2012 Obits: R.I.P. and Remembrance thread

[EZ103.3FM]

Here's a piece by Dino Costa about Sugar. Costa is the host of an evening sports talk show on the Sirius/XM Mad Dog Radio channel. He formerly worked in Huntington and Wheeling. The piece includes a story about Sugar agreeing to be on Costa's Wheeling radio show on 1370 AM about 12 years ago. The article is pasted from dinoradio.com.

Bert Randolph Sugar passed away this afternoon at the age of 75.

I first ‘saw’ Bert Sugar in a delicatessen I used to work at in Chappaqua, New York, when I was 20 years old.

Bert would come by this Deli — often times to have a cup of coffee and to read a newspaper — and he was easily recognizable by the cigar in his hand as well as the fedora on his head.

I first ‘heard’ Bert Sugar on the radio a few years before I ever recognized him in a Deli.

Bert used to be a regular on the old Art Rust Jr. radio show, when it was aired on WMCA Radio each Saturday morning sometime back in 1981-82. Bert would come on that show to talk up the sport he knew best — Boxing.

The first time I ever had a conversation with Bert Sugar was when I was cutting my teeth as a talk radio wannabee, I was in Wheeling, West Virginia, doing afternoon drive on ‘SportsTalk 1370′.

I wanted Bert as a guest on my show (circa 2000) but didn’t know anyone who knew him — nor did I have any contact information on Bert, other than being aware that he still lived in Chappaqua, New York, which is a suburb about 20 miles north of New York City.

I knew that Bert was a well known personality and a man of the people, I just never knew that anyone could find him in a phone book if they took the time to look up his name.

Out of options but wanting him on my show as a guest — I took the wild chance that maybe Bert Sugar would actually be listed in the book like the rest of the great unwashed.

I remember that I called directory assistance at the time and asked the operator for a Bert Sugar in Chappaqua, New York. I fully expected the operator to do a quick check and tell me that it was a private number and unavailable…but the operator quickly responded by saying to me; “here’s your number, and have a nice day.” As the automatic recording began to spit out the digits to Bert’s number, I remember thinking to myself; “you’ve got to be kidding me!”

I dialed Bert’s number and he picked up after a single ring…that first off the air conversation requesting his presence on my Wheeling radio show spawned an unexpected 12 year friendship with Bert that I consider to be one of the true highlights of my middling little radio sojourn.

The connection I had with Bert was immediate — his sense of history and recall would often times make a scheduled 20 minute conversation turn into a one hour piece of radio gold that both my listeners and myself would revel in.

A radio segment with Bert was a true conversation, something that Bert loved, and he would often tell me that he liked coming onto my show because many times neither of us knew where the dialog would go — but we both knew that in the end the audience would get their monies worth as we seamlessly segued from one topic to another like two guys just hanging out at a pub swapping stories.

Stories were Bert’s stock and trade — I used to say that he had been everywhere, and he had known everyone — and few could rival Bert’s ability to weave a story out of an encounter with someone 35 years ago, or talk with such anecdotal detail when remembering a certain championship fight, or the characteristics and style of a certain pugilist he would be referencing.

Bert would often join me on the radio a day or two from a big fight in Las Vegas, and his answering machine used to tell anyone who called where he was in Vegas — including the hotel and telephone number in case you needed him.

Bert Sugar loved people — he loved the camaraderie of the bar scene, a lawyer as well, Bert loved to remark that he; “never passed a single bar in his life!”

Bert was a tremendous writer and authored dozens of books on boxing, but also on baseball as well.

His other love was horse racing — and when I found this out one day I reacted by being a bit surprised, and he told me; “Dino, in the sports world there are no better stories to be told than in the sports of boxing and in horse racing.”

In December of 2010 I was asked by Madison Square Garden Network to be the host on a series of shows on New York uniform numbers. These shows were shot over a 3 day period at Grand Central Terminal, and I was joined by an assortment of former great New York professional athletes, some comedians, actors, and yes, Bert Sugar himself.

During a break in the taping one day Bert asked me to go across the street with him to have a drink and to get a look at Annie Moore’s Irish pub for the very first time.

Bert Sugar lived a full life, he knew Ali, and also sparred in the ring with him one time.

He loved to play Rugby — and was a participant in Rugby games into his sixties.

Any huge boxing match from the 1960′s onward and Bert was present and accounted for at all of them.

Bert consulted on a few films, and even had cameo roles in some of them.

ESPN rightfully recognized Bert as a boxing savant-extraordinaire, and the Friday Night Fights show that Bert participated in with Brian Kenny was some of his very best work.

There is no way in this little space I can truly pen an ode to Bert Randolph Sugar that is deserving.

Others knew him better and longer than I did, and others are far superior the writer than I am — and so I’ll await the various homage pieces that will be coming out in the next few days that will more accurately sum up the life and times of this very uncomplicated man.

I can tell you that Bert Randolph Sugar was a treasure trove of wit and wisdom, a gregarious man, who loved his work, his wife and family, and the trappings of his industry…and not necessarily in the order I just listed them.

I always referred to Bert and introduced him on my shows as; “the ultimate town crier and the quintessential story teller.”

The pleasure of knowing Bert was all mine, and I was richer for the experience of sharing some time with him.

Thank you, Bert Randolph Sugar.

[jag]

Warren Stevens, 'Forbidden Planet' actor, has died

Actor Warren Stevens, whose most memorable role was his portrayal of "Doc" Ostrow in the 1956 sci-fi movie "Forbidden Planet," has died in Los Angeles at 92.

Publicist Dale Olson says Stevens died Tuesday of respiratory failure complicated by lung disease at his Sherman Oaks home.

Stevens's career in stage, film and television spanned 60 years. He co-starred with Lou Diamond Phillips, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Majorsin the 2004 western movie "The Trail to Hope Rose" on The Hallmark Channel.

His first role was a bit part in "The Frogmen" in 1951.

Besides "Forbidden Planet," he had a supporting role in 1954's "The Barefoot Contessa" with Humphrey Bogart.

Stevens was later a familiar face on TV, with guest appearances on such shows as "Bonanza," ''Star Trek" and "Combat."

[Hoosier Daddy]

Fred Maia (Amateur Radio callsign W5YI)

The holder of one of the best-known US Amateur Radio call signs, Frederick (Fred) Maia, W5YI, died of cancer Wednesday, March 28. He was 76 and was a resident of Arlington, Texas.

Fred was a leading Amateur Radio journalist for nearly 35 years and a pioneer of the volunteer examining program adopted by the FCC in 1984.

Maia published "The W5YI Report," dubbed "America's Oldest Ham Radio Newsletter," from 1978 to 2003, and has been a CQ contributing editor since 1985. His regulatory affairs column, first titled "Ticket Talk," then "Washington Readout," offered news and perspective on FCC Regulations and ITU actions. His final column will appear in the May 2012 issue of CQ.

After the FCC adopted volunteer examining for all levels of Amateur Radio licensing in 1984, Fred became the first Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) appointed by the FCC. Fred subsequently founded The W5YI Group in 1986 to develop, publish and sell amateur and commercial radio license study materials. In the realm of FCC commercial radio licensing, Fred formed National Radio Examiners to provide examination services.

Maia served as President of the W5YI-VEC until his retirement in October of 2000 when he sold The W5YI Group study material products to Master Publishing, Inc. The retail operations were purchased by General Manager Larry Pollock, NB5X, newly appointed President of the W5YI-VEC and National Radio Examiners organizations. Maia continued writing "The W5YI Report" newsletter until July 2003.

A graduate of the US Air Force Radio Operators School, Fred was an avid CW operator. He was first licensed as a teenager as W1NTK in Brockton, Massachusetts, where he grew up. Maia was later licensed as W5UTT, and held DXCC CW awards and EU-PX-A CW. He was a member of QCWA and Life Member of the ARRL.

For several decades, Maia also served on the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) as a member of the Question Pool Committee that oversees the development and maintenance of the Amateur Radio license examination question pools.

ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ, commented: "Amateur Radio is healthier today because of the tireless efforts of Fred Maia. While Fred did not always see things quite the same way as the ARRL, in my experience he always had the best interests of Amateur Radio at heart. He was a major figure who will be sorely missed."

He is survived by his wife, Doris, and two daughters. A memorial service will be held at 3 PM, Saturday, March 31, at Moore Funeral Home, 1219 North Davis Dr, Arlington, TX 76012.

Source: ARRL.net

[jag]

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche dies at 76.

For a rich kid kicked out of design school, created one of the greatest legacies in automotive design with the Porsche 911. The son of company founder Ferry Porsche, F.A. or "Butzi" as he was known spent most of his career at his eponymous firm Porsche Design, where he oversaw the styling of thousands of products from watches to yachts, many with the tag "Designed by F.A. Porsche."

But it's the 911's emergence in 1964, when Butzi Porsche was just 25 years old, that made him a historic figure. While his father and grandfather had been famous German engineers — the original Ferdinand Porsche engineered the first Volkswagen Beetle — F.A. Porsche chose to study design. A year after enrolling in a prestigious school, Porsche was in his own words "kicked out," and took at job at his father's fledging car business in 1957.

At the time, Ferry Porsche had created the successful Porsche 356, but needed a follow-up model. He set the car's basic layout —a rear engine, a short wheelbase for agile handing — but pushed the designers and engineers to fashion a more sporting look than the men who built the Beetle had produced so far.

Prowling the auto shows of Europe, F.A. Porsche formed an idea of how the car should look as a smooth, curving fastback, rejecting the flat angles popular in American cars of the era. "I just think you start creating edges when the body of a car is bad…they are lines that support something that ties the designer down," Porsche would say years later.

The new car's design spurred a dispute with the older designers in Ferry Porsche's shop, to such a degree Ferry went around them, taking his son's blueprints to the body fabricator. The first production-ready model, called the 901, appeared at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September 1964, and after Peugeot objected to the name, Porsche changed it to 911. Despite the timelessness of the 911's shape, F.A. Porsche believed his greatest design came a few years later, with the Porsche 904 race car.

[genlock]

He had a tank (destroyer) named after him.

[unchoopfan]

Thomas Kincaid, 54, artist

(CNN) - Thomas Kinkade, one of the most popular artists in America, has died (April 6) at his California home, his family said. He was 54.

