Thursday, July 26, 1962: 'The French Chef'

Julia Child's cooking show is first broadcast for a local audience on public television station WGBH in Boston. The show would begin airing nationally on February 11, 1963.

* Video of Child preparing boeuf bourguignon (first national show in 1963): @

* "Julia Child's 'The French Chef' " (book by Dana Polan, 2011): @

* From www.pbs.org: @

* Timeline from The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts: @

* Excerpt from "Icons of American Cooking" (Victor Gerachi and Elizabeth S. Demers, 2011): @

* "Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian" website: @

* "Our Lady of the Kitchen" (Vanity Fair, August 2009): @

* "TV: Pummeling and Shaking Turkey, It's Ebullient 'French Chef' " (New York Times, November 1970): @

* Earlier post on "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (October 16, 1961): @

---

Wednesday, July 25, 1962: Skyphone

From an Associated Press article by Francis Stilley:

NEW YORK, July 26 (AP) -- "One moment, please," said the telephone operator. "American Airlines Flight 941 is calling."

"Hello," came a charming female voice a few seconds later. "This is stewardess Hope Patterson. We're at 28,000 feet over Lakehurst, N.J., on a jet flight from New York to Cincinnati. Can you hear me?"

With those words, Miss Patterson officially inaugurated American Airlines air-to-ground radiotelephone -- or "Skyphone" -- service yesterday with a call to the Associated Press office in New York.

* Entire article (from July 26 edition of The Miami News; story is headlined "Hello Earth, This is Jet Stewardess, Miss Patterson"): @

---

Friday, July 20, 1962: Hovercraft

Ferry passenger service via hovercraft (a boat moving across water or land on a cushion of air) is inaugurated between Wallasey, England, and Ryhl, Wales, some 20 miles distant.

* "Hovercraft First Ferry" (video from www.britishpathe.com): @

* "The Hovercraft Pioneers" (story from The Glasgow Herald, July 20): @

* "Craft Riding on Air Cushion Making Wales To England Run" (Associated Press story, September 1962): @

* Hovercraft Museum: @
* James' Hovercraft Site: @

* From www.wirralhistory.net: @
* From www.bartiesworld.co.uk: @

* From BBC's Wales History blog: @
* From Rhyl History Club blog: @

---

Undated: 'Little Boxes'

Written by Malvina Reynolds, the song mocks suburban development and residents; Reynolds wrote the song after driving through Daly City, California, just south of San Francisco. A version by Pete Seeger would reach No. 70 on Billboard's Hot 100 music charts in February 1964. The term "ticky-tacky" -- in the context of the song, meaning low-quality building materials used for standardized housing -- also entered the language (and dictionaries).

Photo by Rondal Partridge ("Housing, Daly City, California, late 1960s"). More of Partridge's work: @ and @

* Entry from "Malvina Reynolds: Song Lyrics and Poems": @

* Lyrics as published in Broadside magazine (February 1963, PDF): @

* Remembrance of Reynolds by her daughter: @

* History of Daly City: @

---

Undated: Thalidomide in the U.S.

Public awareness about thalidomide increases dramatically, with news reports and congressional hearings about the drug's risks: that expectant mothers taking the sedative might give birth to deformed babies. (Thalidomide sales had already been halted throughout Europe.)

July 15: The Washington Post publishes a front-page story about thalidomide, largely about the efforts of Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey of the Food and Drug Administration, who worked to prevent her agency from approving the drug for use in the United States. Other news outlets quickly follow up on Morton Mintz's reporting.

* Text of story: @

* "Morton Mintz on the collapse of Congressional oversight" (from www.neimanwatchdog.org): @

* 2012 interview with Mintz: @

July 30: The FDA provides details on thalidomide distribution. From The New York Times: "A total of 1,229 physicians in thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia and one in Canada received test samples of thalidomide, a drug blamed for thousands of birth defects in Europe. ... It has been estimated by Government officials that hundreds or perhaps thousands of Americans were given the drug on an experimental basis. ... A drug concern may make arrangements with doctors for the experimental use of a new drug without Federal approval. The law merely requires that the company keep a record of the shipments and that they be labeled 'caution, new drug limited by Federal law to investigate use.' This was the procedure used by the W.S. Merrell Company of Cincinnati, a reputable drug concern that held exclusive United States rights to distribute thalidomide. The company notified physicians last March to cease giving the drug."

