Saturday, May 12, 1962: 'Duty, Honor, Country'

Retired Gen. Douglas MacArthur gives a speech at the U.S. Military Academy as he accepts the Sylvanus Thayer Award for service to his country. The speech to the Corps of Cadets, both sweeping and personal, is a stirring explanation of "why we fight."

Its two most memorable passages, the first from the beginning of the speech:

Duty ... Honor ... Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.

MacArthur concludes with:

The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.

But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point.

Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.

Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.

I bid you farewell.

Portions of the speech would later be engraved on a series of walls at West Point as part of a MacArthur memorial.

Life magazine photo from 1947.

* Transcript of speech (from www.americanrhetoric.com): @

* Listen to the speech: @

* Entry from "Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History" (book by William Safire, 2004): @

* "Douglas MacArthur: Warrior as Wordsmith" (book by Bernard K. Duffy and Ronald H. Carpenter, 1997): @

* Remembrances of the event: @

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Sunday, April 29, 1962: White House state dinner

Forty-nine Nobel Prize winners are guests for a state dinner at the Kennedy White House. The president's remarks include this memorable line: "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." (JFK's notes on an early draft of the speech indicate that he added the Jefferson reference.)

The day before, as well as that morning, Linus Pauling -- who won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies of molecular structure -- had picketed outside the White House, protesting the resumption of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, Pauling attended the dinner.

This photo (from the JFK Library) shows the president talking to author Pearl Buck, while Mrs. Kennedy talks with poet Robert Frost.

* Full text of Kennedy remarks: @
* Associated Press story: @

* Time magazine article (May 11): @

* Summary and video clip of Linus Pauling: @

* Photo of Pauling protesting (April 28): @

* Note from Pauling on Jackie Kennedy's remark to him: @

* Photos from Corbis Images: @

* Materials from JFK Library: @

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Thursday, March 29, 1962: Jack Paar

From The New York Times:

Jack Paar did his final late show for the National Broadcasting Company last night after a run of almost five years.

The concluding telecast combined tributes to the star with comedy, controversy, sentiment and music.

Among those who paid their respects in a filmed segment of the program were Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, former Vice President Richard M. Nixon and the Rev. Dr. Billy Graham. All had appeared on Paar programs in the past.

Although the telecast was in the nature of a farewell to Mr. Paar, he is not leaving the air permanently. He will return to the network in the fall with a once-a-week show to be presented on Friday nights from 10 to 11 o'clock.

Last night's program marked his final appearance in a Monday-through-Friday series that began on July 29, 1957. The show has been presented from 11:15 p.m. to 1 a.m. In recent years it has been pre-recorded on tape earlier in the evening.

* "Jack Paar Gets All Misty-Eyed as Fans Tell Him How Great He Is" (Sarasota Journal, March 30): @

* Video from Archive of American Television: @

* "Jack Paar at the Berlin Wall" (from Television Quarterly): @

* Earlier post on appearance by John F. Kennedy (June 16, 1960): @

* Earlier post on appearance by Richard Nixon (August 25, 1960): @

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Undated: Miss Army Recruiting of 1962

Actress Jane Fonda is given the honorary title by the Pentagon, and speaks in Washington on behalf of the U.S. military.

The picture, credited to UPI Telephoto, would resurface a decade later. From the July 4, 1972 edition of The Lima (Ohio) News: "FROM JANE'S PAST -- Anti-war groups would be hard put to recognize one of their most staunch advocates, shown in this 1962 Army photograph. Bearing the title of "Miss Army Recruiting -- 1962" is none other than actress Jane Fonda, known today as an anti-war militant. With Patterson, N.J., recruiter Sgt. Robert Juhren, Miss Fonda was making radio spots about what a good idea joining the Army was. The photo was found by the Overseas Weekly newspaper in a 10-year-old edition of the Casemate, a Ft. Monroe, Va., post paper. Times have changed for the Army and for Miss Fonda."

Note: Some references, including Fonda's 2005 autobiography "My Life So Far," give the year as 1959.

* Excerpt from "Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman" (2011 book by Patricia Bosworth): @ 

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January 1962: 'Are Writers Made or Born?'

"On The Road" author Jack Kerouac pens a piece for the January 1962 edition of Writer's Digest. It ends with the oft-quoted line:

But it ain't whatcha write, it's the way atcha write it.

That's actually a variation of a line earlier in the article: "It ain't whatcha do," Sy Oliver and James Young said, "It's the way atcha do it." Kerouac is referencing the jazz song " 'Tain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)," written by Oliver and Young and recorded by Ella Fitzgerland, among others.

* Text of article (from a posting in the forum section on www.bobdylan.com, of all places; I've emailed the site to find out whether it's the piece in its entirety, as it is the only place I've found it on the Internet): @

* www.kerouac.com (website of The Beat Museum): @

* Short biography of Kerouac (from American Museum of Beat Art): @

* More Kerouac links (from Open Directory Project): @

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Sunday, November 19, 1961: Michael Rockefeller

The youngest son of New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller disappears in New Guinea. He had been studying the Asmat tribe and collecting native art. Through the years various theories have been put forth as to his fate. He was declared legally dead in 1964.

* Short summary from outsideonline.com: @

* Long summary from trutv.com: @

* Newsreel (from britishpathe.com): @

* Newsreel (from criticalpast.com): @

* Life magazine article (December 1, 1961): @

* Website for the documentary "The Search for Michael Rockefeller": @

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Monday, November 13, 1961: Pablo Casals at the White House

Spanish cellist Pablo Casals' dramatic rendition of "Song of the Birds" closes an evening of classical music at the White House. The performances, considered a cultural high point in the Kennedy years, were recorded and released as the album "A Concert at the White House."

* NPR story (from 2011): @

* Kennedy's remarks: @

* Listen to "Song of the Birds": @

* More about "Song of the Birds" (from kennedy-center.org): @

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Thursday, November 9, 1961: Pro golf

From The New York Times:

Pro Golf Organization Ends Ban

Against Nonwhites as Members

The Professional Golfers Association eliminated the "Caucasian" clause from its constitution yesterday and thereby opened the way to membership for Negroes and Orientals. ...

Although the United States Golf Association has permitted nonwhites to compete in all its championships, including the Open, only a handful of Negro professionals are considered good enough to climb the ladder to P.G.A. Class A membership for players. ...

Members of the P.G.A. tournament bureau said yesterday that Charlie Sifford (shown at left) of Los Angeles was the leading Negro player on the tournament tour.

In 1957 Sifford won the Long Beach open, a 54-hold event. Last spring, after the Masters tourney at Augusta, Ga., an invitation event for which he was not eligible, he competed in the Greater Greensboro open in North Carolina.

That made him the first member of his race to play in a P.G.A. co-sponsored event in the South. He tied for fourth and earned $1,300, his top prize of the year.

* Sifford profile at World Golf Hall of Fame: @

* "Charlie Sifford broke barriers, but no one broke his spirit" (Los Angeles Times, 2011): @

* "African American Golfers During the Jim Crow Era" (book): @

* "A Course of Their Own: A History of African American Golfers" (book): @

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Monday-Tuesday, October 30-October 31, 1961: Stalin's body

The New York Times, October 30:

Stalin's Body to Be Moved

From Tomb in Red Square

Party Votes Unanimously to Transfer

Downgraded Dictator From Side of

Lenin in Communism's Shrine

MOSCOW, Oct. 30 -- The Soviet Union took the dramatic step of shattering the image of Stalin today by ordering his body removed from its place beside the sarcophagus of Lenin in the great mausoleum in Red Square.

The transfer of the body of Stalin, preserved by a secret chemical formula since his death in March, 1953, was approved unanimously by the twenty-second congress of the Soviet Communist party.

For Premier Khrushchev, the congress resolution symbolized the defeat of elements in the Soviet Union that have opposed his post-Stalin reforms. It capped the campaign of de-Stalinization begun by Mr. Khrushchev at the twentieth party congress in 1956.

Stalin had been denounced by Mr. Khrushchev for opposing the Leninist thesis of "peaceful coexistence" and for his internal regime of terror.

From a 2009 story in Pravda: "(In 1953) Stalin's body was embalmed and placed for public viewing in Lenin's Mausoleum, which was then called 'The Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin and I.V. Stalin.' On October 30, 1961, the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ruled that Stalin's gross desecration of Lenin's legacy made it impossible to keep the casket with his body in the Mausoleum. Stalin's body was removed from the Mausoleum on the night of October 31, 1961, and buried in the grave underneath the Kremlin wall."

The official statement from the 22nd Congress (translations vary; this is from the Times article): "The further presence in the mausoleum of the sarcophagus with the coffin of J.V. Stalin shall be regarded as inexpedient because the serious violations by Stalin of the Leninist behests, the abuses of power, the mass reprisals against honest Soviet people and other actions during the period of the personality cult make it impossible to leave the coffin with his body in the V.I. Lenin Mausoleum."

Stalin's name was also removed from the outside of the mausoleum.

