Seismic Significance

 

On this day in 1908, a giant fireball, most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet flattened about eighty million trees near the Stony Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate, Russia, in one of the most sparsely populated areas on Earth. It is said to be the largest impact event in recorded history. Tremors were recorded at a German seismic station more than 3,000 miles away. Because of the remoteness of the area, the first scientific expedition did not occur until 1927. They found no evidence of a meteorite impact and theories from scientists and artists abound to this day. Over one hundred years later, no trees have returned in the direct spot of the blast.

Taking Mom Out Of The Kitchen

Swedish immigrant, Carl A. Swanson (1879–1949) was working in a grocery store in Omaha when he came into contact with John O. Jerpe, owner of a small commission company. Their partnership helped local farmers sell their products to distributors and offer a commission to the farmers. Swanson would eventually buy the company from Jerpe and rename it, C. A. Swanson and Sons. After Swanson's death, the sons took control of the business, and by 1950, the brothers began manufacturing frozen oven-ready chicken and turkey pot pies in aluminum trays that could be heated in a conventional oven. Swanson executive Gerry Thomas visited a company that specialized in food for airlines. His suggestion was to create an aluminum tray with three compartments: one for frozen turkey slices and the other two for side dishes. In the early days, the peas could get slightly burned and shriveled. The beef was more in the jerky category. All with a dash of metal flavor. With increasing numbers of televisions sold, Swanson decided to call their meals "TV Dinners," first sold in 1953. Others followed the trend, most notably Banquet and Morton. One year later Swanson sold over 10,000,000 frozen dinners, which in turn led to a boom in the manufacture of folding "TV Trays," eliminating the annoying thigh burns. 

The Pilot Ejected

 

On this day in 1964, Gene Roddenberry's original draft of the first Star Trek pilot, "The Cage," was released. NBC reportedly called it "too cerebral", "too intellectual", and "slow with not enough action." Apparently having some faith in the concept, the network commissioned a second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before." The series struggled for ratings its entire run, not becoming iconic until the movie franchise was well underway. The USS Enterprise was under the command of Captain Christopher Pike, played by noted film actor, Jeffrey Hunter, seated far left above. Illogically, Leonard Nimoy plays a rather emotional Spock but the first officer was played by Majel Barrett, known as Number One. Much of the footage from "The Cage" was later incorporated into season one's two-parter episode, "The Menagerie" (1966). Hunter bowed out of any future episodes to concentrate on his movie career, which ended tragically in 1969 by a brain hemorrhage and subsequent fall down a three-stair set of steps at his home, fracturing his skull. The same year the Star Trek series was canceled.

A Noted Television Composer

 

A graduate of Juilliard School of Music, Herschel Burke Gilbert (1918-2003) was an orchestrator, musical supervisor, and composer of film and television scores and themes. It is estimated his compositions had been used in at least three thousand individual episodes of various television series. Many of these were produced by Four Star Television when Gilbert was the Music Director. Besides Burker's Law, the most notable is, The Rifleman, the first television series to have original music themes composed specifically for certain characters, moods, or scenes. Prior, the scores were chosen from CBS's music library. Gilbert wrote music cues for countless series as well, Gunsmoke, The Adventures of Superman, and Leave It to Beaver come to mind. His film work was just as diverse, the most popular being the classic, It's a Wonderful Life.

Constant Vigilance

 

Railroad interlocking towers were once a vital component of a railroad's network. These buildings centralized a group of signals along a very busy stretch of mainline such as a junction, crossover, or diamond into one location. An operator would manually set the signal or signals to the appropriate reading, either to proceed, stop, or caution, etc. It was a demanding job requiring constant vigilance. As the Twentieth Century improved technologies it has allowed for dispatching and signal control to be centralized and not so localized for a given section of railroad track. Today's Centralized Traffic Control system has ceased any future romanticized stories from those operators. Pictured is a 1953 Allan Kass illustration for Bower Roller Bearings.

Not The Arthur Toy Company

 

Buddy L is an American toy brand and company founded in 1920 by Fred Lundahl as the Buddy L Toy Company in East Moline, Illinois. The all-steel products were pressed into toy cars, dump trucks, delivery vans, fire engines, construction equipment, and trains. The Lundahl's first and only child, Arthur, was nicknamed "Buddy L" to differentiate him from another neighborhood boy named Buddy. I imagine Arthur was the envy of the neighborhood as his doting father constructed numerous toy vehicles for him, some of which were large enough to sit upon and propel with his feet. Lundahl persuaded Marshall Field and FAO Schwarz to carry his line, which did very well until the Depression. He then sold the company and it has bounced around between different owners ever since, distancing itself from its original realism with each venture. 

Note: The 1960 steel Buddy L pickup truck/camper pictured is identical to one I had. The active front spring suspension was mighty impressive. The hard plastic camper could be removed if one chose to do so. Eventually, I did so. 

A Blass From The Past

 

Bill Blass (William Ralph Blass 1922-2002) was an American fashion designer, the recipient of many fashion awards, including seven Coty Awards and the Fashion Institute of Technology's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999. His school books were filled with sketches of Hollywood-inspired fashions instead of notes. At fifteen, he began sewing and selling evening gowns for $25 each to a New York manufacturer. Blass was the first male to win Mademoiselle's Design for Living award. At Seventeen! He enlisted in the Army in 1943 and was assigned to the 603rd Camouflage Battalion. Its mission was to deceive the German Army into believing the Allies were positioned in fake locations, by using dummy tanks, for example. He served in this unit at several major operations including the Battle of the Bulge. Rarely photographed without a cigarette, Blass was diagnosed in 2000 with oral/tongue cancer which spread to throat cancer.

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

 

Spying on her teacher, played by Patricia Crowley, one of her young students, a pathological liar played by Gina Gillespie, accuses her of inappropriate behavior with Kimble. Her myopic mom finds it difficult to accept the truth. The townsfolk want Crowley out of town. Kimble's pediatric brat counseling comes into play, saving him from a lynching. 

The Witch, 1963

Madeleine Sherwood, Arch Johnson, and Crahan Denton guest star

Logging Her First Atlantic Crossing

 

On this day in 1928, American aviator Amelia Earhart became the 1st woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by aircraft. After Charles Lindbergh's May 20 solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Amy Guest (1873–1959) expressed interest in being the first woman to fly (or be flown) across the Atlantic Ocean. She deemed it too perilous so the project coordinators sought out Earhart, who had no training for instrument flying, so she accompanied co-pilots, Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon on the flight. Her duty was to log the entire flight. She became an overnight celebrity, partially due to her slim physique and facial resemblance to Lindbergh. On May 20, 1932, Earhart did fly solo across the Atlantic using a considerably shorter route than Lindbergh's 3,600 miles plus, landing after approximately 2,000 miles near Londonderry, Northern Ireland. 

Six Grandfathers. Four Presidents.

 

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (Lakota translation: Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills in Keystone, South Dakota. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum created the sculpture's design and oversaw the project's execution from 1927 to 1941 with the help of his son, Lincoln Borglum. South Dakota historian, Doane Robinson, is credited with conceiving the idea who wished to feature American West heroes. Borglum thought it should have broader appeal and chose 60-foot heads of four presidents to represent the nation's birth, growth, development and preservation, respectively. Each president was originally to be depicted from head to waist, but lack of funding forced construction to end on the last day of October 1941.

The Stratojet Sunset

 

After being returned to flyable condition, B-47E Stratojet serial number 52-166, made the very last flight of the type on this day in 1986. It was flown by Major General John D. Moore and Lieutenant Colonel Dale E. Wolfe, U.S. Air Force, from the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in Southern California to Castle Air Force Base and placed on static display. The Boeing developed B-47 was built by the Douglas Aircraft Company at Air Force Plant No. 3, Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1952. 52-166 had not been flown in twenty years, having sat in the Mojave Desert serving as a radar target. Because 52-166 had not been through a complete overhaul prior to the ferry flight, it was decided to leave the landing gear extended in case an emergency landing might be needed.

Coupe de Trunk

 

The Ford Ranchero is a coupe utility that was produced between 1957 and 1979. Ranchero was adapted from a two-door station wagon platform that integrated the cab and cargo bed into the body. A total of 508,355 units were produced during the model's production run. It was variously derived from full-sized, compact, and intermediate automobiles sold by Ford for the North American market. The original Ranchero sold so well General Motors introduced the Chevrolet El Camino two years later as competition.