"Thom provided a wonderful life for his family,'' his wife, Nanette, said in a statement late Friday night. "We are shocked and saddened by his death.''

His death at his Los Gatos home appeared to be from natural causes, according to the family. More details will be released in the days ahead.

Art from the self-described "painter of light" adorns many living rooms in America. It emphasizes simple pleasures and warm, positive images of idyllic cottages, lighthouses and colorful gardens.

"My mission as an artist is to capture those special moments in life adorned with beauty and light," Kinkade said in a message on his website. "I work to create images that project a serene simplicity that can be appreciated and enjoyed by everyone. That's what I mean by sharing the light."

Kinkade was also an author, and his top sellers included "Masterworks of Light" and "The Artist's Guide to Sketching."

He painted more than 1,000 pieces on various topics, including cabins, nature scenes, seascapes and classic Americana.

---------------------------------------------------------

Jim Marshall, 88, entrepreneur/founder of Marshall Amplification

(NY Times) - Jim Marshall, 88, who made rock and roll rawer and noisier by inventing the amplifier that helped define guitarists from Jimi Hendrix to members of countless garage bands, died of cancer Thursday (April 5) at a hospice in London.

Mr. Marshall was part of the English music scene as a drummer, drumming teacher, and owner of a store in London that sold drums as the new rock music was gathering momentum in the early 1960s. Musicians urged him to add guitars and amplifiers to his wares. One of them, Pete Townshend of the Who, said he told Mr. Marshall that he wanted something "bigger and louder."

"I was demanding a more powerful machine gun" to "blow people away all around the world," Townshend told NPR in 2002. "I wanted it to be as big as the atomic bomb had been."

With his sixth prototype, Mr. Marshall and his helpers came up with a harmless-looking black box with a speaker inside and controls on top. It would become the basis for the formidable wall of amplifiers used by Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and almost every other major rock guitarist in the '60s and '70s and by the next generation of guitarists as well, including Kurt Cobain, Eddie Van Halen and Slash.

This acoustic artillery came to be called the "wall of Marshalls" or "Marshall stacks." Mr. Marshall became known as "the father of loud."

The Marshall amps were cheaper than the ones made by Fender, which produced a more precise sound. But the emerging rockers wanted something rougher and rowdier. In a tribute on Twitter, Motley Crue's bassist, Nikki Sixx, said Mr. Marshall had been "responsible for some of the greatest audio moments in music's history - and 50 percent responsible for all our hearing loss."

Mr. Marshall was born in London to parents who owned a fish-and-chips shop. He was stricken with tuberculosis of the bones and spent much of his early youth in a plaster cast from his knees to his armpits. When he was 13, sinking family fortunes forced him to take jobs in a scrap-metal yard, a jam factory and a shoe shop.

During World War II, he worked at an engineering firm after failing his draft physical and read engineering books on his own. After the war, he taught drumming and eventually had 65 students.

A connoisseur of Cuban cigars and a single-malt Scotch bottled for him, Mr. Marshall many times refused to sell Marshall Amplification. "You can't take it with you, you can only live in one house and drive one car at a time," he said. "It's the name that means something to me - because it is my name."

---------------------------------------------------------

Chief Jay Strongbow (Joe Scarpa), 83, professional wrestler

(Yahoo! Sports) - Chief Jay Strongbow, the celebrated wrestler from the 60s and 70s, passed away (April 3) at the age of 83. The news was first reported by WWE broadcast announcer Jim Ross. Strongbow, whose real name was Joe Scarpa, undertook wrestling in the late 40s and lasted until the early 80s. Strongbow then labored for Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation for a brief period in various positions. As Chief Jay Strongbow, the Italian Joe Scarpa hit his stride in the 70s as he choreographed the Native American character. He held several championships, including the WWF Tag Team Championship with Jules Strongbow. The beloved wrestler was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1994.

Strongbow was one of, if not the most popular Native American wrestling character. He inspired numerous other Native American characters throughout the years. He also performed for the NWA and acquired the companies prestigious titles. The Chief also held several regional titles across the nation, during a time when the territorial wrestling system was active. Strongbow later inspired several young WWE acts including The Hardy Boyz.

[cgarison]

Mike Wallace (93) Vetern News Caster and of Founding Member of 60 Minutes dies.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/ ... llace-dies

Veteran CBS journalist Mike Wallace died Saturday evening at the age of 93, CBS announced Sunday morning.
Wallace was on the founding staff of "60 Minutes" and quickly became known for his tough interviews.
"It was 65 years from Mike's first appearance on camera -- a World War II film for the Navy -- to his last television appearance, a '60 Minutes' interview with Roger Clemens, the baseball star trying to fight off accusations of steroid use," colleague Morley Safer wrote in a tribute on CBSNews.com.
Wallace contributed periodically to "60 Minutes" until 2008 after retiring as a regular correspondent in 2006.

