Byte Sized Biographies…

Benedict Arnold is the ultimate American traitor, his life was actually much more complicated

The eternal Free Bird, Ronnie Van Zant Ronnie Van Zant, In Concert Ronald Wayne Van Zant was born on January 15, 1948.  His father Lacey, was a long haul trucker and his mother Marion, nicknamed “Sister”, was a part time doughnut shop employee and the fundamental caregiver of the family’s six children.  Even as a young person, Ronnie had ambitions to escape the lower middle class enclave he grew up in which was literally known as “Shantytown.” Lynyrd Skynyrd, 1973. Ronnie Van Zant is second from the right. Ed King is to his right, Gary Rossington to his left Typically, warmup bands for the Who were booed off the stage and even pelted with debris.  But, limited to a 30 minute set, Lynyrd Skynyrd won the crowd over and even prompted demands for their own encore.  Watching this performance, the Who entourage and their manager Peter Rudge were impressed.  Nothing of this nature had ever happened before and Rudge, who managed both the Who and The Rolling Stones, took note. Hell House Kooper was immediately impressed by the band’s preparation and focus, all business once they entered the recording studio.  This came from years of rehearsals at the band practice space at a location dubbed “Hell House.”  This shack, in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Jacksonville was an un-air conditioned, uninsulated dwelling that made for extremely unpleasant conditions, especially during the humid, 90 plus degree days of summer.  The location, on a 90 acre plot of isolated property, was an alternative to suburban spaces that usually were subject to local resident complaints and police interruption.  12 hour days at Hell House made the relative luxury of a professional recording studio a welcome alternative. Poster for typical Skynyrd stadium show, 1974.

The eternal Free Bird, Ronnie Van Zant Ronald Wayne Van Zant was born on January 15, 1948.  His father Lacey, was a long haul trucker and his mother Marion, nicknamed “Sister”, was a part time doughnut shop employee and the fundamental caregiver of the family’s six children.  Even as a young person, Ronnie had ambitions to escape the lower middle class enclave he grew up in which was literally known as “Shantytown.” Typically, warmup bands … Continue reading RONNIE VAN ZANT (VOLUME 3, EPISODE 2) PART ONE →

Ronnie Van Zant, the eternal Free Bird Ed King, left. Heading into the recording studio, Skynyrd added two important elements to the band.  Ed King met Skynyrd when they were the warmup band for The Strawberry Alarm Clock.  King had written this group’s top ten one hit wonder “Incense and Peppermint,” and jumped at the chance to be the third guitar in Skynyrd’s unique three lead guitar makeup. Skynyrd, 1977, Steve Gaines is second from right, Artimus Pyle is right behind him in the second row. Ed King would eventually be replaced by the brother of backup singer Cassie Gaines.  Steve Gaines was struggling to make a living with obscure Midwestern bands when Ronnie finally agreed to let him play a few songs in a mid 1976 concert appearance.  Gaines was impressive and fit in neatly with the three guitar concept and formally joined Skynyrd in time for their live album, “One More From the road,” recorded live at Atlanta’s Fox theater in July of 1976.  Uncharacteristically, he was not a heavy drinker or drug abuser Artimus Pyle Bob Burns had been replaced by a 6’ 2”, 200 pound ex-marine named Artimus Pyle, who provided even more personality to the lineup.  Van Zant once commented, “We keep him in a cage and feed him raw meat and only let him out when it is time to play.” Ronnie Van Zant current grave marker. Unfortunately, even in death, Ronnie Van Zant has been subjected to chaos and turbulence.  On June 29th, 2000, at the Jacksonville Memory Gardens cemetery, vandals broke into the marble monuments containing the remains of Van Zant and Steve Gaines.  Although this act was initially described as a prank to confirm the urban legend that Van Zant was buried in a Neil Young t-shirt, it was actually a depraved and destructive endeavor that left Van Zant’s apparently unopended coffin completely outside of its resting place.  Additionally the plastic bag containing Steve Gaines’ cremated remains was punctured with about one per cent of its contents removed.  No arrests were ever made following the incident and Van Zant was reburied in what was initially a secret location.  This was eventually revealed to be next to his parents’ graves at the Riverside Memorial Park in Jacksonville, today denoted by a small marker.  However, this time, family and cemetery officials took extreme precautions, entombing Ronnie in a deep, concrete vault that would be immovable without an excavator that could lift several tons.  Besides a Neil Young t-shirt, it is also rumored that Ronnie Van Zant was buried with his favorite cane fishing pole and snakeskin hat, although it is ironic that this ultimate free bird will also spend eternity encased in cement.

Ronnie Van Zant, the eternal Free Bird Heading into the recording studio, Skynyrd added two important elements to the band.  Ed King met Skynyrd when they were the warmup band for The Strawberry Alarm Clock.  King had written this group’s top ten one hit wonder “Incense and Peppermint,” and jumped at the chance to be the third guitar in Skynyrd’s unique three lead guitar makeup. Ed King would eventually be replaced by the brother of … Continue reading RONNIE VAN ZANT (VOLUME 3, EPISODE 2) PART TWO →

W. C. Fields, Hollywood Legend WC Fields, Passport Photo, 1915 W. C. Fields was born William Claude Dukenfield on January 29, 1880 in Darby, Pennsylvania.  His parents, James and Kate, were English immigrants of modest means, his mother a homemaker and his father appropriately enough at the time of his son’s birth, an innkeeper and bartender. Fields, in his Broadway years Fields scraped together some money, relocated and made the rounds of the numerous NY agents and bookers that funneled entertainers to the hundreds of venues around the city, but without any references or solid experience, this venture was doomed from the outset.  Fields quickly ran out of cash and had no choice but to return home, the only tangible result of his brief move a lifelong loathing of Philadelphia, which, after his exposure to the bustling sophistication of Manhattan, struck him as backward and dull. Fields in "The Old Fashioned Way," with Baby LeRoy WC Fields would whip through several solid performances during the remainder of 1933 and 1934: “Six of a Kind,“ “You’re Telling Me,“ and “The Old Fashioned Way.” Stuck in the middle of these efforts were Fields’ least favorite role as “Humpty-Dumpty” in “Alice in Wonderland, and the dreadful “Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch,” which finally proved to the Paramount brass that casting Fields as a secondary character was a mistake. Recent photo of Fields' DeMille Drive home, Los Feliz section of Los Angeles

W. C. Fields, Hollywood Legend W. C. Fields was born William Claude Dukenfield on January 29, 1880 in Darby, Pennsylvania.  His parents, James and Kate, were English immigrants of modest means, his mother a homemaker and his father appropriately enough at the time of his son’s birth, an innkeeper and bartender. Fields scraped together some money, relocated and made the rounds of the numerous NY agents and bookers that funneled entertainers to the hundreds of … Continue reading WC FIELDS (VOLUME 3, EPISODE ONE) PART ONE →

W. C. Fields, Hollywood Legend Fields with Mae West in My Little Chickadee To much excitement, it was announced that Fields would next team up with Mae West.  One of America’s biggest stars in the mid-thirties, West, now aged 43, had also recently been cut loose by Paramount after her popularity waned.  Months would pass before a script and director would be selected, the result of Fields’ cantankerous and territorial approach to his participation.  Surprisingly, the two actors were able to co-exist and what was eventually entitled “My Little Chickadee,” came to pass.  The film was a commercial success but West was apparently embittered by the experience in which Fields was paid substantially more, got a dubious screenwriting credit and she received poor reviews that caused Universal to pass on another more expensive option for a second film.  She would disparage Fields for the rest of her life. WC Fields as Wilkins Micawber in David Copperfield Charles Laughton, against his better judgment, had been persuaded to take the key role of Wilkins Micawber and after three days of shooting, the skilled actor was convinced that he was completely unsuitable to continue. Reluctantly, Selznick and director George Cukor set about getting the man they had initially contemplated casting: WC Fields.  Because he was under contract with Paramount, the actor would not come cheap and Fields, always mindful of money and sensing he had MGM over a barrel, held out for $50,000 for two weeks work. Fields On Radio, March, 1938 With Paramount reluctant to cast him in anything tangible, Fields decided to head in a different direction and embrace the medium of radio.  By 1937, he was appearing on the prestigious Chase and Sanborn hour mostly trading barbs with Edgar Bergen’s ventriloquist dummy, Charlie McCarthy.  The radio show quickly became the most popular in the US but the pressure on Fields to perform on a weekly basis was unpleasant and as soon as he got another film from Paramount, he quit. Fields' grave at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California WC Fields died on Christmas Day, 1946.  Despite the legal protestations of his wife and son, he was eventually cremated and interred in a vault in Forest Lawn Cemetery.  The plaque adorning his ashes merely lists his stage name and the years of his birth and death.  Contrary to urban myth, there is no epitaph concerning the city of Philadelphia.

