Serendipity

Serendipity is defined as a discovery of something fortunate while looking for something else.

The word was first used by Horace Walpole in a letter dated January 28, 1754 to Horace Mann, an Englishman living at the time in Florence. This is not the Horace Mann who was a American educator.

Walpole had read a Persian fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip. The tale is about three men who were on a mission but they always found something that was irrelevant but needed.

Serendip is the Persian name for the island county Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka did not adopt this name until 1972. In its history it has gone by many different names including Lankadweepa, Lakdiva, Ceylon and Sinha.

Russian-born American author and professor of biochemistry may have said it best with “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’, but ‘That’s funny…’”

A Fire in Space Exploration

President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s was well on scheduled until January 27, 1967. On that day the project was put on hold. A fire in the command module sitting atop a Saturn IB rocket, just weeks before the first manned Apollo mission was set to blast-off killed three astronauts.

Command Pilot Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward Higgins White, II and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee.

Gus Grissom, born on April 3, 1926 in Mitchell, Indiana, was one of the first astronauts selected in 1959 for the Mercury Program. He was the second person to fly in space on Liberty Bell 7 launched on on July 21, 1961. He also flew in the Gemini program as the Command Pilot on Gemini 3 launched on March 23, 1965.

Ed White, born November 14, 1930 in San Antonio, Texas, was chosen as one of the second group of astronauts in 1962. He was the pilot of Gemini 4 launched on June 3, 1965 and during that mission 4 hours after lift-off he performed the first Spacewalk by an American. He was outside of the capsule for 15 minutes 40 seconds.

Roger Chaffee, born February 15, 1935 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, had been chosen as one of the third group of astronauts in 1963. This would have been his first mission into space.

Chaffee and Grissom are both buried in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery. White is buried at West Point Cemetery. These three fallen men were heroes in every sense of the word and even in death helped the United States become the only nation on earth to sent men to the moon.

From left to right; Grissom, White and Chaffee

Established: 1972

One may think that Email is a fairly new form of communications however it is credited to have been invented in 1972 by Ray Tomlinson who worked for Bolt Beranek and Newman as an ARPANET contractor. By chance he picked the @ symbol to denote sending messages from one computer to another, name-of-the-user@name-of-the-computer.

The Hewlett-Packard HP-35 was first introduced on February 1, 1972 and was the first handheld electronic calculator sold by HP. It was also the first handheld ever to perform logarithmic and trigonometric functions with one keystroke.

Digital Watches are introduced.

Atari was founded in June 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney and they install the first prototype of the video game Pong at Andy Capps Bar in September of the same year.

Pepsi-Cola introduced the Twelve-pack.

Woody Guthrie may have died in 1967, but The Woody Guthrie Foundation was founded in 1972. The foundation serves as administrator and caretaker of the Woody Guthrie Archives.

Apple’s 1984

During the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII a commercial aired. The commercial has been considered a masterpiece in advertising and it also introduced the Apple Macintosh Computer.

The commercial alluded to George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 and featured Big Brother on a screen speaking to an audience of drones. In runs a young lady wearing a white tank top, with Picasso-style picture of Apple’s Macintosh computer on it and red shorts carrying a sledge hammer. She hurls the hammer at the screen destroying it. Then the words “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.” appear and are said.

The commercial was directed by Ridley Scott with Anya Major as the girl and David Graham as Big brother. Scott had just recently completed the film Blade Runner. It had a production budget of $ 900,000.

Super Bowl XVIII was played in Tampa, Florida with the Washington Redskins, who were favorite to win, losing to the Los Angeles Raiders by the score 38-9.

While the commercial had appeared prior to the Super Bowl, (1:00 A.M on 15 December 1983 on KMVT in Twin Falls, Idaho so that the advertisement could be submitted to award ceremonies for that year), this was it’s last appearance as advertisement.

The first Macintosh had an all in one design featuring a 9 in Black and White screen within a beige plastic case that also held the computer and a 400 kB, single-sided 3.5 inch floppy disk drive along with a keyboard and mouse. It also had two standard RS-422 DE-9 serial ports named “printer” and “modem” and a port for an external disk drive, one mechanically identical to the internal one.

Hardy Before Laurel

It was towards the end of the Silent Film Era that Oliver Hardy joined Stan Laurel to form the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy. Hardy was in his mid-thirties when the pair joined and had already had a long career in Silent Films.

