Mel Allen
Mel Allen (born Melvin Allen Israel; February 14, 1913 – June 16, 1996) was an American sportscaster, best known for his long tenure as the primary play-by-play announcer for the New York Yankees. During the peak of his career in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, Allen was arguably the most prominent member of his profession, his voice familiar to millions. Years after his death, he is still promoted as having been "The Voice of the Yankees." In his later years, Allen was the first host of '' This Week in Baseball''. Early life and career Melvin Allen Israel was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He attended the University of Alabama, where he was a member of the Kappa Nu fraternity as an undergraduate. During his time at Alabama, Israel served as the public address announcer for Alabama Crimson Tide football games. In 1933, when the station manager or sports director of Birmingham's radio station WBRC asked Alabama coach Frank Thomas to recommend a new play-by-play announcer, he ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% from the 2020 Census, making it Alabama's third-most populous city after Huntsville and Montgomery. The broader Birmingham metropolitan area had a 2020 population of 1,115,289, and is the largest metropolitan area in Alabama as well as the 50th-most populous in the United States. Birmingham serves as an important regional hub and is associated with the Deep South, Piedmont, and Appalachian regions of the nation. Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post- Civil War Reconstruction period, through the merger of three pre-existing farm towns, notably, Elyton. It grew from there, annexing many more of its smaller neighbors, into an industrial and railroad transportation center with a focus on mining, the iron and steel industry, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Big Band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was most popular. The term "big band" is also used to describe a genre of music, although this was not the only style of music played by big bands. Big bands started as accompaniment for dancing. In contrast to the typical jazz emphasis on improvisation, big bands relied on written compositions and arrangements. They gave a greater role to bandleaders, arrangers, and sections of instruments rather than soloists. Instruments Big bands generally have four sections: trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and a rhythm section of guitar, piano, double bass, and drums. The division in early big bands, from the 1920s to 1930s, was typically two or three trumpets, one or two trombones, three or four saxo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Arch McDonald
Arch Linn McDonald Sr. (May 23, 1901 – October 16, 1960) was an American radio sportscaster who served as the play-by-play voice of Major League Baseball's Washington Senators from 1934 to 1956, with the exception of 1939, when he broadcast the New York Yankees and New York Giants. Biography McDonald was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. During the early 1930s, he broadcast for the Chattanooga Lookouts, a Minor League Baseball team. In 1932, he won a national contest sponsored by ''The Sporting News'' for "the most popular sports broadcaster", garnering 57,960 votes—a remarkable achievement, considering that the Lookouts were a Class A team. Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith jumped McDonald straight to broadcasting for the major league team in 1934, and he immediately became a hit. McDonald was one of the first to use "ducks on the pond" as a term for players on base, and was notable for quoting an old country tune, "They Cut ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Wheaties
Wheaties is an American brand of breakfast cereal that is made by General Mills. It is well known for featuring prominent athletes on its packages and has become a cultural icon in the United States. Originally introduced as Washburn's Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes in 1924, it is primarily a wheat and bran mixture baked into flakes. History Creation Wheaties was created in 1921, as a result of an accidental spill of a wheat bran mixture onto a hot stove by a Minnesota clinician working for the Washburn Crosby Company (later General Mills). By November 1924, after more than 36 attempts to strengthen the flakes to withstand packaging, the process for creating the flakes had been perfected by the Washburn head miller, George Cormack, and the cereal was named ''Washburn's Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes''. Soon after, the name was changed to Wheaties as a result of an employee contest won by Jane Bausman, the wife of a company export manager. Other names passed over included "N ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
1938 World Series
The 1938 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1938 season. The 35th edition of the World Series, it matched the two-time defending champion New York Yankees against the Chicago Cubs. The Yankees swept the Series in four games for their seventh championship overall and record third straight (they would win four in a row from to , and five in a row later from to ). Dizzy Dean, who had helped carry the Cubs to the National League pennant despite a sore arm, ran out of gas in the Series as the Yanks crushed the Cubs again, as they had in . Yankee starting pitcher Red Ruffing won two games, although he allowed 17 hits in 18 innings pitched. After Game 2 of the Series, the Bronx Bombers would not return to Wrigley Field for nearly 65 years until a three-game interleague series with the Cubs beginning June 6, 2003. This was the first World Series played at Wrigley Field following the bleacher reconstruction of 1937, which had significantly s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Major League Baseball On CBS Radio
''Major League Baseball on CBS Radio'' was the de facto title for the CBS Radio Network's coverage of Major League Baseball. Produced by CBS Radio Sports, the program was the official national radio broadcaster for the All-Star Game and the postseason (including the World Series) from 1976 to 1997. History Historically, the sports coverage now produced by Westwood One was branded as CBS Radio Sports and, like the news features, associated with the CBS Radio Network; however, after CBS began managing the original Westwood One in the mid-1990s, the sports broadcasts would come under the Westwood One banner (with both identities used in the late 1990s), a practice that would continue even after CBS stopped managing Westwood One in 2007. CBS launched a 24/7 sports radio network, "CBS Sports Radio" in fall 2012 through Cumulus Media Networks, owned by Cumulus Media (Cumulus Media Networks was merged into Westwood One in 2013, following Cumulus' acquisition of Westwood One). Contracts ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Leith Stevens
Leith Stevens (September 13, 1909 – July 23, 1970) was an American music composer and conductor of radio and film scores. Early life and education Leith Stevens was born in Mount Moriah, Missouri,DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 253. He was a child prodigy pianist who accompanied operatic vocalist and early audio recording artist Madame Schumann-Heink. During World War II Stevens worked as radio director for the Southwest Pacific Area for the U.S. Office of War Information. He was musical director of the War Production Board (WPB) series ''Three Thirds of a Nation'' presented on Wednesdays on the NBC ''Blue Network.'' Career As early as 1934, Stevens was active in radio broadcasting. Radio highlights in an April 28, 1934, newspaper listed "Romantic songs have been chosen by Charles Carlile, tenor, for his broadcast with Leith Stevens' orchestra over WBBM a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Vanderbilt Cup
The Vanderbilt Cup was the first major trophy in American auto racing. History An international event, it was founded by William Kissam Vanderbilt II in 1904 and first held on October 8 on a course set out in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County on Long Island, New York. The announcement that the race was to be held caused considerable controversy in New York, bringing a flood of legal actions in an attempt to stop the race. The politicians soon jumped in, holding public hearings on the issue. Vanderbilt prevailed and the inaugural race was run over a course of winding dirt roads through the Nassau County area. Vanderbilt put up a large cash prize hoping to encourage American manufacturers to get into racing, a sport already well organized in Europe that was yielding many factory improvements to motor vehicle technology. The race drew the top drivers and their vehicles from across the Atlantic Ocean, some of whom had competed in Europe's Gordon Bennett Cup in auto racin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Ad Lib
In music and other performing arts, the phrase (; from Latin for 'at one's pleasure' or 'as you desire'), often shortened to "ad lib" (as an adjective or adverb) or "ad-lib" (as a verb or noun), refers to various forms of improvisation. The roughly synonymous phrase ('in accordance with ne'sgood pleasure') is less common but, in its Italian form , entered the musical '' lingua franca'' (see below). The phrase "at liberty" is often associated mnemonically (because of the alliteration of the ''lib-'' syllable), although it is not the translation (there is no cognation between and ). Libido is the etymologically closer cognate known in English. Music As a direction in sheet music, indicates that the performer or conductor has one of a variety of types of discretion with respect to a given passage: *to play the passage in free time rather than in strict or " metronomic" tempo (a practice known as ''rubato'' when not expressly indicated by the composer); *to improvise a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Kate Smith
Kathryn Elizabeth Smith (May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986) was an American contralto. Referred to as The First Lady of Radio, Smith is well known for her renditions of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" & "When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain". In more recent times, she has also been associated with controversial songs containing racially insensitive themes and undertones. She had a radio, television, and recording career spanning five decades, which reached its pinnacle in the 1940s. She became known as The Songbird of the South because of her tremendous popularity during World War II. Early life She was born on May 1, 1907, in Greenville, Virginia, to Charlotte 'Lottie' Yarnell (''née'' Hanby) and William Herman Smith, growing up in Washington, D.C. Her father owned the Capitol News Company, distributing newspapers and magazines in the greater D.C. area. She was the youngest of three daughters, the middle child dying in infancy. She failed to talk until she was four years old ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
LZ 129 Hindenburg
LZ 129 ''Hindenburg'' (; Registration: D-LZ 129) was a German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the ''Hindenburg'' class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume. It was designed and built by the Zeppelin Company ( ''Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH'') on the shores of Lake Constance in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and was operated by the German Zeppelin Airline Company (''Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei''). It was named after Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, who was President of Germany from 1925 until his death in 1934. The airship flew from March 1936 until it was destroyed by fire 14 months later on May 6, 1937, while attempting to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester Township, New Jersey, at the end of the first North American transatlantic journey of its second season of service. This was the last of the great airship disasters; it was preceded by the crashes of the British R38, the US airship ''Roma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Hindenburg Disaster
The ''Hindenburg'' disaster was an airship accident that occurred on May 6, 1937, in Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States. The German passenger airship LZ 129 ''Hindenburg'' caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. The accident caused 35 fatalities (13 passengers and 22 crewmen) from the 97 people on board (36 passengers and 61 crewmen), and an additional fatality on the ground. The disaster was the subject of newsreel coverage, photographs and Herbert Morrison's recorded radio eyewitness reports from the landing field, which were broadcast the next day. A variety of theories have been put forward for both the cause of ignition and the initial fuel for the ensuing fire. The publicity shattered public confidence in the giant, passenger-carrying rigid airship and marked the abrupt end of the airship era. Flight Background The ''Hindenburg'' made 10 trips to the United States in 1936. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |