Lyman Frank Baum

Today on Days to remember we celebrate how on May 15th 1856, Lyman Frank Baum, author of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” was born.

Baum was born in Chittenango, New York in 1856 into a devout Methodist family.

Baum started writing early in life, possibly prompted by his father buying him a cheap printing press. He had always been close to his younger brother Henry (Harry) Clay Baum who helped in the production of The Rose Lawn Home Journal. The brothers published several issues of the journal, which included advertisements; they may have sold issues.

In 1900, Baum and Denslow (with whom he shared the copyright) published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to much critical acclaim and financial success.

The book was the best-selling children’s book for two years after its initial publication. Baum went on to write thirteen more novels based on the places and people of the Land of Oz.

In 1905, Baum declared plans for an Oz amusement park. In an interview, he mentioned buying Pedloe Island off the coast of California to turn it into an Oz park.

However, there is no evidence that he purchased such an island, and no one has ever been able to find any island whose name even resembles Pedloe in that area.

Nevertheless, Baum stated to the press that he had discovered a Pedloe Island off the coast of California and that he had purchased it to be “the Marvelous Land of Oz,” intending it to be “a fairy paradise for children.”

However Baum took a liking to the infamous hotel at Coronado Beach.

Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum traveled to Coronado repeatedly between 1904 and 1910, where he usually resided at the Hotel Del Coronado for months at a time.

He wrote at least three books in the Oz series during that period (“Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz” 1908, “The Road to Oz” 1909, and “The Emerald City” 1910), and also is said to have designed the crown chandeliers in the famous Crown Room.

In a 1905 poem about Coronado, Baum wrote: “And every day her loveliness, shines pure, without a flaw; new charms entrance our every glance, and fill our souls with awe!”

I went to the Hotel Del Coronado in the beginning of 2000, to visit a friend to catch up on old times, but during my visit.

Did you know that Coronado is also nicknamed “the Emerald City?”

With its iconic red castle-like turrets and fairy tale setting, The Hotel del Coronado was Baum’s inspiration for the Emerald City.

The Hotel del Coronado’s grand Crown Room is home to four spectacular crown-shaped chandeliers designed by Baum, which visitors can still enjoy seeing today.

L. Frank Baum’s historic Coronado home (1101 Star Park Circle), is a quaint yellow house that he rented during his stays. This is where he wrote three books in the Oz series: “Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz,” “The Emerald City of Oz” and “The Road to Oz.”

If you happen to live in California, want more fascinating facts and interesting tidbits about Coronado and Baum’s time on the island? Book a historic guided walking tour from Coronado Touring.

The tour departs Thursdays and Saturdays from Glorietta Bay inn and travels through downtown Coronado stopping at fun sites along the way.

As we celebrate how on May 15th 1856, Lyman Frank Baum, author of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” was born today.

Written & Designed by JD Mitchell
jdmitchelldesigns@gmail.com

The Salvation Army

Today on Day’s to Remember, we celebrate how on March 10th 1880 The Salvation Army arrived in the United States from England.

So how did the Salvation Army come about, and who started it?

The Salvation Army was founded by William Booth, who embarked upon his ministerial career in 1852, desiring to win the lost multitudes of England to Christ. He walked the streets of London to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the poor, the homeless, the hungry, and the destitute.

Booth abandoned the conventional concept of a church and a pulpit, instead taking his message to the people. His fervor led to disagreement with church leaders in London, who preferred traditional methods.

As a result, he withdrew from the church and traveled throughout England, conducting evangelistic meetings. His wife, Catherine, could accurately be called a cofounder of The Salvation Army.

Thieves, prostitutes, gamblers, and drunkards were among Booth’s first converts to Christianity. To congregations who were desperately poor, he preached hope and salvation. His aim was to lead people to Christ and link them to a church for further spiritual guidance.

In 1867, Booth had only 10 full-time workers, but by 1874, the number had grown to 1,000 volunteers and 42 evangelists, all serving under the name “The Christian Mission.” Booth assumed the title of general superintendent, with his followers calling him “General.” Known as the “Hallelujah Army,” the converts spread out of the East End of London into neighboring areas and then to other cities.

Booth was reading a printer’s proof of the 1878 annual report when he noticed the statement “The Christian Mission is a volunteer army.” Crossing out the words “volunteers army,” he penned in “Salvation Army.” From those words came the basis of the foundation deed of The Salvation Army.

Today’s YouTube presentation brought to you user name, (Salvation Army North), gives you brief history of how the Salvation came about through history. As we celebrate how on March 10th 1880 The Salvation Army arrived in the United States from England.

The Salvation Army movement expanded rapidly to Canada, Australia, and France, Switzerland, India, South Africa, Iceland, and local neighborhood units. The Salvation Army is active in virtually every corner of the world.

General Booth’s death in 1912 was a great loss to The Salvation Army. However, he had laid a firm foundation’ even his death could not deter the ministry’s onward march. His eldest son, Bramwell Booth, succeeded him.

For 150 years, the Salvation Army has been helping people in need, and is recognized almost immediately around Christmas time ringing the bell at store fronts for donations, as we celebrate today.

How on March 10th 1880 The Salvation Army arrived in the United States from England.

Written & Designed by JD Mitchell
jdmitchelldesigns@gmail.com

The Brownie Box Camera

Today on Days to Remember we celebrate how on February 1st 1900, the Eastman Kodak Co, introduced the dollar Brownie Box Camera.

What is the Brownie Box Camera?
The Brownie is one of the most iconic cameras in history. a very basic cardboard box camera with a simple meniscus lens that took 2¼-inch square pictures on 117 roll film. With its simple controls and initial price of $1, it was intended to be a camera that anyone could afford and use.

Since I collect old cameras as a hobby I own one those infamous cameras’ called the Brownie Box Camera, but in writing today’s story today I never knew it was first introduced on February 1st 1900.

The camera was named after the brownies in popular Palmer Cox cartoons. Consumers responded, and over 150,000 Brownie cameras were shipped in the first year of production.

Before the camera was introduced to the public in the 1900s, Kodak introduced the Brownie Camera in 1888.

Did you know the first picture taken with the Brownie Camera was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827?

The image depicts the view from an upstairs window at Niépce’s estate, Le Gras, in the Burgundy region of France.

Today’s YouTube presentation brought to you by user name (Visual nostalgia at its best), demonstrates to you in this 1958 television commercial how the Brownie Camera worked for the consumer.

Believe or not the Brownie camera was so easy to use it was marketed that even child could operate it.

The company slogan was “You press the button, we do the rest,” which meant the camera could take at least 100 exposures per roll of film, and be developed at the Kodak Company and sent it back to the customer.

Besides the camera being cheap so was the film to use the camera, it retailed for about two dollars a roll.

Did you know the first Brownie Camera to shipped to the public was on February 8th seven days after it was introduced to the public on February 1st?

The Brownie camera allowed the capturing of birthdays and other family events. In just the first year, the Eastman Kodak Company sold over a quarter of a million Brownies, forever changing the future of photography.

As we remember how on February 1st 1900, the Eastman Kodak Co, introduced the dollar Brownie Box Camera.

Written & Designed by JD Mitchell
jdmitchelldesigns@gmail.com

Rockin Around the Christmas Tree

Today on “Days to Remember” I wanted to write about a Christmas tunes that we love and share during the holiday season called, “Rockin Around the Christmas Tree,” but who wrote this infamous tune?

The song was written by Johnny Marks, who was a very prolific Christmas songwriter. His other songs include “Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

First released in 1958, it didn’t dent the charts that year or the next year when it was released, but in 1960 after Brenda Lee scored a few hits, this song caught on and became a Christmas classic.

Lee was just 13 years old when she recorded this song in 1958. Known as “Little Miss Dynamite,” she stood 4’9″.

An instrumental version of the song appears as background music in the 1964 television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which exclusively featured music written by Marks.

It can be heard in the scene where Rudolph first arrives at the Reindeer Games and meets another reindeer named Fireball.

The song was also used in the 1990 film Home Alone during a scene when Kevin McCallister pretends that there is a holiday party taking place in his house, and discourages the burglars from robbing it.

Today’s YouTube video presentation brought to you by user name, Christmas Time TV, presents the song sung by little Miss Dynamite Brenda Lee when she just thirteen years old singing the song called, “Rockin Around the Christmas Tree.”

Who was Johnny Marks?

Johnny Marks was born in Mt. Vernon, New York on November 10, 1909. After graduation from Colgate University and Columbia University, Marks studied in Paris.

He served during World War II as a Captain in the 26th Special Service Company where he received a Bronze Star and 4 Battle Stars for his service.

In 1949, Marks formed St. Nicholas Music. His wealthy catalog includes stellar contemporary Christmas carols most notably “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. The song was based on a poem by the same name, written by Marks’ brother-in-law, Robert L. May.

Marks also served as the director of the Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) from 1957 through 1961.

Johnny Marks died September 3, 1985, but what a great talent he was that we still listening to his Christmas songs today!

Written & Designed by JD Mitchell
jdmitchelldesigns@gmail.com

The Song Called White Christmas

Today on “Days to Remember” I wanted to write about Christmas tunes that we love and share during the holiday season.

Do remember the song called White Christmas?

The song is usually sung by Bing Crosby during the holiday season, which most people remember, but who wrote the song?

This 8-line song that paints a picture of holiday nostalgia was written by Irving Berlin for the 1942 movie Holiday Inn, where Bing Crosby sings it from the perspective of a New Yorker stranded in sunny California during Christmas.

Crosby recorded a version of the song for release as a single with the Kim Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra on May 29, 1942, a few months before the movie hit theaters.

At the advice of Bing’s record producer Jack Kapp, this original first verse was excised as it made no sense outside of the context of the film.
Now starting with the familiar, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,” the song became a huge hit, going to #1 on the Billboard chart (measuring sales) in October, and staying in the top spot for 11 weeks, taking it through the first two weeks of 1943.

Today’s YouTube presentation brought to you by user name, Christmas 123100’s Channel brings to you Bing Crosby singing White Christmas.

When was the song written?

According to Mark Steyn’s A Song for the Season, Berlin began writing this on January 8, 1942. The songwriter was in a hurry that Monday morning and shouted at his musical secretary, Helmy Kresa: “Grab your pen and take down this song. It’s the best song I ever wrote. Hell, it’s the best song anybody ever wrote.”

Steyn notes that “White Christmas” owes much of its enduring popularity to World War II, specifically the attack on Pearl Harbor that led to US involvement, because the song adopted a significance beyond the reaches of Hollywood: “Had America entered the war in Europe in 1939, ‘White Christmas’ might have been just a hit-record from a so-so movie. Instead, 1942 was the American serviceman’s first Christmas away, in the Pacific, under glorious sunny skies that only made home seem even more distant.”

Christmas was a painful time for Irving Berlin and his second wife, Ellin Mackay, who found their infant son dead in his bassinet early Christmas morning in 1928.

Although he was Jewish, Irving grew up celebrating the holiday by sneaking off to his neighbor’s house to enjoy the festivities. His daughter, Mary Ellin, told Mark Steyn: “My father believed in the secular American Christmas. There’s a lot of controversy about that, about whether there should be, apart from the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, a general festive celebration that anyone can join in with.”

As we remember how the song made us feel when first heard it, may there be a white Christmas in your heart as you share the cheer of joy in your hearts with friends and family this holiday season.

Written & Designed by JD Mitchell
jdmitchelldesigns@gmail.com

Monty Python’s Flying Circus

Today on “Days to Remember” we celebrate how on December 5th 1974, the final episode of Monty Pythons Flying Circus aired on BBC TV.

The show always started there show by saying, “And Now for something completely different,” it mimic the American variety show called Saturday Night Live.

The brainy members of the Python troupe present sketches from the absurd to the obscure, and milk humor out of anything they come across. Just mention the “Dead Parrot” sketch, the “Ministry of Funny Walks” or “Spam,” as Python fans chiming in with the best lines.

Today’s YouTube presentation is the opening theme song to show called, “Monty Pythons Flying Circus,” brought to you by user name Chadner. There’s a small commerical in the beginning of the clip of Jay Leno, which has nothing to do with today’s segment.

Who invented the show called Monty Python Flying Circus?

The Flying Circus was conceived, written, and performed by its members Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.

A self-contained comedy team responsible for both writing and performing their work, the Pythons had creative control which allowed them to experiment with form and content, discarding rules of television comedy.

Their influence on British comedy has been apparent for years, while in North America, it has colored the work of cult performers from the early editions of Saturday Night Live through to more recent absurdist trends in television comedy. “Pythonesque” has entered the English lexicon as a result.

Why was it called Flying Circus?

The head of comedy at the BBC said that the title had to include the word “Circus”, because the people at the BBC had referred to the six cast members wandering around the BBC offices as a circus, so they added “Flying” to make it sound less like a real circus and more like something out of the first world war.

And in front of that, added “Monty Python” because it sounded like a really bad theatrical agent, adding serpentine snake part of the python creative solution.

What was the name of the theme song for the show?

The theme music is the opening portion of John Philip Sousa’s “Liberty Bell March”. Reportedly, one of the chief reasons was that it was in the public domain, meaning no royalties would have to be paid.

When did the show make its first public performance?

The group formed in 1969 to make what was expected to be a low-key late-night comedy show on the BBC. The members were two friends from Oxford (Michael Palin and Terry Jones), three Cambridge grads (John Cleese, Eric Idle, and Graham Chapman) and an American animator, Terry Gilliam. First broadcast on October 5th 1969.

After its five year run Monty Python Flying Circus ended their show on December 5th 1974, but when on to make several movies, “Life of Brian,” and “The Holy Grail,” to name a few.

Written & Designed by JD Mitchell
jdmitchelldesigns@gmail.com

Sports Illustrated

On August 16th the first issue of the magazine called Sports Illustrated was published today in the year 1954. It was claimed that 250,000 subscriptions had been sold before the first issue came off of the presses.

Sports Illustrated is an American sports media franchise owned by Time Inc.

There were two magazines named Sports Illustrated before the current magazine began in 1954. In 1936, Stuart Scheftel created Sports Illustrated with a target market for the sportsman.

He published the magazine from 1936-1938 on a monthly basis. The magazine was a life magazine size and focused on golf, tennis, and skiing with articles on the major sports.

He then sold the name to Dell Publications, which released Sports Illustrated in 1949 and this version lasted 6 issues before closing. Dell’s version focused on major sports (Baseball, Basketball, and Boxing) and competed on magazine racks against Sport and other monthly sports magazines.

It was then that Time patriarch Henry Luce began considering whether his company should attempt to fill that gap. At the time, many believed sports was beneath the attention of serious journalism and did not think sports news could fill a weekly magazine, especially during the winter.

A number of advisers to Luce, including Life magazine’s Ernest Havemann, tried to kill the idea, but Luce, who was not a sports fan, decided the time was right.

The goal of the new magazine was to be “not a sports magazine, but the sports magazine”. Many at Time-Life scoffed at Luce’s idea; in his Pulitzer Prize winning biography, Luce and His Empire, W. A. Swanberg wrote that the company’s intellectuals dubbed the proposed magazine “Muscle”, “Jockstrap”, and “Sweat Socks,” launched on August 16, 1954.

However sports illustrated had made history in 1996, when Tyra Banks posed alongside Valeria Mazza making her the first black model on a Sports Illustrated cover. A year later, Tyra Banks became the first black model to receive a solo cover.

Today’s YouTube video clip below entitled, “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue: Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum mark 50th anniversary of magazine,” shared by user name Jewish News One;

Sports Illustrated magazine created a swimsuit edition just to creatively fill space at a time of year with little sports news into a major marketing franchise that includes a special separate issue, a website, television specials, calendars, books and enormous amounts of advertising.

It began as a short photo spread of women in bathing suits and has become a fashion issue for beachwear worn by the world’s top models, that became famous models after being photographed by Sports Illustrated such famous models as Christy Brinkley, and Cheryl Tiegs.