* Excerpt from "Digging up the Dead: A History of Notable American Reburials" (book by Michael G. Kammen): @

* "The speech Russia wants to forget" (about Khrushchev's 1956 speech; from BBC): @

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October 1961: 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities'

The influential book by urban activist Jane Jacobs is published. In it, the New York resident takes direct aim at urban planning policies. From a 2011 article in The Guardian newspaper: "Jacobs, a housewife, mother and part-time architectural journalist, had been drawn into the campaign to prevent New York's dictatorial planning boss Robert Moses -- who had already ripped up swaths of the city -- from driving a highway through her native Greenwich Village. ... But her book did not just dwell, negatively, on the harm New York's car-obsessed, modern-minded planners were doing. Building on close observeration of her own and other neighborhoods, she mounted a thorough and original defense of traditional city forms against both the garden city movement and modernist city planning. She argued that dense, mixed-income mixed-use neighborhoods, designed around short city blocks with busy amenity-lined streets and small parks, had a huge range of benefits unappreciated by modern urban planners, who mistakenly associated the old city with all the evils of the 19th-century slum."

The photo shows Jacobs at a December 1961 news conference of the Committee to Save the West Village. (From the New York World-Telegram & Sun Newspaper Collection, Library of Congress)

* Short biography (from Project for Public Spaces): @

* New York Times review (November 5, 1961): @

* "Cobblestone Conservative: How Jane Jacobs saved New York City's Soul" (The American Conservative, October 2011): @

* Symposium on book and its impact (From The American Conservative): @

* "Genius of Common Sense: Jane Jacobs and the story of 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities' " (book by Glenna Lang and Marjory Wunsch): @

* "Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City" (book by Anthony Flint): @

* "Downtown is for People" (1958 article by Jacobs in Fortune magazine): @

* New York Times obituary (2006): @

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Undated: Paul Rand

Graphic designer Paul Rand creates a new logo for United Parcel Service. It was one of a string of distinctive, enduring corporate trademarks created by Rand, including IBM (designed in 1956 and refined in 1972), Westinghouse in 1960 and ABC in 1962.

* www.paul-rand.com: @

* Biography and career of Rand (from www.iconofgraphics.com): @

* History of UPS logo (from www.goodlogo.com): @

* History of IBM logo (from www.ibm.com): @

* Westinghouse brand guidelines (PDF): @

* Timeline of notable logos (from www.goodlogo.com): @

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Monday, October 16, 1961: 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking'

Written by Simone Beck, Louisette Berthole and Julia Child, the influential cookbook is published by Alfred A. Knopf. Craig Claiborne of The New York Times wrote: "... it will probably remain as the definitive work for nonprofessionals. ... It is written in the simplest terms possible and without compromise or condescension. The recipes are glorious ... All are painstakingly edited and written as if each were a masterpiece, and most of them are."

* "Julia Child, the French Chef" (chapter from "Eating History: 30 Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine): @

* "My Life in France" (book by Child and Alex Prud'homme): @

* Child entry from "The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink": @

* Boeuf Bourguignon recipe: @

* Omelette recipes: @

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Thursday, October 5, 1961: 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'

Star and style came together as Audrey Hepburn played Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," loosely based on the 1958 novel by Truman Capote. (The movie had its New York premiere on this date.) The black Givenchy dress that Hepburn wore became a star in its own right; it is typically considered one of cinema's most fashionable images. The film, nominated for 5 Academy Awards, won two, both for its music: Henry Mancini won for best score, while Mancini and Johnny Mercer won for the song "Moon River."

* Short summary: @

* Overview from www.tcm.com: @

* New York Times review: @

* Excerpt from "Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Official 50th Anniversary Companion" (book by Sarah Gristwood): @

* "Fifth Avenue, 5 a.m.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman" (book by Sam Wasson): @

* Watch trailer: @

* Watch opening sequence: @

* Truman Capote reads from novel: @

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Tuesday, October 3, 1961: 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'

The situation comedy premieres on CBS. The show features Van Dyke's work life as well as his home life: he plays a writer for a TV comedy show. The memorable opening of Van Dyke tripping over an ottoman as he arrives home did not appear until the show's second season.

* Overview (from Museum of Broadcast Communications): @

* Official website: @

* "The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book" (book by Vince Waldron): @

* dick-van-dyke-show.blogspot.com: @

* Watch episodes (from www.hulu.com): @

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October 1961: Robert Johnson

Columbia Records releases the compilation album "Robert Johnson -- King of the Delta Blues Singers," generating a wider interest in and appreciation of the recordings of Johnson, who died in 1938.

