Get Here was written by Brenda Russell and co-produced by Roland Orzabal from Tears for Fears. The idea for Get Here came to Russell as she watched hot air balloons floating over Stockholm and imagining all the ways a person could reach or get to someone else. Russell recorded the song for her 1988 album, Get Here. While in a Stockholm record store, Oleta Adams heard the song and was impressed enough to record it for her 1990 album, Circle of One. Despite the beautiful lyrics, the public failed to pay the ballad much attention until November 1990 when the song became the unofficial anthem for the U.S. troops during the Gulf War. It propelled Get Here into the top ten of Billboard’s Hot 100 in the spring of 1991.
Adams continues to record. Her most recent album was released in April 2009, the secular album Let’s Stay Here.
Born Mary Christine Brockert, her childhood nickname was Tina. She was also known as Lady T, a nickname given to her by her friend and collaborator Rick James.
At 8, she landed a role on the TV show The Beverly Hillbillies (see video below). At 10, she sang at the wedding of Jerry Lewis’ son.
In 1976, she landed an audition for a Motown film about orphans. The film was scrapped by Motown label boss Berry Gordy, but she wasn’t; he signed her as a solo artist. Two years into recording primarily unreleased material, she caught the attention of Rick James. This affiliation resulted in her 1979 debut album, Wild and Peaceful. This album did not feature Brockert on the cover and with her voice, many people believed her to be black. Imagine everyone’s surprise when she and James performed their duet I’m a Sucker for Your Love on Soul Train in 1979. Brockert was Soul Train‘s first white female guest. She went on to appear eight more times, more than any other white artist.
She released two more albums with Motown before a 1982 legal battle. By the fall of that year, she had signed with Epic Records and established a publishing company, Midnight Magnet. She stayed with Epic until 1990. Brockert continued performing, recording and acting right up until her death. In fact, her final CD, her 14th, was unfinished at the time of her death and was completed by her daughter and was released in January 2013 and entitled Beautiful. In addition, at the time of her death, Brockert was working on her memoirs.
In 2004, while asleep in a hotel room, a large picture frame fell off the wall, struck her in the head and caused a concussion that resulted in seizures for the rest of her life. On December 26, 2010, Brockert’s daughter found her unresponsive at her Pasadena home. Her December 30 autopsy concluded she had died of natural causes, as it was reported she had suffered a Grand Mal seizure one month prior to her death.
The Joy of Cooking (Bobbs-Merrill, Scribner, 1931)
Joy of Cooking is the U.S.’ most-published cookbook, it has been continuously in print since 1931 and has sold more than 18 million copies. Not bad for a book originally published privately by Irma S. Rombauer, a struggling homemaker whose husband committed suicide in 1930. Five years after the original publication, a commercial printing house, Bobbs-Merrill Company picked it up. Joy of Cooking is up to its 8th (and 75th anniversary) edition, published in 2006.
Rombauer was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 1998. She died October 14, 1962.
Freakies was originally intended to be a sugar coated flake cereal in 1972 and called Freakie Flakes. But Ralston cut the flake idea in favor of a puffed cereal. Freakies was an instant success, thanks to the monsters that Ralston created (Boss Moss, Cowmumble, Gargle, Goody-Goody, Grumble, Hamhose and Snorkeldorf) that appeared on the boxes. Commercials told the story of how the Freakies came to live in the Freakies Tree which provided them an endless supply of the ceral.
A chocolate version, Cocoa Freakies appeared in 1973 and a fruit version Fruity Freakies appeared in 1975. All three versions of the Freakies cereals disappeared in 1977. Ten years later, Ralston tried to re-introduce Freakies as crunchy honey-tasting spaceships with marshmallows Freakies. In 1988, the new space Freakies were gone again.
In 1989, in the film The ‘burbs Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks) is seen eating Freakies (see photo above).
Dynasty was an American primetime soap that aired for 9 seasons, from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989 (a total of 222 episodes). This was another of producer Aaron Spelling’s primetime soaps. Dynasty was ABC’s answer to CBS’ primetime soap Dallas. The ratings for the first season were not spectacular, but the second season addition of Joan Collins as Alexis Carrington saw Dynasty enter the top twenty. By the third season (the fall of 1982), it was top ten and in the spring of 1985, it became the number one show in the U.S.
Between 1981 and 1986, Dynasty was nominated as Best TV Drama Series by the Golden Globes — winning in 1984. A spin-off The Colbys aired for two seasons from November 1985 to March 1987. A two-part miniseries, Dynasty: The Reunion was broadcast in October 1991.
Dynasty revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy family that lived in Denver. Dynasty starred John Forsythe as patriach Blake Carrington and Linda Evans as his wife Krystle as well as Joan Collins who played Blake’s ex-wife. It could be argued that due to the intensity of jealousy and hatred between Krystle and Alexis that the “catfight” was a co-star too (Krystle and Alexis often engaged in physical altercations). Dynasty co-starred Emma Samms, Heather Locklear, Diahann Carroll and a wealth of others.