"It's strange," Safer wrote, "but for such a tough guy, Mike's all-time favorite interview was the one with another legend, pianist Vladimir Horowitz. The two of them, forces of nature both: Sly, manic, egos rampant. For Mike -- a red, white and blue kind of guy -- Horowitz played 'The Stars and Stripes Forever.'
"It almost brought tears to the toughest guy on television," Safer added.
In almost 40 years on "60 Minutes," Wallace worked on some 800 reports, won 21 Emmys and developed a relentless on-air style that often was more interrogation than interview.
Wallace also drew criticism for his go-for-the-throat style and the theatrics that sometimes accompanied it. He also became caught up in a $120 million libel suit that resulted in no judgment against him or CBS but triggered a case of depression that led him to attempt suicide.
Wallace interviewed every U.S. president since John F. Kennedy - with the exception of George W. Bush - and dozens of other world leaders like Yasser Arafat, Ayatollah Khomeini and Deng Xiaoping.
Other interview subjects included everyone from Malcolm X to singer Janis Joplin, Martin Luther King Jr. to television star Johnny Carson and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
Wallace died at a care facility in New Haven, Conn., with his family at his side, Bob Schieffer announced Sunday morning on CBS' "Face the Nation."

[David Paleg]

Computer Pioneer, Commodore Founder Jack Tramiel Dies at 83
By Fred O'Connor and Agam Shah, IDG News Apr 9, 2012 5:50 pm

Jack Tramiel, a pioneer in the computing industry and founder of Commodore, died on Sunday at age 83, his son Leonard Tramiel confirmed Monday.

Tramiel's Commodore International in 1982 released the Commodore 64, a home computer that became one of the most popular models of all time, selling close to 17 million units between 1982 and 1994.

Tramiel was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1928 to a Jewish family. He survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, after which he emigrated to the U.S. in 1947.

Tramiel claimed that after surviving the Holocaust he could survive just about anything. The Auschwitz survivor undoubtedly survived the computer industry, including being ousted as chief executive officer (CEO) of the company he established. His Commodore Business Machines International grew from a small Canadian company manufacturing typewriters and adding machines to producing electronic calculators to developing computers. Tramiel's first introduction to typewriters came after he joined the U.S. Army in 1948 and was assigned to repairing typewriters in New York area offices. He moved to Toronto in 1955 and founded Commodore Business Machines after realizing the Canadian law would allow him to exclusively import Italian typewriters. The company advanced from typewriter importing to manufacturing the devices and adding machines. Tramiel embraced the burgeoning electronics movement and moved in the late 1960s to Silicon Valley, where Commodore began manufacturing electronic calculators. The company's success almost forced its demise. Texas Instruments, which supplied Commodore with semiconductor chips for its calculators, began manufacturing its own calculators and selling the models at prices Commodore could not match.

Never wanting to be held hostage by a vendor again, Tramiel purchased chip manufacturer MOS Technology to supply Commodore with the needed parts. Tramiel shut down most of MOS' research and development projects, but allowed the microcomputer project to continue.The project produced PET, Personal Electronic Transactor. PET helped Commodore earn US$700 million in sales in fiscal 1983 and $88 million in profits.In 1984, as the company's profits approached $1 billion, Tramiel butted heads with a stockholder and was fired as CEO. Tramiel purchased Atari Corp. from Time Warner Communications later that year. However the company, despite some financial success, never steadily operated in the black and Tramiel sold Atari to JTS, a disk-drive manufacturer he helped fund, but he did not hold any operational role.

[EZ103.3FM]

Dick Clark, Entertainment Icon Nicknamed 'America's Oldest Teenager,' Dies at 82

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/dic ... d=16076252

Dick Clark, the music industry maverick, longtime TV host and powerhouse producer who changed the way we listened to pop music with American Bandstand, and whose trademark Rockin' Eve became a fixture of New Year's celebrations, died today at the age of 82, ABC News has learned.

Clark, who suffered a serious stroke in 2004 but returned to the airwaves, reportedly died from a heart attack.

Born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., on Nov. 30, 1929, Richard Wagstaff Clark began his lifelong career in show business began before he was even out of high school. He started working in the mailroom of WRUN, a radio station in upstate New York run by his father and uncle. It wasn't long before the teenager was on the air, filling in for the weatherman and the announcer.

Clark pursued his passion at Syracuse University, working as a disc jockey at the student-run radio station while studying for his degree in business. After graduating in 1951, Clark went back to his family's radio station, but within a year, a bigger city and bigger shows were calling.

Clark landed a gig as a DJ at WFIL in Philadelphia in 1952, spinning records for a show he called Dick Clark's Caravan of Music. There he broke into the big time, hosting Bandstand, an afternoon dance show for teenagers.

Within five years, the whole country was watching. ABC took the show national, and American Bandstand was born.

American Bandstand's formula was simple. Clean-cut boys and girls danced to the hottest hits and the newest singles. In between, Clark chatted with the teens, who helped "rate-a-record," turning songs into sensations. Everyone showed up on American Bandstand: from Elvis Presley to Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry to Chubby Checker.

When Dick Clark moved to Hollywood in 1963, American Bandstand moved with him. He started Dick Clark Productions, and began cranking out one hit show after another; his name became synonymous with everything from the $25,000 Pyramid to TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes to the American Music Awards. In 1972, Dick Clark became synonymous with one of the biggest nights of the year.

Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on ABC became a Dec. 31 tradition, with Clark hosting the festivities for more than three decades, introducing the entertainment acts and, of course, counting down to midnight as the ball dropped in New York's Times Square.

But the traditional celebration saw a temporary stop in 2004, when Clark suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and struggling to speak. Regis Philbin stepped in. But by the next New Year's Eve, Dick Clark was back, his speech still impaired. In halting words, he told the audience, "I had to teach myself how to walk and talk again. It's been a long, hard fight. My speech is not perfect but I'm getting there."

The Museum of Broadcast Communications has done the math, and figures that Dick Clark Productions has turned out more than 7,500 hours of television programming, including more than 30 series and 250 specials, as well as more than 20 movies for theatre and TV.

All this earned Clark a long list of awards and accolades: Emmys, Grammys, induction in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It also made him one of the richest men in Hollywood; he also had stakes in a wide range of businesses, including restaurants, theatres and real estate.

Clark, whose eternally youthful look earned him the nickname "America's Oldest Teenager", is survived by his three children and his third wife, Keri Wigton, married to him since 1977. He credited his appearance to good genes, once saying "if you want to stay young looking, pick your parents very carefully."

Now, America's Oldest Teenager is gone, leaving his indelible mark on generations of fans, and helping change rock 'n' roll and TV forever. His signature sign-off was always "For now, Dick Clark… so long," said with a salute. Today, generations of Americans are saluting back.

[genlock]

Robert Shrader, dead at 98

Robert L. (Bob) Shrader, W6BNB, author of 10 QST articles, died April 11 at age 98. He was a long-time resident of Sebastopol, California. His most recent QST article was "Using Mechanical CW Keys" in the February 2010 issue. A prolific author at an age when most settle into retirement, he also published articles in Ham Radio and CQ. He was inducted into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame in 2004.

At a young age, he was hired as a shipboard radiotelegraph officer for the Dollar Lines, and sailed around the world six times. During his long and prolific lifetime, Bob served as a deputy sheriff, radio and electronics instructor, and chief of the Freestone (CA) fire department. His textbook, Electronic Communications, was published in 1959 by McGraw-Hill

Many of us learned electronics from this book.

[lastone]

Many of us learned electronics from this book.

I was one of them....1st Class with Radar Endorsement, 1971. Because of his book (and Raymond Johnston's interest in me).

[David Paleg]

Levon Helm, key member of The Band, dies at 71
Apr 19, 6:40 PM (ET)
By MICHAEL HILL

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - With songs like "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,""The Weight" and "Up on Cripple Creek," The Band fused rock, blues, folk and gospel to create a sound that seemed as authentically American as a Mathew Brady photograph or a Mark Twain short story.

In truth, the group had only one American - Levon Helm.

Helm, the drummer and singer who brought an urgent beat and a genuine Arkansas twang to some of The Band's best-known songs and helped turn a bunch of musicians known mostly as Bob Dylan's backup group into one of rock's most legendary acts, has died. He was 71.

Helm, who was found to have throat cancer in 1998, died Thursday afternoon of complications from cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, said Lucy Sabini of Vanguard Records. On Tuesday, a message on his website said he was in the final stages of cancer.

Helm and his bandmates - Canadians Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel - were musical virtuosos who returned to the roots of American music in the late 1960s as other rockers veered into psychedelia, heavy metal and jams. The group's 1968 debut, "Music From the Big Pink," and its follow-up, "The Band," remain landmark albums of the era, and songs such as "The Weight,""Dixie Down" and "Cripple Creek" have become rock standards.

Full story at Iwon/AP News.

[EZ103.3FM]

I remembered Helm was in 'Coal Miner's Daughter' but I forgot he narrated 'The Right Stuff'.

Also didn't know this: (from near the end of the linked AP story):
While Helm's illness reduced his voice to something close to a whisper, it did not end his musical career. Beset by debt, in 2004 he began a series of free-wheeling late night shows in his barn in Woodstock that were patterned after medicine shows from his youth. Any night of the bi-weekly Midnight Rambles could feature Gillian Welch, Elvis Costello or his daughter Amy on vocals and violin.

He recorded "Dirt Farmer" in 2007, which was followed by "Electric Dirt" in 2009. Both albums won Grammys. He won another this year for "Ramble at the Ryman."

[EZ103.3FM]

Jonathan Frid, Ghoulish ‘Dark Shadows’ Star, Is Dead at 87


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/arts/ ... at-87.html
Jonathan Frid, a Shakespearean actor who found unexpected — and by his own account unwanted — celebrity as the vampire Barnabas Collins on the sanguinary soap opera “Dark Shadows,” died last Friday, April 13, in Hamilton, Ontario. He was 87.

He died from complications of a fall, said Kathryn Leigh Scott, who played several characters on the show. Mr. Frid, who lived in Ancaster, Ontario, leaves no immediate survivors.

Mr. Frid, along with several castmates, makes a cameo appearance in Tim Burton’s feature film “Dark Shadows,” to be released on May 11. Johnny Depp stars as Barnabas.

Though the befanged Mr. Frid was the acknowledged public face of “Dark Shadows” — his likeness was on comic books, board games, trading cards and many other artifacts — Barnabas did not make his first appearance until more than 200 episodes into the run. The character was conceived as a short-term addition to the cast, and early on the threat of the stake loomed large.

