January 2011

50 Years Ago

March 20, 1957 President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan of Great Britain meet in Bermuda. The purpose of the meeting is to patch up differences stemming from Britain’s seizure of the Suez Canal the previous year, which the U.S. opposed.

75 Years Ago

March 1, 1932 The son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh is kidnapped from their house near Hopewell, New Jersey. Despite the payment of a $70,000 ransom, on May 12 the boy will be found dead.

100 Years Ago

March 14, 1907 Under heavy public pressure, President Theodore Roosevelt issues an order barring Japanese laborers from entering the country.

150 Years Ago

On March 6, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered its decision in the case of Dred Scott v. John F. A. Sandford. Scott was a Missouri slave, and Sanford (whose last name was misspelled in court papers) was a New York businessman who had custody of some family property, including Scott. In 1846, Scott had sued for freedom on the grounds that he and his previous owner, an Army surgeon, had lived in the state of Illinois and the territory of Wisconsin for several years. Slavery was illegal in both places.

The case was decided in Scott’s favor in 1850, but two years later, Missouri’s supreme court reversed the decision. If the matter had rested there, it would have caused little controversy. After the suit’s filing, however, the Mexican War and its aftermath had brought slavery to the forefront of the national debate. Both sides wanted to turn Scott v. Sandford into a test of the federal government’s right to restrict slavery.

Even made with a smile, a physical threat by a future President of the United States against a past President just doesn’t happen every day. But I know it did once.

Richard Nixon was scheduled by the American Legion to speak at its Denver convention in early 1962. The Republican party of Colorado, of which I was then state chairman, had also asked him to speak at a GOP fundraiser. Eager to earn party credits, he readily agreed.

He did nicely at our lunch for about 50 Republican fat cats: He softened up a number of Goldwater conservatives and raised several thousand dollars for our party coffers. That evening his address to the Legionnaires met with enthusiasm even though he was no longer Vice President but just a New York lawyer torn by a pending decision: whether or not to run for governor of California against the popular incumbent, Edmund (“Pat”) Brown.

Wild About Harry

A list like this is bound to stir controversy among mountaineers. A climb on a given mountain may be significant because it’s a “first,” but it may not be as physically challenging as a second or third ascent of the same mountain by other routes, or in other seasons, or when it is accomplished alone, or without the use of bottled oxygen. But here are 10 strong contenders, and a few sure bets, for anybody’s “greatest” list:—M.I.

1 First Ascents of Mount McKinley, 1910, 1913

Although the Wrecking Crew is widely considered the most prominent group of pop/rock studio musicians to come out of their day, other cities and other music styles had their own important session players.

Detroit

In Motor City a disparate group of local session aces hired by the music impresario Berry Gordy became known as the Funk Brothers and, unbeknownst to the public, played virtually all the instruments on just about everything released by Motown Records. From Smokey Robinson’s “Shop Around” to the Supremes’ “Love Child” to the Temptations’ “My Girl,” the Funk Brothers provided the backing on hundreds of hits: James Jamerson and Bob Babbitt on bass; Johnny Griffith, Earl Van Dyke, and Joe Hunter on keyboards; Eddie Willis, Joe Messina, and Robert White on guitar; William (“Benny”) Benjamin, Richard “Pistol” Allen, and Uriel Jones on drums; and Jack Ashford and Eddie (“Bongo”) Brown on percussion.

New York

2007_1_51-album1

1. PET SOUNDS—BEACH BOYS (1966)

The first real “concept” album, Pet Sounds featured the Wrecking Crew and wunderkind producer Brian Wilson at their creative apex. Considered by Sir Paul McCartney to be the finest pop recording of the 1960s, it undeniably influenced the very competitive Beatles to create their conceptual masterpiece, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band .