Note: The "station" wagon refers specifically to train stations, where people and their luggage were shuttled to and from train depots. The very first vehicles recognized as being station wagons were largely custom wooden-bodied variants of Model Ts which were known as "depot hacks." "Hack" referred to "hackney", a horse-drawn taxi. There are more than a half-dozen different names used worldwide instead of "station wagon."

A Short Prolific Career

 

Richard Amsel (1947-1985) was an American illustrator and graphic designer. His brief career was prolific, including movie posters, album covers, and magazine covers. His portrait of comedian Lily Tomlin for the cover of Time is now part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Institution. Amsel's illustrations were sometimes created in only two or three days because of stringent deadlines. His thirteen-year association with TV Guide showcased perhaps his most visible work. His strong, flowing lines, design of negative space, and accurate representation of a subject was a trademark. That, and his logo-styled name on his work.

This is Jim Rockford

 

Jim, it's Maria over at the laundromat. There's a yellow dress in with your things --- is that a mistake, or a special handling, or what?

Jim's answering machine: 2 Into 5.56 Won't Go, 1975 
Jesse Welles guest stars

Pennsylvania Not So Special

 

On this day in 1905 near Elida, Ohio, Pennsylvania Railroad E-2 Class 4-4-2 Atlantic 7002 reportedly took the Pennsylvania Special to a speed of 127.1 mph near Elida but this speed was based solely on two passing times recorded by separate observers at two different points 3 miles apart, and it is difficult to obtain even a general indication of a train's speed from signal box registers. 7002 is not officially the fastest steam locomotive due to the fact that her speed wasn't definitively recorded. 7002 also did not have a dynamometer car in her consist so the exact speed is unknown. The original 7002 locomotive was scrapped by the railroad in the Thirties and a close representative, the last E7 class locomotive, was given the 7002 number board and resides at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania outside of Strasburg, Pennsylvania. 

A Midwest Favorite: Air Conditioning

 

Willis Carrier (1876-1950) was an American engineer, best known for inventing modern air conditioning in 1902. In 1915, Carrier and six other engineers pooled over $32,000 to form the Carrier Engineering Corporation. In 1920, they purchased their first factory in Newark, New Jersey. The corporation bearing his name marketed its air conditioner to the residential market in the 1950s. Carrier merged with Affiliated Gas Equipment, Inc. in 1955. Carrier Corporation was acquired by United Technologies Corporation (UTC) in July 1979. At the turn of the 21st Century, Carrier was the world's largest manufacturer of air-conditioning, heating, and refrigeration equipment. In 2020, United Technologies announced that it would spin off UTC Climate, Controls & Security as an independent company known as Carrier Global Corporation.

The Memphis Belle

 

On this day in 1943, after completing twenty-five combat missions over Western Europe from its base at RAF Bassingbourne, Cambridgeshire, England, Memphis Belle, a U.S. Army Air Forces Boeing B-17F-10-BO Flying Fortress, was flown home by Captain Robert K. Morgan and Captain James A. Verinis. Memphis Belle was only the second B-17 to survive twenty-five missions and was subsequently withdrawn from combat and sent back to the United States for a publicity tour. It is one of only three B-17F models remaining in existence. After a complete restoration in 2018, the plane was put on permanent display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

Note: The B-17’s name was a reference to Captain Morgan’s girlfriend, Miss Margaret Polk, who lived in Memphis, Tennessee. The artwork painted on the airplane’s nose was a “Petty Girl” based on the work of pin-up artist George Petty of Esquire magazine. 

Reel Character Series

George Mathews (1911-84) was the burly tough guy of stage and film from the 1940s until retirement in 1972. Typically cast as a ruthless heavy in Western or crime films, he could also be a comic thug with more brawn than brains. He was a mainstay on television from the 1950s through the 1960s. When not roughing somebody up, he had single appearances on The Phil Silvers Show, and The Honeymooners situation comedies. Born in Manhatten, educated in Brooklyn, he tapped into "the accent" when needed.

