If they were still alive today....

...the following folks would be celebrating a birthday:



Nat "King" Cole would be 92.  In many ways, Cole was a groundbreaking original.  He was considered sort of the first "safe" black performer for uptight whites to admire and watch on television.  He stoically withstood the unspeakable racist policies of nightclubs and restaurants in the 1930's-50's, where he was allowed to perform, but not allowed to patronize.  And the hotels where he was the headline performer, but wasn't allowed to sleep under their rooves.  "But that was long ago...", as the lyrics of one of his great hits, "Stardust," go.  His legacy is his velvet smooth delivery and his mild, likable demeanor.  But make no mistake:  He was a groundbreaker alright.  And a damned fine singer, too.




Rudy Ray Moore would be 84.  In the early 1970's, during the "Blaxploitation" era in Hollywood (Shaft, Blackenstein, etc.), there was a character named "Dolomite," created by one Rudy Ray Moore.  A black nightclub comedian, he was no doubt inspired by the blue humor of Redd Foxx and took it one step further.  His humor was so filthy, it continues to shock, even today!  Perhaps his best known recording is called The Sensuous Blackman Meets the Sensuous Blackwoman, and I'm blushing just typing the title.  It is absolutely FILTHY!  But also one of the most hilarious things I've ever heard in my life.  I won't include the recording here, as this is a wholesome, family site (har har!)....but here's the link!  Don't say you weren't warned, and if you're easily offended, by all means, don't go there!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JITup3OLCX8



Rudolf Nureyev would be 73.  Some of those in the know state without hesitation that he was the greatest male dancer of all time.  When he defected to the West from the Soviet Union in 1961, it was a huge scandal with immense political repercussions.  He went on, of course, to have a brilliant career on the great ballet stages of the WesternWorld.  His life was cut short at the age of 54, when in 1993, he was one of the scores of great artists felled by the AIDS epidemic.  Here he is, at the peak of his powers, making his solo American television debut, dancing The Sleeping Beauty:




Dana Reeve would be 49.  She was the wife of actor Christopher Reeve and became, in his words "my everything," after he was paralyzed in an equestrian accident in 1995.  The two of them became crusaders for the cause of spinal cord injury research, which she continued, even after his death, related to his paralysis, in 2004.  In a turn of almost unspeakable tragedy, Dana was diagnosed that very next year with terminal lung cancer--despite the fact that she had never smoked.  She died that following year...the tragic ending to one of the saddest love stories of our time.


John Wayne Gacy would be 69.  Perhaps the most frightening mass-murderer in American history, killing and burying in the basement of his mundane suburban Chicago tract home the bodies of 33 teenage boys and young men.  He used to volunteer to perform as "Pogo the Clown" at kiddie parties in his community.  Clowns have never lived down the taint to their profession and are universally considered even more frightening than they were before Gacy.  Did you know that "Wayne" is the most common middle name of convicted murderers?  Really...keep an eye on the news, and 9 times out of 10, a really grisly felon will have the middle name "Wayne"...see if I'm lying!



Brilliantly creative British fashion designer Alexander McQueen would have turned 42 today, had he not lost his battle with depression and taken his own life in February of last year.  Considered one of the leading lights amongst young fashion designers, his creations are now coveted as collector's items.  Below, a few examples of his creative vision: