If they were still alive.....

...today would be the birthday of:




Jack Ruby would have turned 100.  Conspiracy theorists have formed a cottage industry around trying to figure out who, exactly, this man was--and why he did what he did.  Ruby, of course, the owner of a tawdry Dallas nightclub, was the man who fired the shot that killed John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, the day after JFK's assassination in Dallas on November 23, 1963.  He was initially convicted of murder with malice and condemned to death.  That sentence was later overturned, and he was awaiting re-trial when he was diagnosed with advanced, terminal cancer.  He died at Dallas's Parkland Hospital, where both JFK and Oswald died, too--a macabre wrapup to a story that will have no end.  So why did he do it?  Most signs point toward it being the actions of an unbalanced, attention-seeking "patriot," rather than him being the tool of some clandestine cabal.  But it seems we may never know...


Arturo Toscanini would be 144.  One of the most important and influential musicians of the 20th century, the great conductor of symphony and opera was (and still is) widely admired by pedagogues and common audiences alike.  He was well known all over America as the conductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, which broadcast their concerts over the air. A strict, no-nonsense taciturn who ruled his musicians out of fear, as well as admiration, his many existing recordings prove him to be incredibly sensitive, inventive and full of fire.  Here he is, conducting the NBC Orchestra in a 1948 performance of Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" from Die Walkure:






Nancy Kelly would be 90.  Her most famous role came in 1956, when she repeated the role she created on Broadway, playing the mother of evil little Rhoda, whom the title referred to:  The Bad Seed.  It was all taken dead seriously when it came out.  But seen today, it is almost unavoidably, hilariously, campily WAY over the top!  The writing, acting, directing---EVERYTHING in that film seems beamed in from some faraway planet.  And they were all nominated for Oscars!  Including Nancy (her only nomination, ever), who does everything but take big chunks out of the scenery with her teeth!  A shockingly poor performance, I'm afraid to say. 

Nancy does things like stare at the telephone and study it after hanging up, for no reason whatsoever.

But in recent years, it's been packing revival movie houses, especially around Halloween, with like-minded campy folk who dress up as the characters and know every bit of dialogue by heart.  So, I guess you have to take "legendary" wherever you can get it, Nancy, 'cause your performance in this film certainly was memorable alright!


Simone Signoret would be 90.  Look at that lovely, wounded face.  The French leading lady (who was the long-suffering wife of chronic womanizer, Yves Montand) played a lot of lovely, wounded French women, mostly in French films, though she did successfully make the jump to Hollywood, briefly, and even took home an Oscar for Room at the Top in 1959, for her touching supporting role.  She wrote a lovely autobiography, whose title I've always been fond of:  Nostalgia Isn't What It Used to Be.


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Venice is certainly VERY much alive.  And legend has it that the city was "born" on this day, 1590 years ago.  The shocking thing is...Venice continues to sink into the Adriatic!  Yes, over the past century alone, it has sunk almost 10 inches.  Massive engineering schemes are continually in motion to "stem the tide," but flooding has always been a fact of life there. Rome may be "The Eternal City," but La Serenissima (as Venice is known) isn't going anywhere, anytime soon. So, to one of the most beautiful, dynamic and enigmatic cities on the planet, we hope that you and yours have a buon compleanno!