by David Krell | Apr 13, 2017 | David Krell
Tragedy demands a release. When David Letterman took his spot at the Ed Sullivan Theatre for his first show after the September 11, 2001 attacks, he let us know that it was okay to laugh. The shock of the attacks was beyond immense, defying description of the...
by David Krell | Apr 12, 2017 | David Krell
The tale of Lonesome Rhodes is a cautionary one. Written by Budd Schulberg and directed by Elia Kazan, the 1957 film A Face in the Crowd revolves around Rhodes, a drunk with a gift for guitar playing, singing, and folksiness. Arkansas radio producer Marcia Jeffries...
by David Krell | Apr 11, 2017 | David Krell
Baseball’s nexus with Hollywood had a center point in Los Angeles’s Wrigley Field on February 28, 1932 for a charity game benefitting America’s Olympians; the ’32 Summer Olympics—which took place in Los Angeles—inspired two comedy icons to...
by David Krell | Apr 10, 2017 | David Krell
As America recovered from its Bicentennial hangover, Hank Aaron clubbed a home run in the Brewers-Angels game on July 20, 1976. It was not, in any way, a cause for ceremony. It was, however, highly significant. Aaron’s solo smash off the Angels’ Dick...
by David Krell | Apr 9, 2017 | David Krell
In the 1970s—the decade of disco, Watergate, and bell bottom pants—the women’s rights movement escalated to a new level, continuing a legacy ignited by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Ida Harper. Billie Jean King’s defeat of Bobby Riggs in...
by David Krell | Apr 8, 2017 | David Krell
Monmouth County, located somewhat equidistantly between Hoboken and Atlantic City, boasts land of high significance to baseball and America. Once the spring training home of Brooklyn’s major league squad around the turn of the 20th century, nearly four decades...
by David Krell | Apr 7, 2017 | David Krell
At the turn of the 21st century, while the world scrambled to confront a Y2K threat to computers, Bobby Bonilla and the management of the New York Mets came to an agreement regarding salary—defer it. Well, a lot of it. From 2011 to 2035, Bonilla gets annual...
by David Krell | Apr 6, 2017 | David Krell
If fans of the California Angels tuned into the CBS television show M*A*S*H on February 27, 1977, they would have seen familiar names during the closing credits—the Angels’ infield: Grich, Chalk, Remy, and Solita [sic]. Tony Solaita—First Base Jerry Remy—Second...
by David Krell | Apr 5, 2017 | David Krell
1966 was the year of the superhero, thanks to Batman. After the camp version premiered on ABC in January, starring Adam West in the title role, Batman triggered a fascination that inspired a slew of iconic guest villains: Cesar Romero as the Joker Burgess Meredith as...
by David Krell | Apr 4, 2017 | David Krell
Cooperstown is a destination rooted in myth. Abner Doubleday did not, most certainly, invent baseball on a grassy area while he was a military school cadet. And yet, it is that myth anchoring the village’s notoriety as the home of the National Baseball Hall of...