We may not look as fantastic in bathing suit as some of these models did on the cover of Sports Illustrated, but as we dive into today’s story today, remember how on August 16th 1954, Sports Illustrated made a splash today in history!

Written & Designed by JD Mitchell

jdmitchelldesigns@gmail.com

The Gas Mask

Leonardo Da Vinci, is said to have originated the respirator concept when he suggested that a finely woven cloth be dipped in water to protect sailors from a toxic powder weapon he had created, but on July 2nd 1850, Benjamin Lane of Cambridge in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts received the first U.S. Patent Number US7476 A for self contained breathing apparatus called the gas mask.

The new useful instrument called, “Lanes Pneumatic Life Preserver,” as designed as a gas mask to improve better breathing through the apparatus thereby enabling a person to enter` buildings without being effected by toxic gases.

Today, there are two types of respirators: the air-purifying respirator and the air-supplying respirator.

Lewis P. Haslett got the first United States patent in 1849 for the air-purifying respirator. Called “Haslett’s Lung Protector,” the wearer had access to filtered air due to the two one-way clapper valves. One valve allowed inhalation of air through a filter made of moistened wool or other porous material and the other released exhaled air into the atmosphere.

For the rest of the 1800s, other inventors added to the work of Haslett and Stenhouse.

In 1871, John Tyndall came up with a fireman’s respirator. Samuel Barton made a more elaborate device around 1874 using rubber, metal and glass for the construction of his respirator and combining different layers of filtering elements.

George Neally designed a “smoke-excluding mask” in 1877. Bernhard Loeb and Louis Muntz invented respirators that were connected to a metal filter in 1891 and 1902, respectively.

Today’s YouTube video clip brought to you by user name Jack Kirchner, describing to you the series gas mask called the History of the M17 Series Field Protective Mask.

Why are there so many inventors for the gas mask?

When you file a patent it takes months, even years to actually get the patent that you applied for, so as new inventors design a better product for the consumer, the more history seems a little confusing of who was the first inventor to invent the gas mask.

However it was Benjamin Lane being accredited for inventing the air-supplying respirator in 1850. His respirator, rather than filtering the air entering it, carried a supply of compressed fresh air.

Contrary to some modern day opinion, there is no single inventor of the “gas mask”. In fact, there were patents for such devices as early as 1887. A first gas mask to be used by miners was introduced by Alexander von Humboldt already in 1799, when he worked as a mining engineer in Prussia.

Perhaps the most common misconception about gas mask history is that it began with a device invented by Garrett A. Morgan.

In fact, Morgan’s invention (patented in 1914, Nos. 1090936 and 1113675) was less like a modern gas mask than many others that proceeded after it.

In lieu of todays story, as you breathe in today’s information, remember without inventors inventing a smarter gadgets and designs for us to use, life as we know it might be hard to swallow, as we gasp for air for our latest invention to make our lives more convenient, as I end this story by saying, “Hurrah for the gas mask!”

Written & Designed by JD Mitchell

jdmitchelldesigns@gmail.com

Dean Martin

Playboy called him “the coolest man who ever lived.” Elvis Presley worshipped him, as we celebrate Dean Martin’s Birthday today.

Born Dino Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio, on June 17th 1917 today would have been in his 98th birthday.

Early in his career, Dean Martin was known as a gritty hip-hop star. He delivered bootleg liquor, served as a speakeasy croupier and blackjack dealer, worked in a steel mill and briefly ruled the ring as boxing phenomenon Kid Crochet. Winning his share of bouts earned him little apart from a broken nose, but Dino’s speakeasy experience put him in contact with club owners, resulting in his first singing gigs.

With a fixed nose and a boost from his pals in the nightclub underworld, he became Dean Martin, styling himself after the top male vocalist of the time,

Martin released his first single, “Which Way Did My Heart Go?” and was first paired with comic Jerry Lewis. The two shared a bill at the 500 Club in Atlantic City, but the night they combined their acts into a combo of manic comedy and debonair music saw the birth of a phenomenon. They were the hottest ticket around and parlayed their onstage success into a string of hit movies and television appearances.

During Martin and Lewis’ decade-long partnership, Dean had such hits as “Memories Are Made of This,” “That’s Amore,” “Powder Your Face With Sunshine,” and “You Belong to Me,” among others, all for the Capitol label. Yet when their partnership dissolved, showbiz pundits predicted Lewis’ star would continue to rise and Martin’s would fizzle.

The singer confounded the skeptics. As a solo act he was wowing crowds in Vegas, impressing critics and audiences in a series of dramatic film roles, scoring on TV with Dean Martin Show specials for NBC, and hitting the charts again with “Return to Me” and “Volare.”

Today’s YouTube video clip shared by user name, (DRESDEN Fanatic),is Dean Martin singing Volare.

Not soon after, Martin’s affiliation with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr. and the rest of the fabled Rat Pack supplanted his earlier rep. He fueled his image as a boozing playboy in onstage antics with his pals and ring-a-ding ensemble films like Ocean’s Eleven, yet Martin later claimed his cocktail-swilling persona was largely a pose.

Biographer Nick Tosches (Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams) described Martin as a person, “who does not give a f—.”

The term, in Dean Martin’s case, conveys not indifference but a refusal to be beaten down by the world and a determination to greet life with an easy smile, a graceful melody and an aura of unflappable cool.

If you’re not a Dean Martin fan but like some of his songs, in lieu of today’s story, I encourage to be cool as cucumber, like Dean Martin was in life.

Instead of wishing you were someone else, be proud of who you are. Because you’ll never realize who was looking at you, wishing they were you!

Written & Designed by JD Mitchell

jdmitchelldesigns@gmail.com

National Power Smile Day

Today is a day, for everyone, to share the power of the smile.

There are many people that do not realize how much power and magic is behind in a smile.

A smile can be as simple as a silent hello to those that you pass by.

A true smile also offers acceptance, encouragement and appreciation as well as helping to calm one’s anxieties, fear, nervousness and etc.

A smile lets someone know that you care.

When you smile at someone, you are telling them that they are valued and worth the smile that you just gave them. Smiles are morale boosters and confidence builders.

Research has proven that smiling really does increase attractiveness and likability between humans. Smiling creates a greater trust and increased interpersonal cooperation. Smiling at someone can help them to relax and relieve their stress while at the same time; it will make you feel good. Smiling (even if you do not feel like it) will lift your mood and can make you a happier person.

Do you remember the song called, “When You’re Smiling?”

“When You’re Smiling,” is a song by Larry Shay, Mark Fisher, and Joe Goodwin and made famous by Louis Armstrong, who recorded it at least three times, in 1929, 1932, and 1956. Duke Ellington also recorded it several times earlier in his career.

Today’s YouTube video clip is shared by user name Sara Ariff, in this lovely slide show presentation of “When You’re Smiling,” by leftover cuties with lyrics of the song.

Let’s not confuse National Power Smile Day, with World Smile Day, because World Smile Day is celebrated on October 2nd of this year.

As is well known by now throughout the world Harvey Ball, a commercial artist from Worcester, Massachusetts created the smiley face in 1963. That image went on to become the most recognizable symbol of good will and good cheer on the planet.

As the years passed Harvey Ball became concerned about the over-commercialization of his symbol, and how its original meaning and intent had become lost in the constant repetition of the marketplace. Out of that concern came his idea for World Smile Day. He thought that we, all of us, should devote one day each year to smiles and kind acts throughout the world.

The smiley face knows no politics, no geography and no religion. Harvey’s idea was that for at least one day each year, neither should we. He declared that the first Friday in October each year would henceforth be World Smile Day.

Ever since that first World Smile Day held in 1999, it has continued every year in Smiley’s hometown of Worcester, MA and around the world.

In lieu of today’s story, perhaps there’s more to this than can meet the eye, and maybe I’m flooding you with too much information for a Monday, but remember this, “Do not let the world change your smile. Let your smile, change the world!”

Written & Designed by JD Mitchell

jdmitchelldesigns@gmail.com