Broadcast on weekday afternoons on ABC, “Dark Shadows” began in 1966 as a conventional soap opera (with Gothic overtones), centering on the Collins family and their creaky manse in Maine.

The next year, with ratings slipping, the show’s executive producer, Dan Curtis, chose to inject an element of the supernatural. Enter Barnabas, a brooding, lovelorn, eternally 175-year-old representative of the undead. Today TV vampires are legion, but such a character was an unusual contrivance then.

The ratings shot up, and not only among the traditional soap-opera demographic of stay-at-home women. With its breathtakingly low-rent production values and equally breathtakingly purple dialogue, “Dark Shadows” induced a generation of high school and college students to cut class to revel in its unintended high camp. The producers shelved the stake.

Swirling cape, haunted eyes and fierce eyebrows notwithstanding, Barnabas, as portrayed by Mr. Frid, was no regulation-issue vampire. An 18th-century man — he had been entombed in the Collins family crypt — he struggled to comes to terms with the 20th-century world.

He was a vulnerable vampire, who pined for his lost love, Josette. (She had leaped to her death in 1795.) He was racked with guilt over his thirst for blood, and Mr. Frid played him as a man in the grip of a compulsion he devoutly wished to shake.

Mr. Frid starred in almost 600 episodes, from April 18, 1967, to April 2, 1971, when the show went off the air. (It remains perennially undead on DVD.)

Mr. Frid received nearly 6,000 fan letters a week. “I wish you’d bite ME on the neck,” read one, from a woman in Illinois.

Others contained snapshots of the letter-writers’ necks — and everything on down — laid bare.

All this, Mr. Frid said in 1968, was exquisitely ironic in that “the other vampires we’ve had on the show were much more voluptuous biters than I am.”

It was also an exquisitely unimagined career path for a stage actor trained at the Yale School of Drama and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Mr. Frid, as he made plain in interviews, was as conflicted about his calling as Barnabas was about his own.

The son of a prosperous construction executive, John Herbert Frid was born in Hamilton on Dec. 2, 1924; he changed his given name to Jonathan early in his stage career.

After service in the Royal Canadian Navy in World War II, Mr. Frid received a bachelor’s degree from McMaster University in Hamilton; he later moved to London, where he studied at the Royal Academy and appeared in repertory theater. In 1957, he earned a master’s degree in directing from Yale.

Mr. Frid spent his early career acting in North American regional theater, appearing at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts and the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Conn. On Broadway, he played Richard Scroop, Archbishop of York, in “Henry IV, Part 2” in 1960.

Long after “Dark Shadows” ended, Barnabas remained an albatross. Mr. Frid reprised the role in the 1970 feature film “House of Dark Shadows”; the few other screen roles that came his way also tended toward the ghoulish. He starred opposite Shelley Winters in the 1973 TV movie “The Devil’s Daughter,” about Satanism; the next year he played a horror writer in “Seizure,” Oliver Stone’s first feature.

Returning to the stage, Mr. Frid played Jonathan Brewster — a role originated by Boris Karloff — in a 1986 Broadway revival of the macabre comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

As critical as he was of “Dark Shadows,” Mr. Frid was equally critical of his performance in it.

“I’d get this long-lost look on my face,” he told The Hamilton Spectator in 2000. “ ‘Where is my love? Where is my love?,’ it seemed to say. Actually, it was me thinking: ‘Where the hell is the teleprompter? And what’s my next line?’ ”

[unchoopfan]

Bill "Moose" Skowron, 81, Yankees/White Sox slugger

(LA Times) - Moose Skowron, 81, a five-time World Series champion with the New York Yankees and the Dodgers and one of only two players to hit three home runs in the seventh games of World Series, died Friday (Apr. 27) of congestive heart failureat a hospital in Arlington Heights, Ill. He also had lung cancer.

Skowron became a star as a first baseman for the Yankees and went on to appear in eight All-Star games. After his playing career ended, he returned to his native Chicago and had worked for the White Sox since 1999 in the team's community relations department.

Skowron helped the Yankees win four titles from 1954 to 1962, then won a fifth championship with the Dodgers in the first season after he was traded for Stan Williams. He hit .282 in 14 major league seasons with 211 home runs and 888 RBIs, also spending time with the expansion Washington Senators (1964), the White Sox (1964-67) and the Angels (1967). He was an All-Star from 1957 to '61, appearing in both games in 1959 and 1960, then was picked one final time in 1965. One of his Yankee teammates was catcher Yogi Berra, the only other player with three Game 7 homers in the Series.

Born William Joseph Skowron on Dec. 18, 1930, on Chicago's North Side, he said he was given the nickname Moose when he was 7 after his grandfather gave him a haircut that caused friends to call him "Mussolini" — after the Italian fascist leader. The nickname was shortened to Moose. After attending Purdue on a football scholarship, he signed with the Yankees.

--------------------------------------------------------

Pete Fornatale, 66, New York City radio DJ (WNEW/WFUV)

(LA Times) -Pete Fornatale, 66, a New York City radio disc jockey who promoted his favorite rock musicians for decades in a free-form style, died Thursday (Apr. 26) in New York a week after suffering a stroke, according to his son, Peter Thomas Fornatale.

As a DJ on WNEW-FM beginning in 1969, Fornatale established a loyal following by spinning records by lesser-known artists and album cuts beyond the hit singles.

One of his favorites was Poco, a country-rock band he championed. He helped launch the careers of singer-songwriters like Suzanne Vega, John Gorka and Christine Lavin.

"It's a very sad day for radio," said songwriter Paul Simon. "New York has lost one of its most acclaimed and wonderful radio personalities.... He really knew his era and his music."

The Bronx native was a Fordham University student DJ in the mid-1960s when he developed his style of progressive FM broadcasting.

"The complete freedom to put this package together, for better or for worse, stamped me then and is still with me today," Fornatale said in 2001.

Until his death, he had hosted the show "Mixed Bag" on Saturdays for Fordham's WFUV-FM station.

He and his son also worked on a book celebrating the Rolling Stones' 50th anniversary that they finished just before Fornatale's death, titled "50 Licks," to be published later this year or in early 2013. The DJ also wrote "Bookends," the story of the Simon & Garfunkel album by that title.

--------------------------------------------------------

Tommy Marth, 33, saxophonist (The Killers)

Thomas “Tommy” Marth, a talented musician best known as the live touring and studio saxophonist for the Las Vegas-based band The Killers, was found dead in his Las Vegas home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on Monday (Apr. 23).

A tweet from the band's official Twitter account announced Marth's passing, saying the band's prayers are with his family. "There's a light missing in Las Vegas tonight. Travel well, Tommy."

Marth, a Las Vegas native, was featured on the Killers' sophomore record Sam's Town and 2008's Day and Age.

--------------------------------------------------------

Chris Ethridge, 65, bassist/founding member of The Flying Burrito Brothers

(Variety) -John Christopher "Chris" Ethridge II, a Mississippi-born musician, bassist and songwriter who was a founding member of country-rock band the Flying Burrito Brothers, died Monday (Apr. 23) in Meridian, Miss. He was 65 and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September.

Ethridge spent eight years on the road with Willie Nelson and can be heard on the country legend's "Whiskey River."

Nelson wrote in a tweet, "(Willie Nelson and Friends) are sad to hear of the passing of Family member & friend Chris Ethridge. He was a talented musician & we were honored to call him Family."

With Joel Scott Hill and John Barbata, Ethridge recorded "L.A. Getaway," which many rock critics hail as one of the great, lost 1970s rock albums.

Ethridge collaborated with Gram Parsons on several projects including the Flying Burrito Brothers and the International Submarine Band, and he co-wrote several of the songwriter's solo tunes.

In later years, Ethridge played with music luminaries including Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Ry Cooder, both as a session musician and touring player.

--------------------------------------------------------

Bert Weedon, 91, English guitarist and composer

(AFP) - British guitarist Bert Weedon, who inspired a generation -- including some of the world's best-known players -- to pick up the string instrument, died at the age of 91 on Friday (Apr. 20).

Nicknamed "Mr Guitar", Weedon, whose "Play In A Day" tutorial books sold millions, was an in-demand session player who backed stars such as Frank Sinatra.

The Beatles' George Harrison, John Lennon as well as Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Queen guitarist Brian May and Pete Townshend of The Who were all among those who started out with Weedon's books. The Shadows also dedicated a song to him.

Weedon was born in east London and aged 12 he persuaded his father to buy a battered guitar from a street market. He started out playing with big bands before embarking on a solo career which saw him notch up hits including "Guitar Boogie Shuffle" and "Nashville Boogie".

The arrival of rock 'n' roll provided him with a new role as a top session man who played with stars including Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Rosemary Clooney and Cliff Richard.

His first "Play In A Day" book was published in 1957. Clapton once said he had "never met a player of any consequence" who had not learned from the books.

--------------------------------------------------------

Greg Ham, 58, saxophonist/flautist (Men at Work)

(LA Times) - Greg Ham, 58, a member of the Australian band Men at Work whose saxophone and flute punctuated its smash 1980s hits, was found dead Thursday (Apr. 19) in his Melbourne home. Police said that his death did not appear to be suspicious but that the cause was under investigation.

Men at Work topped charts around the world in 1983 with the songs "Down Under" and a single that featured Ham on saxophone, "Who Can It Be Now?" The band won a Grammy Award as best new artist in 1982.

Born in 1953 in Australia, Ham met future Men at Work frontman Colin Hay in 1972 when they were high school seniors. The group started as a duo in 1979 but soon expanded to include Ham and two others.

"We played in a band and conquered the world together," Hay said in a statement. "The saxophone solo on 'Who Can It Be Now?' was the rehearsal take. We kept it, that was the one. He's here forever."

Ham, who also played keyboards, was known for the catchy flute riff on "Down Under." But the tune came under intense scrutiny after the band was accused of stealing the flute line from the classic campfire song with the line "kookaburra sits in the old gum tree."

The publisher of "Kookaburra" sued Men at Work, and in 2010 a judge ruled that the band had copied the melody. The group was ordered to hand over a portion of its royalties, and lost its last appeal in October. Ham later said the controversy had devastated him.

