb 28 1964) of the french short film that won the award for Best Short Subject at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival and the 1963 Academy Awards.
Again on radio by the great OTR revival show CBS Radio Mystery Theater June 4th 1974, starring William Prince as Peyton Farquhar.
In yesterday's posting of the 6 part series "The Story of Gunsmoke" (courtesy of Buck Benny's Podcast) they had the episode of "Marshall Proudfoot" which aired July 20th 1958 on CBS radio season 6.
The TV version of the episode also called "Marshall Proudfoot", but instead of Chester's father coming to visit it was his uncle but otherwise the script stay pretty close to the radio version. This aired January 10th 1959, season 4 episode 18.
I am big fan of Fibber McGee and Molly the classic old time radio show that ran on NBC radio from 1935 until 1959. With the demise of radio in the late 1950s, NBC wanted to move it to television for the 1959-60 season but the original Fibber and Molly(Jim and Marion Jordan) were very reluctant to make the jump so NBC which owned the show by now recast the roles. With the failing health of Marion Jordan the tv show wasnt really an option for them,but without them the flavor of the radio version was really lost and the new Fibber and Molly didn't gain any traction with television audiences. The show was canceled by the end of January 1960.
Today in 1960 the Oscars honoring 1959 films were presented at the RKO Pantages Theater in Hollywood. Bob Hope was the host and it was carried nationwide on NBC television.
This night would be the night that Ben-Hur would set the record for most wins by a single movie with 11 Oscars.
(Stick with this one, the sounds drops in and out)
