To Absent Friends - McCullough, Wills, Lansbury

The Grandstander has fallen way behind in what has been transpiring in the Departure Lounge of late, so let me take this opportunity to catch up....

David McCullough (1933-2022)

I first became aware of historian David McCullough when he served as the narrator for Ken Burns' epic PBS documentary, "The Civil War."   I then read several of his books over the years, including his terrific first book, The Johnstown Flood. McCullough made reading and learning history both enlightening and entertaining.

Born in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh and educated at Shady Side Academy, McCullough was honored by his home town in 2012 when the 16th Street Bridge was renamed in his honor.  He is also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush in 2006.

Maury Wills (1932-2022)

If I were to make a list of the most transformative baseball players in my life as a baseball fan, Maury Wills would certainly be in the Top Ten, and probably in the Top Five of such a list.  A rookie with the Dodgers in 1959, Wills alerted the baseball world in 1960 of what was to come when he led the National League in stolen bases with 50.  Two years later he stole 104 bases, coming the first to ever crack the 100 mark and breaking a record held by Ty Cobb for 47 years.  Just like that, the stolen base once again became a key weapon in baseball, and it was Wills who paved the way and begat future players such as Rickey Henderson, Willie Magee, Vince Coleman, and, yes, Omar Moreno.  Wills was named National League MVP in 1962.

Following the 1966 season, Pirates GM Joe L. Brown shocked everyone by pulling of a major trade that brought Wills to the Pirates.

The acquisition of Wills was to be the final piece that would put the Pirates, pennant contenders in 1965 and -66, over the top.  It didn't quite work out that way, but Wills did his part.  In two seasons with the Bucs Wills hit .290 and stole 81 bases.

I remember that it was always thought that Wills had what it took to become a successful major league manager, but that didn't work out either.  He spent parts of two seasons as skipper if the Seattle Mariners in the late Eighties, and was fired after a tenure marked by gaffes and blunders on his part.  It also became known at the time that Wills was also battling substance abuse demons.

Wills never came close to election the the Hall of Fame, but a case for his inclusion there could be made.  There a certainly lesser players than he with plaques on the wall in Cooperstown.

Angela Lansbury (1925-2022)

When Angela Lansbury died this week a few days short of her 97th birthday, she left behind a memorable career on stage, in the movies, and on television.  While many if not most people will think of her as Jessica Fletcher in the CBS TV series "Murder, She Wrote", I think of her as the scheming, traitorous, evil, and possibly incestuous, Eleanor Shaw Iselin in the terrific 1962 movie, "The Manchurian Candidate".

She also made a huge splash in 1966 when she opened on Broadway in 1966 as the lead in the smash hit, "Mame".  In fact, were it not for the  long run on "Murder, She Wrote", her role as Auntie Mame in that musical would no doubt have been the lead item in her obituaries.

I read a cute anecdote about her just today.   When "Murder, She Wrote" was about to premier, Lansbury made the rounds with TV critics to promote the show.  One critic asked what other plans she had, and she told him that she had been approached about starring in soon to be developed musical stage version of the movie "Sunset Boulevard."  The critic, thinking of the demands involved in doing a Broadway show and weekly TV series, asked if she has signed the standard five year contract with CBS.  Lansbury got a concerned look on her face and asked "You don't really think that this show will last five years, do you?"  It ran for twelve seasons.

RIP David McCullough, Maury Wills, and Angela Lansbury

Book Review - "The Wright Brothers"

I just finished this newest book by noted historian David McCullough.  It is a thoroughly researched story of Wilbur and Orville Wright, who, as we all know, invented and flew the first heavier-than-air, motorized aircraft at Kitty Hawk, NC back in 1903.

By all accounts, the Wrights were wonderful fellows, honest, hard-working, smart, the true embodiment of the "can do" spirit of which all Americans pride themselves.  McCullough makes no secret of his admiration of them.  

I have to be honest when I tell you that I found a portion of this book hard going.  Especially the early parts when McCullough dwells on the scientific and mechanical parts of the story when the Wrights were actually coming up with the design elements of their flying machine.  I suspect that true airplane buffs - yeah, I am talking to you, Tim Baker - and those of an engineering bent will eat this stuff up, but it wasn't for me.

To me, the book really picked up after Wilbur and Orville got their machine off the ground, and then had to go out and sell it to the public.  Oh, the general public loved it, but the US Government was skeptical at first, and the Wrights actually had to go to Europe, France in particular, to actually sell the idea of the practical applications of their Wright Flyer.  That is when the story really got good for me.

What I learned, and what I should have known, was how much the Wrights actually flew their planes.  I knew that, yeah, they invented it, but I never realized that they flew the things all the time in their efforts to sell the idea to the world.  Makes sense when you think of it because, really, who else was there to fly it?

It's a great story and a good book about two authentic geniuses who really did change history.

Catching Up on My Reading

In recent weeks, I have read some old books.  

"The Johnstown Flood" by David McCullough (1968).  This was McCullough's first book and it won him justifiable acclaim.  Now, being a native of Western Pennsylvania, I always knew that there was a famous "Johnstown flood", but I couldn't have told you for sure when it happened (1889) or why and how it happened, but this book sure filled in those gaps.  Living in an age where news is instantaneous (remember how we all actually watched the second plane crash into the World Trade Center?), I was fascinated by the fact that news was NOT instantaneous in 1889, not that I didn't already know that, of course.  For example, from the time the damn gave way, it actually took about 45 minutes for the wall of water to actually reach Johnstown itself.  Plus, with the water taking out many telegraph lines, it was difficult to communicate the complete nature of the disaster.  In Pittsburgh, people were aware that something bad had happened, but they didn't know exactly what it was.  That said, once the news people did arrive, the word did get out relatively quickly, and what happened afterward, in terms of rescue and relief efforts, as well as trying to pin the blame on someone for the disaster, makes for terrific reading.  McCullough's research and writing equals a great book.

"Close-Up on Sunset Boulevard" by Sam Staggs (2002).  The subtitle on this book also tells a lot of what it was about: "Billy Wilder, Norma Desmond, and the Dark Hollywood Dream".  As you can no doubt guess, the book is all about everything surrounding the making of and the history of the classic 1950 Billy Wilder movie, "Sunset Boulevard".  If you love that movie, you really should read this book.  Lots of great inside Hollywood stuff about Gloria  Swanson, Bill Holden, Billy Wilder, and others associated with the movie.  It also gives a lot of details about the development and production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.  In the end, though, the book went on a little too long, and author Staggs slipped into a lot of "film buff" pretentiousness.  He also seems to have an axe to grind with Billy Wilder, and that gets a little tiring as well.  Still, a worthwhile read.

"The Devil and the White City" by Erik Larson (2003).  This is the story of the staging of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and it follows the parallel story of a serial killer that was operating in Chicago at the same time.  It also tells the story of the City of Pittsburgh's big contribution to that World's Fair - the first Ferris Wheel. 

All of these books make for good reading.