Later estimates indicate that about 2.5 million samples were given out to some 20,000 patients.

August: Dr. Helen Taussig's "The Thalidomide Syndrome" is published in Scientific American. The report provides a history of the drug, discusses its effects on fetuses, and includes Taussig's observations in West Germany, where thalidomide (brand name Contergan) had been much more widely used. She writes: "The one-third who are so deformed that they die may be the luckier ones."

* Profile of Taussig (from National Library of Medicine): @

August 1: President Kennedy opens his press conference with a statement about thalidomide and pending drug legislation. In answer to a follow-up question, Kennedy says, "Every woman in this country, I think, must be aware that it is most important that they check their medicine cabinet, that they do not take this drug, that they turn it in."

* Text: @

* Audio: @

August 7: President Kennedy awards Dr. Kelsey the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service.

* Kennedy's remarks (from www.jfklink.com): @

* 1957 executive order creating the award (from archives.gov): @

August 10: Life magazine's cover story carries this headline: "The Full Story of the Drug Thalidomide / The 5,000 Deformed Babies ... The Woman Who Saved Thousands ... The Moral Questions of Abortion and Euthenasia." The article includes the warning box at left and the story of an Arizona woman, Sherri Finkbine, who went to Sweden for an abortion rather than bear the child, which after the operation was found to be severely deformed. (Finkbine had the abortion on August 18).

* Text of Life magazine story: @

In October, Congress would pass, and Kennedy would sign, legislation that strengthened the rules for drug safety and required manufacturers to prove their drugs' effectiveness.

-----------

* "Dark Remedy: The Impact of Thalidomide and Its Revival as a Vital Medicine" (Trent D. Stephens and Rock Brynner, 2001): @

* "Protecting America's Health: The FDA, Business, and One Hundred Years of Regulation" (Philip J. Hilts, 2004): @

* "Reputation and Power: Organizational Image and Pharmaceutical Regulation at the FDA" (Daniel P. Carpenter, 2010): @

* "Thalidomide Crisis & Drug Regulation" (exhibit at Emory Libraries, Atlanta, Georgia): @

* "Thalidomide and Political Engagement in the United States and West Germany" (from Social History of Medicine, 2002): @

* "Congressman's Report" (from Arizona Rep. Morris K. Udall, August 17, 1962): @

Previous posts about thalidomide:

* William S. Merrell Co. submits drug application (September 8, 1960): @

* Letter in The Lancet raises concerns (December 16, 1961): @

---

Thursday, July 12, 1962: The Rolling Stones

Billed as "Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones," the band -- Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Dick Taylor, Mick Avory and Ian Stewart -- gives its first public performance, at the Marquee club in London. The set list, steeped in blues and R&B, includes "Dust My Broom" and "Got My Mojo Working."

* Excerpt from "Old Gods Almost Dead: The 40-Year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones" (Stephen Davis, 2001): @

* "Start It Up: The 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones' first gig" (The Guardian newspaper, July 2012): @

* Short biography from Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: @

* Band's official website: @

* " 'Dust My Broom': The Story Of A Song" (from Jas Obrecht Music Archive): @

* Anniversary of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards Dartford meeting (BBC, October 2011): @

---

July 1962: Martin Luther King's first letter from jail

On Tuesday, July 10, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy are jailed in Albany, Georgia, on charges stemming from their arrest in December 1961 during a civil rights protest. While being held, King writes "A Message From Jail," making several of the same arguments -- and, in some cases, using nearly the very same language -- that he would later put forth in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," written in April 1963. (King and Abernathy were released on July 12; King's letter was written as his regular column for the New York Amsterdam News, where it appeared July 21.)

"A Message From Jail"

This is the heart of civil disobedience. Some of our critics complain that our non-violent method fosters disrespect for the law and encourages "lawlessness." Nothing could be further from the truth. Civil disobedience precludes that the non-violent resistor in the face of unjust and/or immoral law cannot in all good conscience obey that law. His decision to break that law and willingly pay the penalty evidences the highest respect for the law.

