Clarence Williams III Dies: ‘Linc’ On ‘The Mod Squad’, Star Was 81
Clarence Williams III, who was a Black power icon in the 1960s and 1970s as the cool detective “Linc Hayes” on television’s The Mod Squad, has died. Williams died in Los Angeles on Friday June 4 of colon cancer, according to his management
Beyond The Mod Squad role, which lasted from 1968 to 1973, he also appeared in such films as Purple Rain, 52 Pick-Up, Reindeer Games and Tales from the Hood.
Williams began his career on the stage, earning a Tony nomination in 1965 for best featured actor in a play for his work in the three-person drama Slow Dance on the Killing Ground.
His other notable roles came as Prince’s father in 1984’s Purple Rain, and appeared as Wesley Snipes and Michael Wright’s druggie dad in Sugar Hill (1993). He also became Jelly Roll Morton In Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Legend of 1900 (1998).
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‘The Ed Sullivan Show’: George Harrison Had a 104-Degree Fever During The Beatles’ Historic 1964 Appearance
The Beatles on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ set, February 9, 1964 |
CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
Feb. 9 will mark 57 years since The Beatles made their
unforgettable North American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.
The Beatles’ Ed Sullivan Show performance became the moment
future musical legends would refer to later as the watershed event that fixed
their destinies. The band wasn’t just singing and playing musical instruments
on Sullivan’s stage; they had permanently changed American culture.
Incredibly, it almost didn’t happen. At least not without lead
guitarist George Harrison. The “quiet Beatle” had a raging fever the week of
their television performance and nearly had to be hospitalized.
The Beatles were profiled on an American program before ‘Ed
Sullivan’ but it was quickly forgotten
Ed Sullivan and The Beatles | Jeff Hochberg/Getty Images
While the band’s seminal moment would come on The Ed Sullivan
Show, they had already received airtime in the U.S. just months before on a
program called CBS Morning News with Mike Wallace.
Unfortunately, that publicity for the band was hardly noticed
by American viewers as it aired on Nov. 22, 1963, the same day that President
John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
Journalist and news anchor Walter Cronkite later remembered
the short profile that had been aired and re-aired it in Dec. 1963. The American
public, he reasoned, needed a respite from the endless grief of coverage of the
president’s death. That second airing created a buzz for this new musical group
from England.
“I don’t even think at the time we knew who Walter Cronkite
was,” Paul McCartney told Fox News in 2019. “We came to America with all of
that, well, Walter Winchell, who is that? It’s Walter Cronkite. And we were
like, ‘Walter who?’ We didn’t know these people. We were just four innocent
Liverpool boys at that point.”
The Beatles arrived in the U.S. just months after Kennedy’s
assassination
To a nation steeped in grief after the killing of President
Kennedy, the timing of The Beatles’ arrival was exactly what was needed.
Their optimistic, joyful music, boyish good looks, and
absolutely charming accent and banter captivated Americans.
McCartney explained, “We didn’t realize it at the time,
Americans had never seen this before; four people in a band, looking like this,
playing their own instruments, singing their own original music, four – dare I
say it – handsome young boys.”
Harrison was sick the week of the band’s ‘Ed Sullivan Show’
performance
Lead guitarist Harrison nearly didn’t make it to The Ed Sullivan
Show for The Beatles’ performance. He had a throat infection and a very high
fever, according to his sister Louise who had been traveling with the
20-year-old. His condition was dire enough that the doctor at The Plaza hotel
recommended hospitalization for the youngest Beatle.
““He had a really bad strep throat,” Louise told Houston
Public Media in 2015. “His temperature was 104, and the doctor had me move into
the room with George, and you know I had to give him medication almost every
hour. First of all, the doctor had said, ‘We need to send him to hospital.’”
Louise recalled that the band’s manager Brian Epstein refused
to have George admitted to a hospital out of sheer panic.
“[Epstein] almost had a heart attack on the spot. He said,
‘No, we can’t let anybody know that anybody’s sick!’”
She also remembered the doctor urging her to make sure her
brother didn’t rehearse for more than an hour at a time. He was concerned
George would faint on stage the night of the live performance.
In the end, all turned out well and Louise recalled the host
himself getting caught up in the excitement.
“He was like a little puppy with two tails,” Louise said of
Sullivan. “I guess he was accustomed to people treating him respectfully,
because he was sort of a big-shot, serious old man. They were just having so
much fun themselves that they just pulled him into the fun as well.”
Who was Mr. Tambourine Man?
Drama followed Bruce Langhorne all his life. After leaving
Tallahassee as a child, he moved with his librarian mother, Dorothy, to Harlem
and began learning the violin. His days as a prodigy ended at the age of 12,
when he blew off the tips of two fingers and his right thumb after clinging on
too long to a homemade firework called a cherry bomb. “At least I won’t have to
play the violin anymore,” he told his weeping mother.
Despite later inspiring the Mr. Tambourine Man of Dylan’s
song, the boy who had grown up loving the music of Louis Jordan took up the
guitar and, like Django Reinhardt, found a way around his disability. Though he
could not strum, the young Langhorne became an accomplished finger-picking
player and said, “I got to be a very good accompanist because I was really
forced to listen.”
After working as a street performer and in New York folk
clubs, word of Langhorne’s talent got around and he played a session with Dylan
in October 1962, showcasing his stunning guitar on “Corrina, Corrina” for The
Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. His potent electric guitar lines also light up songs
such as Bringing It All Back Home’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “Maggie’s
Farm.” Dylan said: “If you had Bruce playing with you, that’s all you would
need to do just about anything.”
Langhorne played with lots of other leading musicians,
including Joan Baez and Harry Belafonte, but thought his finest work was with
Dylan. “The connection I had with Bobby was telepathic,” he said.
Dylan was supposedly inspired to write “Mr. Tambourine Man,”
on which Langhorne also plays, after seeing him arrive for a recording session
holding a giant Turkish frame drum with jingle-jangling bells attached to its
edges. It looked like a tambourine the size of an extra-large pizza.
In the liner notes to his Biograph box set, Dylan said,
“‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ was inspired by Bruce Langhorne. Bruce was playing guitar
with me on a bunch of the early records. He had this gigantic tambourine. It
was like, really big. It was as big as a wagon wheel. He was playing, and this
vision of him playing this tambourine just stuck in my mind. I don’t know if
I’ve ever told him that.”
The Beatles’ Second Album
The Beatles’ Second Album, released on 10 April 1964, was their 3rd studio album released in the US (their 2nd for Capitol Records).
The songs were compiled from 4 UK
singles and 5 songs from With the Beatles that had been left off Meet the
Beatles! (released in January 1964). 6 of the 11 songs were cover versions, and
John Lennon sings lead on 6 songs (and adding duet lead on another 2).
It knocked off Meet the Beatles!
from the top of the Billboard charts on 2 May and had sold 1.6 million copies
by the end of the year.
Bonanza’ Star Lorne Greene Had His Own Ponderosa Replica Ranch
By Clayton Edwards
Bonanza ran for
fourteen seasons. Throughout the show’s run, Lorne Greene portrayed Ben
Cartwright, the patriarch of his family and owner of the Ponderosa Ranch. They
worked almost constantly on the show. So, it’s no surprise that it and the
homestead became integral parts of the late actor’s life.
So, when it was
time for the Bonanza star to have a home built, Greene decided to recreate his
Virginia City home from the series. That led to the construction of Ponderosa
II in Mesa, Arizona. The house is an almost perfect replica of the ranch house
on the Ponderosa in the series.
Currently, some
huge Bonanza fans own and maintain the home. Luckily, we can check it out
through the power of the internet.
Bonanza Star’s
Replica Home
Ponderosa II is a
shrine to Bonanza. It is packed with nods to the show as well as actual props
both inside and out. The home is registered as a historic site by the city of
Mesa, Arizona. Let’s take a look at what makes the house so special.
The Exterior of
Ponderosa II
The first thing
that will catch the eye of Bonanza fans is the exterior of Ponderosa II. It
looks just like the Cartwright home. The outer walls are made from real logs.
Stepping into the front yard of the Mesa, AZ home is like walking on to the set
of the classic western.
Before entering the
front gate, there are two notable things. First, there is a plaque bearing
Lorne Greene’s face. It also explains the home’s significance and its
connection to Bonanza. Then, there is the American flag waving from a pole just
in front of the house. That flag bears thirty-four stars. This would have been
accurate for the time in which the show was set.
The Interior – An
Ode to Bonanza
Stepping through
the front door of the house is the closest you’ll ever come to visiting the set
of Bonanza. The front room of the home is an exact replica of the house on the
Ponderosa Ranch. The fireplace and stairway are almost identical to what fans
of the show saw every week. In fact, the home is so close to the Cartwrights’
home that Lorne Greene had to get permission from the studio to have it built.
He even enlisted set designers from the show to help him make it more
authentic.
One big difference
is that the stairs don’t lead to the home’s bedrooms. Ponderosa II is a
one-story house. So, the stairs lead to the attic. However, they designed the
stairs to get gradually smaller as they go up. The door is also small. This
gives the illusion of a much higher staircase.
The front room of
the house also has some other nods to Bonanza. Some of the furniture there is
straight from the set of the classic western. The most impressive piece,
though, is Ben Cartwright’s desk which is tucked away in a comfortable alcove.
There are other pieces of memorabilia from the show as well. For instance,
screen-used hats and one of Ben’s vests hang from pegs in the home.
The dining room is
also an exact replica of the Bonanza set. They really paid attention to detail
here as well. In fact, the dining room features the same tea set and dining
table used by the Cartwrights.
In many places in
Ponderosa II, you can see still photos from the show. For the most part, they
are to show how accurate the setup of the house is.
‘The Andy Griffith Show’: Where Did Ron Howard’s Character’s Name ‘Opie’ Come From?
By Katie Maloney
How did Opie from
The Andy Griffith Show get his name? Here are two theories on which real-life
people Opie was named after.
Opie Taylor, played
by Ron Howard, on The Andy Griffith Show was America’s favorite redheaded child
actor. Fans of the show all wished they could live in the town of Mayberry and
befriend Opie and his father Sheriff Andy Taylor.
Unfortunately, the
show was just that – a fictional show. Nevertheless, the town and some of its
characters may have been based on real-life places and people, including Opie.
Certainly, “Opie” is a unique name. And although you probably haven’t met a
whole lot of Opies, The Andy Griffith Show character isn’t the only one to ever
exist. In fact, there are two men, also named Opie, that fans believe Ron
Howard‘s character may have been named after.
First, there’s Opal
“Opie” Taft Cates. Cates was a famous bandleader and actor who played the
clarinet for a swing band in Arkansas. Cates starred on the radio program Meet
Me at Parky’s which was set in a restaurant and aired from 1945–48. Sheldon
Leonard, who produced The Andy Griffith Show, was also an actor on the show
with Cates. Some believe Leonard suggested Opie for Ron Howard’s character
after befriending Cates.
However, there’s a
second theory as to how Opie got his name. During an interview, Opie Shelton, a
childhood friend of Andy Griffith, claimed that Opie was named after him. Maybe
the inspiration behind the name was a combination of both?
Opie wasn’t known
for his aggressive nature. In fact, even when his father thought Opie was naive
or up to no good, he always quickly discovered that Opie was both generous and
kindhearted.
During one episode,
Opie accidentally killed a mother bird with his slingshot. Andy sat Opie down
and talked to him about the mother bird’s three baby birdies that were left
without a mother. Andy even opened the window so that Opie could hear the
orphaned birds’ little chirps. Feeling terrible, Opie decided to nurse the baby
birds until they were old and healthy enough to fly out on their own. What’s
sweeter than that?
It’s hard to
believe that such a sweet kid could have some Viking blood in him. Yes, we know
Opie a fictional character, so technically that’s not possible. Nevertheless,
the name “Opie” actually comes from the Viking Ages. A reporter once traced the
etymology of the name Opie. Turns out that “Opie” can be traced back to the old
Viking name “Asbjorn” which meant “God bear.” The nickname of Asbjorn evolved
from “Asbie” to “Obby” to “Oppy” to “Opie.” Opie could mean “Son of Asbjorn.”
‘Gunsmoke’: What Was James Arness’ Job Before Hitting It Big in Hollywood?
By Thad Mitchell
One of the most
popular television shows to ever air on television, Gunsmoke ran from 1955 to
1975. The show is the longest-running, primetime, live-action series of the
20th century.
The show takes
place in Dodge City, Kansas, where lawman Matt Dillon enforces his own brand of
justice. Dillon is the show’s central character and is portrayed by actor James
Arness. At 6’7″ Arness was an imposing figure as Matt Dillon and he ran a tight
ship in Dodge City, despite the best efforts of local criminals.
Arness portrayed
Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke for 20 years and has played the role in five different
decades. The tall actor was a big reason for the show’s success as he gave life
to the lead character and played the role with toughness. In addition to the
long-running television program, Arness played Dillon in several made-for-tv
Gunsmoke movies, including 1987’s Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge.
‘Gunsmoke’ Actor
Served Country Before Hollywood
Before taking on
the role of Matt Dillon, Arness served his country in battle as a rifleman in
World War II. The future actor joined the military after high school and became
a rifleman with the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division. He was severely wounded in
battle in 1944 in Anzio, Italy. He underwent several surgeries before being
honorably discharged in 1945. For his efforts in fighting for his country
during the war, he awarded a Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart, the
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal,
and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
After leaving the
military, he found work as a radio announcer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a
while. He then made his way to Hollywood where his acting career really took
off. He got his first film role in “The Farmer’s Daughter,” a 1947 film
starring Loretta Young. It would be a couple of years later before he got his
big break with Gunsmoke in 1955.
In addition to his
work in western-themed programs, Arness also starred in a couple of science
fiction films. He appeared in Them! and The Thing From Another World. He played
The Thing in the latter film.
After his run on
Gunsmoke ended, Arness continued to play western-type characters in several
films. He passed away in Los Angeles in 2011 at 88-years-old.
B.J. Thomas Diagnosed With Stage 4 Lung Cancer
Thomas, whose career has spanned a number of genres over half a century, is receiving treatment in Texas, according to his representative. Thomas, 78, has logged 26 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 from 1966 through 1983 and achieved No. 1 singles across the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Adult Contemporary charts.
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