* Short biography (from allmusic.com): @

* Robert Johnson Blues Foundation: @

* "The Robert Johnson Notebooks": @

* Website for film "Can't You Hear the Wind Howl: The Life & Music of Robert Johnson": @

* "Searching for Robert Johnson" (Vanity Fair, November 2008): @

* "Robert Johnson: Lost and Found" (book by Barry Lee Pearson, Bill McCullough): @

* "Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues" (book by Elijah Wald): @; Wald's website: @

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Sunday, October 1, 1961: Roger Maris

The New York Yankees outfielder hits his 61st home run, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record of 60 from 1927. But because major league baseball teams played 162 games instead of the 154 in Ruth's day -- and because Maris wasn't nearly as popular as teammate Mickey Mantle -- Maris' accomplishment wasn't fully appreciated in its day.

* Footage of home run No. 61: @

* Home run list (from www.baseball-almanac.com): @

* "Pursuit of No. 60: The Ordeal of Roger Maris" (Sports Illusrated, October 2, 1960): @

* Roger Maris Museum (Fargo, North Dakota): @

* Anniversary website: @

* "Maris Anniversary: The Catch of a Lifetime": @

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Tuesday-Wednesday, September 19-20, 1961: Betty and Barney Hill

While driving home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, after a vacation in Canada, Betty and Barney Hill claim they were taken aboard an alien spacecraft. Their account was not made public until the 1966 book "The Interrupted Journey: Two Lost Hours Aboard a Flying Saucer" by John G. Fuller; excerpts appeared in Look magazine.

* Overview (from www.ufocasebook.com): @

* Website of Kathleen Marden, the Hills' niece: @

* "Captured! The True Story of the World's First Documented Alien Abduction" (book by Stanton T. Friedman and Kathleen Marden): @

* "Talks With Betty Hill: 1 - Aftermath of Encounter" (article by Berthold Eric Schwartz; consultant, Brain Wave Laboratory, Essex County Hospital Center, Cedar Grove, N.J.): @

* The Betty and Barney Hill collection (items at the University of New Hampshire Library): @

* "New Hampshire commemorates Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience" (from www.openminds.tv): @

* "The White Mountain Abduction" (documentary): @ and @

* "They Know Us Better Than We Know Ourselves: The History and Politics of Alien Abduction" (book by Bridget Brown): @

*"Alien Agenda: Investigating the Extraterrestrial Presence Among Us" (book by Jim Marrs): @

Betty and Barney underwent hypnosis in 1964 in an effort to re-create their experience. During the sessions, Betty drew a "star map" that she said the aliens had shown her. The map is similar to a star system 39 light years from Earth.

* "The Zeta Reticuli Incident," article in Astronomy magazine, December 1974 (from National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena website): @

* Article positing that the map is actually of our own solar system: @

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Monday, September 18, 1961: Dag Hammarskjöld dies

A plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) kills the secretary-general of the United Nations. He was on a mission to work out a cease-fire between U.N. forces and insurgents in the Katanga region of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Speculation quickly surfaces that his death was no accident.

* Short biography (from United Nations website): @

* Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation: @

* Website about Hammarskjöld: @

* President Kennedy's speech to General Assembly (September 25, text and audio): @

* Newsreel of Kennedy's speech: @

* Newsreel of Hammarskjöld's death: @

* Newsreel of funeral: @

* United Nations report on plane crash (April 24 1962; click on "English"): @
* "Evidence suggests UN chief's plane was shot down" (The Guardian, August 17, 2011): @
* More about the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including history (from Library of Congress): @

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Tuesday, September 12, 1961: The Mercury 13 (updated)

Five days before they were to begin flight simulation training in Pensacola, Florida, the 13 members of the privately funded Woman in Space program received the following telegram, effectively ending their hopes of joining the U.S. space effort.

Regret to advise arrangements at Pensacola cancelled Probably will not be possible to carry out this part of program. You may return expense advance allotment to Lovelace Foundation c/o me Letter will advise of additional developments when matter cleared further= W Randolph Lovelace II MD

* Earlier blog post (from 1960): @

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Monday, September 11, 1961: Hurricane Carla

With top winds estimated at 150 miles per hour, the eye of Hurricane Carla makes landfall between Port O'Connor and Port Lavaca, Texas. Half a million people had evacuated the Texas coastline; as a result, the death toll was a relatively low 46. The hurricane was also noteworthy in that it marked the first time a television reporter -- Dan Rather, working for CBS's Houston affiliate, KHOU-TV -- provided continuous live reports from Galveston Island while riding out the storm.

Photo by Flip Schulke

* Summary (from National Weather Service, Corpus Christi, Texas): @

* U.S. Weather Bureau advisories and bulletins (PDF): @

* "In the Eye of a Mighty Storm" (Life magazine, September 22): @

* Weather Bureau film: @

* Newsreel: @

* "Hurricane Carla Aftermath" (silent footage): @ and @

* "Rather in the Eye of the Storm" (CBS video): @

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