"Letter from Birmingham Jail"

In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

* Text of "A Message From Jail" (from The King Center, Atlanta, Georgia): @

* Text (from "The Empire State of the South," Christopher C. Meyers, 208): @
* Text of "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford, California): @

Albany Movement

* From King Research and Education Institute: @

* From Civil Rights Digital Library: @

* From Civil Rights Movement Veterans website: @

* From The New Georgia Encyclopedia: @

* Albany Civil Rights Institute: @

* Interview with Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett (for "Eyes on the Prize" documentary): @
* Interview with Laurie Pritchett (from Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): @

---

Tuesday, July 10, 1962: Telstar

July 10, from United Press International:

CAPE CANAVERAL -- The United States successfully rocketed the world's first international communications satellite, Telstar, into orbit today in an effort to open a new era of global radio and "live" television.

The 170-pound moonlet began a wide-swinging journey around earth within 10 minutes after its launching at 4:35 a.m. EDT aboard a three-stage Delta rocket.

Circling earth every two hours and 20 minutes as a "switchboard in the sky," Telstar ... is considered one of the most significant advances in communications since the invention of the telephone 86 years ago.

July 11, from United Press International:

ANDOVER, Maine -- The dream of global television came closer to reality Tuesday night when an orbiting Telstar communications satellite unexpectedly beamed images from space into receivers in France and England.

The reception Tuesday night of pictures relayed by the Telstar to stations in Goonhilly, England, and Pleumeur-Boudou, France ... came as a surprise and a delight to scientists at "Space Hill" in Andover, Maine ...

Possibly millions of Americans listened to "The Star Spangled Banner" and saw the American flag -- framed against the 18-story communications dome at Andover -- on their television sets in the first TV transmission relayed from space.

The impluses, sent from Andover and amplified 10 billion times inside the instrument-packed ball circling the earth, appeared clear and vivid when they came back to earth.

Reception in France and England was an unexpected bonus. The French tracking station reported that the image was as clear as though it had been sent from 20 or 25 miles away. The sound also was clearly received.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story, which you are reading, was also transmitted 3,000 miles into space and back via the Telstar satellite.

The United Press International and Associated Press both sent dispatches aloft from Andover, Maine and bounced them off Telstar at the rate of more than 1,000 words per minute. This story was one of them.

As an indication of the speed of transmission, the above paragraph was sent on its journey more than 3,000 miles into space and 3,000 miles back in less time than it took you to read it.

* Entry from Britannica.com: @

* telstar50.org: @

* "1962: Satellite Transmission" (from AT&T): @

* Bell Labs Telstar 50th Anniversary Celebration (includes link to PDF of "Original 1962 Overview of the Telstar I Project"): @

* "Telstar Signals New Era" (St. Petersburg Times, July 11): @

* "Telstar Spins, Chatters" (Spokane Daily Chronicle, July 11): @

* "Telstar and the future" (New Scientist, July 19; scroll down for a second article, "Telstar sets some diplomatic problems"): @

* "Telephone a Star" (National Geographic, May 1962, PDF): @

* "Maine and the Space Age" (from Maine Memory Network): @

* Telstar covers (from National Postal Museum): @

Videos:

* A Day in History: Telstar Brings World Closer" (newsreel): @

* "TV from Space" (newsreel): @

* "Telstar!" (from Bell System): @

* "Kennedy on Telstar: Europe Sees News Conference" (newsreel): @

---

Monday, July 9, 1962: Andy Warhol's soup cans

The first one-man exhibition for artist Andy Warhol opens at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, consisting of 32 silk-screened portraits of Campbell's soup cans.

From the September 1962 issue of Artforum magazine -- what's said to be the first published review of the exhibition (by Henry T. Hopkins):

Andy Warhol, Ferus Gallery: To those of us who grew up during the cream-colored thirties with "Big-Little Books," "Comic Books," and a "Johnson and Smith Catalogue" as constant companions, when "good, hot soup" sustained us between digging caves in the vacant lot and having "clod" fights without fear of being tabbed as juvenile delinquents; when the Campbell Soup Kids romped gaily in four colors on the overleaf from the Post Script page in The Saturday Evening Post, this show has particular significance. Though, as many have said, it may make a neat, negative point about standardization it also has a positive point to make. To a tenderloin oriented society it is a nostalgic call for a return to nature. Warhol obviously doesn't want to give us much to cling to in the way of sweet handling, preferring instead the hard commercial surface of his philosophical cronies. But then house fetishes rarely compete with Rembrandt in esthetic significance. However, based on formal arrangements, intellectual and emotional response, one finds favorites. Mine is Onion.