By the final ninth season, Dynasty switched broadcast nights from Wednesday to Thursday and saw some integral cast members leave. In fact, John Forsythe was the only cast member to appear in all 222 episodes and only Forsythe and John James (Jeff Colby) were the only two original cast members to appear in the final episodes. The ninth season ratings saw it come in at #57 — the lowest of its entire run and the only season below the Top 40.
Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime by The Korgis (1980)
Released off their second album, Dumb Waiters, Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime was their third single overall. The song hit #5 in the UK and #17 in the U.S.
After a third album and some name changes, the Korgis broke up in 1981. They re-united in 1990 to re-record Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime for the album This World’s for Everyone (1992), but promptly broke up again. In 1999, their three original albums were re-issued by Edsel Records. They re-united in 2005 for a film shoot for the compilation album/DVD Kollection and released Unplugged in 2006. Also that year they released their first single in thirteen years, Something About the Beatles.
Erich Segal wrote the best-selling novel and the 1970 film Love Story. Love Story starred Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw and is considered one
of the most romantic
films of all time. Love Story was the film debut of Tommy Lee Jones in the minor role of Hank Simpson.
Wealthy Oliver (O’Neal) falls in love with working-class Jenny (MacGraw). They marry despite Oliver’s father’s wishes. Unable to conceive, they discover Jenny is dying. Love Story was responsible for the iconic line: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”
Love Story won a 1970 Academy Award for Best Music Original Score and became the highest grossing film of 1970 in both the U.S. and Canada, grossing over $106 million. Today, it still remains in the Top 40 for domestic grosses of all time.
A sequel, Oliver’s Story came in 1978 and starred both O’Neal, MacGraw and Candice Bergen.
Faith was George Michael’s first solo album after disbanding Wham! (Michael had grown weary of Wham’s perceived image and wanted to be taken more seriously.) Faith won the 1989 Grammy Award for Album of the Year and the five singles off the album dominated the music charts in 1988. Faith was the first album by a Caucasian artists to hit number one of the R&B album chart. Worldwide, Faith has sold over 25 million copies and has been certified Diamond status.
Right from the beginning, the subject matter of the album and the music videos for the singles left little doubt that Michael had left Wham’s bubblegum image in his wake. Michael was very concerned about having a career in music beyond Wham! and this album left no doubt that he could. Faith was a top ten album in 12 countries — the only country it didn’t hit the top five in was Japan (#16) — and went to number one in Canada, Spain, the UK, the U.S. and on the Dutch chart. In addition to the U.S., Faith reached Diamond status in Canada.
The lead single I Want Your Sex reached Platinum certification in the U.S. and gold status in Canada and the Netherlands. I Want Your Sex went to number one on the Dutch and Irish charts; #2 in Austria, Canada, Italy, New Zealand and the U.S. In fact, I Want Your Sex peaked in the Top 5 in 12 countries (the only two it peaked outside of the top five were Sweden #8 and France #11). The original video for the single was too controversial, so Michael was forced to release a censored version and even that one pushed the boundaries.
The follow up single Faith was the best selling single of 1988 in the U.S. The single reached Gold status in Canada, the U.S. and the Netherlands. It reached number one on four charts — the Canadian, Dutch, Italian and American; worldwide was top five in twelve countries. There were only three countries where it didn’t reach the Top five — Sweden #9, France #22 and Japan #86.
The third single Father Figure is one of Michaels’ most frequently played song on UK radio. Father Figure only reached the top spot in the U.S., but hit the Top 10 in seven countries. Of the 13 countries it charted in, they were all Top 40 finishes — the lowest being in France at #37.
The fourth single One More Try reached Gold status in the U.S. and Silver status in France. (One More Try was Michaels’ only Top 5 hit off the Faith album in France; it peaked at #5.) One More Try hit the top spot in Canada, Ireland and the U.S. (his seventh number one hit and third consecutive number one single in the U.S.) Again, of the twelve charts it hit, only two were outside of the Top 10 — #19 in Austria and #22 in Germany.
The fifth single Monkey became Michael’s first number one dance hit and continued his string of Hot 100 number one hits. Monkey also hit the top spot in Canada.
The final single Kissing a Fool ended his string of number ones, but managed to peak at #5 on the Hot 100, but hit number one on the Adult Contemporary chart.
This game consists of a plastic castle, plastic bats,
two plastic hands and some marbles. You put the bats on the platform of the castle’s tower
and drop a marble down the chute. The marble would trigger the bats to fly out and you
tried to catch the bats with your plastic monster hand.
It looks like so much fun and there are an awful lot
of them available online for purchase.
During the late 1930s, a lot of men of minorities, especially African-Americans were often seen wearing zoot suits. A suit that featured high-waisted, tight-cuffed, pegged pants with a long coat that had wide lapels and padded shoulders. Originally the suits were associated with black urban jazz musicians. Zoot meant something worn or performed in an extravagant style, these suits definitely qualified. During WWII, the suits were banned due to the amount of fabric required to make them, that led to the Zoot Suit Riots.