Oliver Hardy was born on January 18, 1892 in Harlem, Georgia and moved to Florida when he was a child. His birth name was Norvell, but unofficially to his father’s name Oliver when he came of age. To those close to him he was known as Babe, a nickname given to him in those early years.

While his mother wanted him to become a lawyer, Hardy fell in love with the new genre. His show business career began working and then running a movie theatre.

During the early days of film, sunny places were used. Florida became one of those early film locations. Oliver Hardy was hired to appear in those early films due to his large girth and expressive facial features.

He appeared in his first film in 1913. The film was called Outwitting Dad. After that he appeared in a number of series including the Pokes and Jabbs series of comedy shorts, the Plump and Runt series of two reelers, the Jimmy Aubrey series, and as an actor and co-director of comedy shorts for Larry Semon.

When Hal Roach brought Oliver and Hardy together the pair had appeared in the same film. He had a minor part in the 1917 film Lucky Dog that stared Stan Laurel. Although appearing in the same film the two didn’t have any scenes together.

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Also published at the newly designed SilentFilmEra.com

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the son of Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King.

King received a B.A. in sociology from Morehouse College, and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston College in 1955.

King began his work in equal rights after learning of the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955 for her failure to give up her bus seat to a white man. He founded the Southern Christian leadership Conference in 1957. The group was created to harness the moral authority and organizing power of black churches to conduct non-violent protests in the service of civil rights reform. His most famous speech was given during the Civil Rights March, formally called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, in 1963. The words, ‘I have a dream’ will be remembered from the speech.

King was assassinated on April 14, 1968 on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was in Memphis to deliver a speech in support of black garbage workers who had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment. The assassination led to riots in more than 60 US cities.

Two months after the murder of King, James Earl Ray was captured at London Heathrow airport. Ray confessed to the murder during interrogation in Memphis, although he recanted the confession 3 days later. Under the advice of his attorney he plead guilty to avoid a trail conviction and a possible death penalty. In later times the family of King has their doubts that Ray was the assassin. Ray died in prison on April 23, 1998 from complications related to kidney disease.

In 1986, a federal holiday established in his name was observed for the first time. President Reagan signed the law in 1983 creating the holiday to be observed on the third Monday in January.

Gathering of the Tribes

On January 14, 1967 20 to 30 thousand people came together at Golden State Park in San Francisco for the Human Be-In. It has unofficially become known as the prelude to the Summer of Love.

It was first announced on the cover of the San Francisco Oracle first Issue as “A Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-In.”

Timothy Leary, one of the featured speakers, made his first appearance in San Francisco at the rally where he cried out the phrase”Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out”. Others to speak were Poets Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Lew Welch, and Lenore Kandel.

Music was also featured from Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, and Quicksilver Messenger Service. These bands have come to be best known as the psychedelic sounds of San Francisco of the late 1960′s.

Allen Cohen one of the organizers characterized the event as a necessary meeting-of-the-minds. At the time there was two philosphically opposed factions of the late 1966 San Francisco-based counter culture. On one side were the Berkeley radicals, who were tending toward increased militancy towards the policies of the Vietnam war, and then there was the Haight-Ashbury hippies, who leaned towards peaceful protest and ongoing joyful celebration through peace and love.

After this everything seemed to want to be IN and helped to give the name to the popular comedy Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in.

Sophie Tucker – Last of the Red Hot Mommas

Sophie Tucker, billed later in her career as the Last of the Red Hot Mommas, was born Sophie Kalish in Russia as her parents were immigrating to the United States on January 13, 1884. Her father decided to adopt the name Abuza in America.

One could say she was destined to become an entertainer. While working at the diner her parents owned and operated, she sang songs for those she waited on earning applause and tips.

After separating from her first husband, Louis Tuck, she found herself on the vaudeville stage. She performed songs wearing blackface and with a southern accent until one day when he suitcase arrived late she went on stage declaring to the audience, “You all can see I’m a white girl. Well, I’ll tell you something more: I’m not Southern. I’m a Jewish girl and I just learned this Southern accent doing a blackface act for two years. And now, Mr. Leader, please play my song.”

Still she enjoyed singing songs that had African-American roots. Many of these songs, including her signature song Some of These Days written by Shelton Brooks, she purchased exclusive rights to sing.

Tucker was proud of her Jewish heritage and one of Tucker’s best know songs is My Yiddish Momme written for her in 1925 by Jack Yellen. The song has both Yiddish and English verses. At first she sang this in concert only when she felt the audience understood Yiddish, but later she would include it in her act. When Adolf Hitler came into power in Germany he ordered all copies of the song destroyed.

Tucker never retired from entertainer. She performed in the movies, on the radio and on Television as well as on the stage during her long career. She died at the age of 82 on February 9, 1966, in New York City, just a few weeks after her last performance.

Mission Santa Clara de Thamien

While George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin was creating a new country, a group of Spanish Fransciscan Friars under the leadership of Father Junípero Serra were establishing missions in present day California. On January 11, 1777 the Mission Santa Clara de Thamien was founded at the Indian village of So-co-is-u-ka on the Guadalupe River, by Franciscan Padres Tomás de la Peña and Joseph Antonio Marguia.

This mission was the eighth one established. In total there would be twenty one. It was the first of the missions named in honor of a woman, St. Clare of Assisi.

St. Clare was born Chiara Offreduccio in 1194. Before her death in 1253 she was one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi and founded the Order of the Poor Ladies. She was canonized as a saint in 1263 and Pope Urban IV changed the name of the Order of the Poor Ladies to the Order of Saint Clare in 1263.

The City of Santa Clara, California was named after the mission. The city has a population of 109,000. For many years the economy of the area centered on family owned orchard and vegetable farms. Now the semiconductor industry is the economic major player.

The mission itself is located on the grounds of Santa Clara University and is used for the school’s chapel. King Charles III of Spain sent to the mission bells and they have run every evening at 8:30 as he requested them to be rung in memory of those who have died.

Santa Clara University was founded in 1851 and is the oldest higher education institute in California. It is also the oldest Catholic university in the western United States. Some noted people who have attended Santa Clara University are basketball stars Kurt Rambis and Steve Nash, Soccer great Brandi Chastain, Jerry Brown, former Governor of California, and two members of the 60′s musical group Jefferson Airplane, Paul Kantner and Jorma Kaukonen.

Elizabeth Short aka the Black Dahlia

When Elizabeth Short left San Diego for Los Angeles on January 9, 1947 she was simply a 22 year old aspiring actress. On that day she hitched a ride to LA with salesman Robert Manley. He dropped her off at the Bilmore Hotel at around 6:30 PM. A few hours later she was seen leaving the Biltmore Hotel and walking south on Olive Street. A little later she was seen in the Crown Jewel Cocktail Lounge, formerly known as Broox’s Cocktail Lounge at Eight and Olive.

On the morning of January 15, 1947 a car was seen stopped at a vacant lot at 39th and Norton. At 10:54 a call is made to the LA Police Department with a report of a ‘person without clothes on’ at this vacant lot. When police arrived they discovered the naked and mutilated body of Elizabeth Short. Later her death would be listed as late on the 14th or early 15th. Nothing is known about her actions between the night/early morning of the 9th/10th and the discovery on the 15th.

Elizabeth Short was nicknamed the Black Dahlia. As with many things with this case and her life, it’s not really known whether this was a nickname that she was called while alive or was an invention of the press. The evidence points to a newspaper reporter invention. Many her knew her, referred to her as Bette.

Her murder is one of many unsolved Los Angeles murder cases. And it will probably never be solved. Too much evidence was compromised and there was police malfeasance. During the early days of the investigation there were as many newspaper reporters answering the phones at police headquarters as police officers.

There are plenty of suspects or persons that have been reported to be the Black Dahlia Murderer. Some of those suspects were cleared by police and others are though as doubtful because of some of the circumstances of the murders. About 60 people have confessed to the murder. Most of these were men but there also has been a few women.

Just as the number of suspects and confessed murders are a great number so are the myths and misconceptions about Elizabeth Short and the murder. One of the biggest is that she was a prostitute as well as an actress in underground sex films of the era. There is no evidence to this rumor and district attorney’s grand jury states that she was not a prostitute. Another is that at the time of her murder she was pregnant and the death was due to a blotched abortion. The autopsy describes Short’s reproductive organs as anatomically normal and states that Short was not and had never been pregnant.