The Cantankerous Housekeeper

Nora Marlowe was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1915. The hefty American character actress would often be cast as a maid, a nurse, or in a 19th-century setting. She appeared uncredited in a few notable films such as the gun-toting housekeeper in North by Northwest, I'll Cry Tomorrow and The Thomas Crown Affair. But it is her numerous television credits that are unfathomable, whether in a short scene or recurring roles like Law of the Plainsman, The Governor & J.J. and perhaps most famously as Flossie Brimmer, the boarding house owner on The Waltons from 1973 until her death in 1977. That same year, she played an uncompromising maid, Viola, on The Rockford Files (above). She would rearrange items in his trailer [logically] which he could never find. She became fed up with Rockford's messes after thugs repeatedly "rearranged" the trailer's interior. Jim was not all that disappointed when she gave him notice.

The Gem of Modern Industry

 

Catalin is a brand name for a thermosetting polymer developed and trademarked in 1927 by the American Catalin Corporation of New York City after the company acquired the patents for Bakelite. "The Gem of Modern Industry" according to period advertising, Catalin took things a step beyond Bakelite, making appealing plastics by adding color to a liquid resin that was cast in lead forms and allowed to slowly cool then polished to a fine sheen. This fact made Catalin more popular than other types of Bakelite for consumer products. Whereas Bakelite was used for items like insulators for electrical systems, black rotary dial telephones or handles on Deco-era toasters, Catalin was used for manufacturing colorful jewelry, clocks and radios that were labor-intensive processes cured with heat, then polished by hand into Art Deco designs. Like Bakelite, Catalin gives off a distinctive chemical odor when heated. Due to oxidation, older Catalin items darken in color and white discolors to yellow. This caused interesting effects in radio cabinets. Catalin items are widely collected today.

Note: The grips on actor John Wayne's iconic six-shooter, seen in every western from 1966 to 1969, were made of Catalin, not ivory, as often thought.

For Urban Congestion Sufferers

 

The Nebula concept by Oneobject provides freedom, speed, and agility. The Hong Kong-based design studio aims to revolutionize the urban transport scene that has become too cluttered for any larger vehicle. Having over a decade of experience in transportation, Oneobject has created Alpha and Beta rides, an electric motorbike for mid or long distances and a folding electric scooter for last-mile travel or short commutes. They both use hard and soft materials like polypropylene for the outer shell. The 3D-knitted fabric is waterproof, dirt-proof, and durable. Both rides offer keyless access via fingerprint authentication. 

Read more at Nebula.

Coast to Coast...Alaska to Mexico

 

Al and Bob Pelton of San Francisco, working as an appliance salesman and drug store clerk, respectively, had experienced potato-based doughnuts in Germany and they tried a number of things before creating a dry potato mix that worked and made it possible to franchise the concept. They coined the word "Spudnut" and went into business in 1940 in Salt Lake City. By 1946, the company began establishing a nationwide chain of Spudnut Shops. Over 300  sprung up across the USA and were advertised widely with the slogan "Coast to coast...Alaska to Mexico." Their cartoon character "Mr. Spudnut" frequently appeared in advertisements, coffee mugs, and even in parades. When the brothers retired and sold their company in 1968, as is often the case with multiple company buyouts, things went downhill from there. The final owner, Dakota Bake N Serve, sold all of their stock to a promoter in exchange for tax-free bond notes that proved worthless. When the promoter was convicted on several charges of fraud and conspiracy in 1979, it was the end of the Spudnuts chain. Spudnuts have not disappeared completely though the original recipe no longer exists. Quality can vary depending on location. 

A Noted Television Theme

 

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television. The series follows two secret agents working for an international counterespionage agency called the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. The first series to capitalize on the 007 gadget craze made stars of Robert Vaughn, the singular initial focus, and David McCallum, as a Russian agent. McCallum became so popular he was added as an UNCLE agent and the heartthrob for many teenage girls. Jerry Goldsmith wrote the theme, starting off with his trademark snare drums then a syncopated rhythm under a trumpet solo. By the end of the four-season series, the theme lost its intrigued with a trendy jazz arrangement. Here is the "clean" 1964 version.