W. C. Fields, Hollywood Legend To much excitement, it was announced that Fields would next team up with Mae West.  One of America’s biggest stars in the mid-thirties, West, now aged 43, had also recently been cut loose by Paramount after her popularity waned.  Months would pass before a script and director would be selected, the result of Fields’ cantankerous and territorial approach to his participation.  Surprisingly, the two actors were able to co-exist and … Continue reading WC FIELDS (VOLUME 3, EPISODE ONE) PART TWO →

The Chicago Black Sox and the Scandal Surrounding the 1919 World Series Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson Almost one hundred years after the Black Sox scandal, the legend of Shoeless Joe Jackson, created by disingenuous journalists and burnished by Hollywood, lives on in the American imagination.  An illiterate mill hand, a country boy who escaped small town poverty and obscurity as a baseball savant, Jackson is perceived as tragically victimized by wealthy owners and slickered by hustlers and cheats who took advantage of his childlike innocence.  Ironically, without the backstory of the Black Sox scandal, Jackson would have been consigned to the obscurity heaped on such players as Tris Speaker, Nap Lajoie, Rogers Hornsby, Honus Wagner, George Sisler and many other stars of the early 20th century who now are prominent only in the consciousness of obsessive journalists or baseball historians. Bill Burns Testifying At Trial It is alleged that earlier in the baseball season, Burns had spoken on several occasions with Eddie Cicotte about the possibility of fixing the World Series.  Burns and his buddy Maharg knew that they could never finance such an undertaking on their own and they traveled to New York in late September in an attempt to recruit Arnold Rothstein as their financier. The Black Sox Defendants At Trial All of the seven most prominent indicted White Sox lawyered up, renounced their confessions and denied their participation in a conspiracy.  Only dogged pursuit of Bill Burns, funded by Ban Johnson and assisted by Billy Maharg, saved the case, the gambler finally agreeing to appear and testify. Billy Maharg Eventually, an explosive interview with gambler Billy Maharg appeared in a September 27 edition of a Philadelphia newspaper.  Maharg told the whole story of he and Bill Burns attempts to fix the series, the double cross by Abe Attell, the promise of $100,000, the partial payment of 10 grand and the pivotal role of Eddie Cicotte.  Maharg also explained that he and Burns had lost everything on game 3 after Chick Gandil assured them that the Sox would bag the game.  The article prompted a national sensation and desperation damage control from Charles Comiskey. Charles Comiskey Comiskey responded to the Maharg article by suspending all seven alleged conspirators but also decided on the additional PR strategy of delivering some of the key players to the grand jury with predetermined testimony.  They wished to convey the impression that Comiskey wanted to get to the bottom of a conspiracy he had tried to cover up for almost a year. Eddie Collins On The Philadelphia Athletics The highest paid player on the team and the second highest in the league with the exception of Ty Cobb was Eddie Collins, who was shrewd enough to demand his $15,000 salary upon being traded to the White Sox by the Philadelphia Athletics.  Already disliked for his Ivy League background, (Collins graduated from Columbia) players like Gandil hated the second baseman and never spoke with him on or off the diamond.  Gandil also had his nose broken on the basepaths by the scrappy Collins in 1912, when Gandil played for the Washington Senators, the salary differential an additional element adding to the first baseman’s deep animosity. Abe Attell As A Boxer On the eve of game one, the center of baseball buzz in Cincinnati was the prestigious Hotel Sinton.  Burns, a former ball player and acquaintance of Chick Gandil, was able to set up a meeting with seven of the eight White Sox in on the fix, only Joe Jackson was absent.  Burns eventually introduced them to Maharg, a former boxer named Abe Attell and a mysterious Mr. Bennett aka David Zelcer, a high stakes gambler with alleged ties to Arnold Rothstein. Joe And Kate Jackson On Their Wedding Day Perhaps on the urging of his wife, Jackson would subsequently attempt to come clean with White Sox management and disown the money but this cannot erase Jackson’s willingness to take the payoff to begin with.  Ultimately his own behavior would lay the groundwork for a terrible tragedy. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis Understanding that gambling was currently inextricably tied to baseball, various owners proposed hiring Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a federal judge as the commissioner of the sport.  Landis was probably the most well known judge in America, Having famously fined John D. Rockefeller 29 million dollars in a previous anti-trust decision.  Although this fine would be thrown out on appeal, Landis gained the reputation as a fearless and tough minded jurist of impeccable reputation and was additionally a rabid baseball fan.  Initially, Landis was hired to lead a new commission but eventually it was agreed that he would be appointed sole Commissioner with unlimited power and a huge raise over his federal salary. Grave of Joe Jackson, Greenville, SC