"I'm terribly disappointed that that's the way I'm going to be remembered — for copying something," he told Melbourne's the Age newspaper after the court ruling.

The band broke up in the mid-1980s but Hay and Ham re-formed the group in 1996 and continued to make occasional live appearances.

[jag]

Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch Dead at Age 47

According to breaking-news reports this morning from Rolling Stone and TMZ, Adam "MCA" Yauch, co-founder of Grammy-winners and recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees the Beastie Boys, has died at age 47. Yauch is survived by his wife and daughter. As of this writing, it is unclear if his death is related to the cancer he was treated for in 2009.

Yauch revealed he had cancer in a salivary gland in his neck in July 2009, which delayed the group's touring plans and scheduled September 2009 release of Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 1. The album, later titled Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2, eventually came out in April 2011. Last year, Yauch announced that he was optimistic about treatment, but was not yet cancer-free.

Last month, Yauch did not attend the Beasties' induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. A representative told Rolling Stone at the time: "Beastie Boys regret that Adam 'MCA' Yauch will be unable to join Mike 'Mike D' Diamond and Adam 'Adrock' Horovitz at the band's induction into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in April. Mike, Adam and Adam are truly grateful for the honor but with only two of the three Beastie Boys attending, they will unfortunately not be able to perform at the ceremony."

The Beasties' managers said today in a statement: "We at Silva Artist Management are deeply saddened to confirm the passing of our friend and client, Adam Yauch. We ask for your patience and understanding as well as respect for the privacy of Adam's family."

[David Paleg]

George Lindsey, known as TV's Goober Pyle, dies
May 6, 3:52 PM (ET)
By TRAVIS LOLLER

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - George Lindsey, who spent nearly 30 years as the grinning Goober on "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Hee Haw," has died. He was 83.

The Marshall-Donnelly-Combs Funeral Home in Nashville said Lindsay died early Sunday morning after a brief illness. Funeral arrangements were still being made.

Lindsey was the beanie-wearing Goober on "The Andy Griffith Show" from 1964 to 1968 and its successor, "Mayberry RFD," from 1968 to 1971. He played the same jovial character - a service station attendant - on "Hee Haw" from 1971 until it went out of production in 1993.

"America has grown up with me," Lindsey said in an Associated Press interview in 1985. "Goober is every man; everyone finds something to like about ol' Goober."

Full story at Iwon/AP News.

[David Paleg]

`Where Wild Things Are' author Maurice Sendak dies
May 8, 8:59 AM (ET)
By SAMANTHA CRITCHELL


NEW YORK (AP) - Maurice Sendak, the children's book author and illustrator who saw the sometimes-dark side of childhood in books like "Where the Wild Things Are" and "In the Night Kitchen," died early Tuesday. He was 83.

Longtime friend and caretaker Lynn Caponera said she was with him when Sendak died at a hospital in Danbury, Conn. She said he had a stroke on Friday.

"Where the Wild Things Are" earned Sendak a prestigious Caldecott Medal for the best children's book of 1964 and became a hit movie in 2009. President Bill Clinton awarded Sendak a National Medal of the Arts in 1996 for his vast portfolio of work.

Full story at Iwon/AP News.

[David Paleg]

'Laugh-In' co-creator Digby Wolfe dies at 82
May 8, 7:10 PM (ET)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Digby Wolfe, the comedy writer who co-created the 1960s variety show "Laugh-In," has died. He was 82.

Friends have confirmed that the British-born writer, actor, singer and teacher died May 2 of lung cancer at his home in Albuquerque, N.M.

Friend and former teaching colleague Jim Linnell described Wolfe as a "whirlwind of ideas and encouragement." He says Wolfe had the power to set loose uncontrollable laughter in people.

Wolfe and his "Laugh-In" colleagues earned an Emmy in 1968 for their work on the television show.

Wolfe had small guest roles on various TV series and also mentored hundreds of young writers.

A memorial service is being planned for June 10 at the University of New Mexico, where Wolfe taught writing for 12 years.

His 37-year teaching career also included a stint at the University of Southern California.

[David Paleg]

Liberator of ladies' hair Vidal Sassoon dies at 84
May 9, 8:15 PM (ET)
By SANDY COHEN


LOS ANGELES (AP) - Vidal Sassoon used his hairstyling shears to free women from beehives and hot rollers and give them wash-and-wear cuts that made him an international name in hair care.

When he came on the scene in the 1950s, hair was high and heavy - typically curled, teased, piled and shellacked into place. Then came the 1960s, and Sassoon's creative cuts, which required little styling and fell into place perfectly every time, fit right in with the fledgling women's liberation movement.

"His timing was perfect: As women's hair was liberated, so were their lives," Allure magazine Editor-in-Chief Linda Wells told The Associated Press in a written statement. "Sassoon was one of the original feminists."

Sassoon was at his home in Los Angeles with his family when he died Wednesday at age 84, police spokesman Kevin Maiberger said. Maiberger said police were summoned to the home but found that Sassoon had died of natural causes, and authorities wouldn't investigate further.

Full story at Iwon/AP News.