Photos: The top photo, taken by Seymour Rosen, shows how the works were arranged at the 1962 show: like cans on a supermarket shelf. The bottom photo shows how they have been more typically displayed over the years, most recently at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where the set is part of the permanent collection.

* "Campbell's Soup Cans" (from Museum of Modern Art): @

* Warhol's 32 Soup Flavors" (from Smithsonian Libraries, Washington): @

* "The Origin of Andy Warhol's Soup Cans or the Synthesis of Nothingness" (from www.warholstars.org): @

* Abstract Expressionism, 1962 timeline (from www.warholstars.org): @

* www.warhol.org (Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh): @

* www.warhola.com (The Andy Warhol Family Album): @

* "Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol" (book by Tony Scherman and David Dalton, 2010): @

* "Andy Warhol and the Can That Sold the World" (book by Gary Indiana, 2010): @

* Announcement for exhibition opening: @

* Essays for 2002 show at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles: @

---

Monday, July 9, 1962: 'Blowin' in the Wind'

Bob Dylan records "Blowin' in the Wind" for Columbia Records in New York. The song would appear on his album "The Freewheeling Bob Dylan," released in May 1963. It borrows part of its melody from "No More Auction Block" (also known as "Many Thousand Gone"), a Negro spiritual dating back 100 years.

* Song entry from www.bobdylan.com: @

* Excerpt from "Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973" (Clinton Heylin, 2009): @

* Song as published in Broadside magazine #6, late May 1962 (PDF): @

* Dylan live performance (Montreal, July 2, 1962): @

* Listen to Paul Robeson sing "No More Auction Block": @

* Entry from BBC Radio's "Sold on Song": @

* More about the song's origins (from www.folkarchive.de): @

Earlier posts

* First album (March 19, 1962): @

* At Gerde's Folk City (September 26, 1961): @

* Arriving in New York (January 24, 1961): @

---

July 1962: Algerian independence

July 1: Residents of Algeria vote on this question: "Do you want Algeria to become an independent state, cooperating with France, according to the conditions defined by the declaration of March 19?" Nearly 6 million people vote; more than 99% of them vote "oui." (A similar April 8 referendum in France had been approved by nearly 91% of the nearly 20 million voters.)

July 3: French President Charles de Gaulle signs an agreement recognizing Algeria as an independent country.

July 5: Algeria's provisional government proclaims the country's independence, 132 years to the day of France's invasion of Algeria. (July 5 is still celebrated as the country's national holiday.)

Photo shows women in line to vote. (From Magnum Photos)

* "Independent Algeria" (from exhibition at musée de l’Armée, Paris): @

* "Algeria - What Now" (newsreel): @

* Official Algerian announcement of results (PDF): @

* "America Salutes Algerian Independence" (short documentary): @

* "Algeria: France's Undeclared War" (book by Martin Evans, 2011): @

* algerie.com: @
* Country Studies: Algeria (from The Library of Congress): @

* Earlier post on Paris massacre (October 17, 1961): @

---

Monday, July 2, 1962: Wal-Mart

Sam Walton opens his first Wal-Mart store in Rogers, Arkansas. Called "Wal-Mart Discount City," the store marks Walton's entry into a large-scale, high-volume retail business; he had previously operated several Ben Franklin five-and-dime stores.

* www.walmart50.com: @

* Entry from encyclopediaofarkansas.net: @

* Photo from opening day (from Rogers Historical Museum): @
* Wal-Mart entries from pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com: @
* Timeline (from www.walmartstores.com): @

* A visual timeline of chain's growth (from projects.flowingdata.com): @

* "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" (PBS, 2004): @

* "The Wal-Mart Effect" (book by Charles Fishman, 2006): @

---