Archives
September 27
Events
1825 - England’s Stockton and Darlington line opened. It was the first railway line to have a passenger train pulled along the tracks by a locomotive, the first time an engine -- not a horse -- had accomplished this. (The very first steam-engine locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick, also of England, in 1804.)
1894 - Aqueduct Race Track opened in New York on this day.
1933 - NBC radio debuted "Waltz Time", featuring the orchestra of Abe Lymon. The program continued on the network until 1948.
1938 - Clarinet virtuoso Artie Shaw recorded the song that would become his theme song. "Nightmare" was waxed on the Bluebird Jazz label.
1938 - "Thanks for the Memory" was heard for the first time on "The Bob Hope Show" -- on the NBC Red radio network. Who was the bandleader? If you said Les Brown, you’d be ... wrong. It was Skinnay Ennis accompanying ol’ ski nose at the time.
1942 - Just after leaving CBS radio, Glenn Miller led his civilian band for the last time at the Central Theatre in beautiful Passaic, NJ. Miller had volunteered for wartime duty.
1954 - The "Tonight" show debuted on NBC-TV. Steve Allen hosted the late-night program which began as a local New York show on WNBT-TV in June 1953. "Tonight" became a launching pad for Steve and hundreds of guests, including Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. Skitch Henderson and orchestra provided the music. Ernie Kovacs was the host from 1956-1957.
1962 - Detroit secretary Martha Reeves cut a side with a group called The Vandellas and the result was "I’ll Have to Let Him Go". Soon thereafter, the hits of Martha and The Vandellas just kept on comin’.
1962 - After a concert that featured folk music at Carnegie Hall, "The New York Times" gave a glowing review in a story about “Bob Dylan: A Distinctive Folk Song Stylist.”
1970 - “Round and round and round it goes and where it stops, nobody knows.” Ted Mack said, “Good night from Geritol” for the last time. After 22 years on television, the curtain closed on "The Original Amateur Hour" on CBS. The show had been on ABC, NBC, CBS and originated on the Dumont Television Network.
1986 - Lionel Richie’s "Dancing on the Ceiling" was the #1 U.S. LP. The tracks: "Dancing on the Ceiling", "Se La", "Ballerina Girl", "Don’t Stop", "Deep River Woman", "Love Will Conquer All", "Tonight Will Be Alright", "Say You, Say Me" and "Night Train (Smooth Alligator)". "Dancing on the Ceiling" was the number one album for two weeks.
1989 - The first two people to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and live to tell about it, did so this day. Actually, Jeffrey Petkovich and Peter DeBernardi went over 167-foot high Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of the Falls. Why’d they do that? To show kids there are better things to do than drugs. Huh?
1996 - Two movies debuted in U.S. theatre this day: "Extreme Measures", a thriller with Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman and Sarah Jessica Parker; and "2 Days in the Valley", starring James Spader, Danny Aiello, Teri Hatcher, Eric Stoltz, Jeff Daniels, Glenne Headly, Marsha Mason. It iss “A pretty screwed-up story about pretty screwed-up people...”
1998 - Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals hit his 69th and 70th home runs, setting a new record for most home runs in a single season (McGwire was the first to break Roger Maris’ record of 61 homers on September 8). That 70th home run ball brought $2.7 million at a 1999 baseball auction.
Birthdays - September 27
1722 - Samuel Adams (U.S. Revolutionary War leader; governor of Massachusetts [1793-1797]; cousin of U.S. President John Adams; died Oct 2, 1803)1792 - George Cruikshank (caricaturist, illustrator: Charles Dickens’ books; died in 1878)
1840 - Thomas Nast (political cartoonist: considered the father of American political cartooning: drew cartoon [Harper’s Weekly] using elephant as symbol of Republican party; died Dec 7, 1902)
1847 - ‘Professor’ Mike (Michael) Donovan (International Boxing Hall of Famer: middleweight boxing champ [1878-1883]; boxing teacher: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was a pupil; died Mar 24, 1918)
1898 - Vincent Youmans (Songwriters’ Hall of Famer: musician, composer: Hit the Deck, Great Day!, No, No Nanette [w/Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II], I Know that You Know [w/Harbach], More than You Know, Rise ’n’ Shine, Flying Down to Rio, The Carioca; died Apr 5, 1946)
1919 - Johnny (John Michael) Pesky (baseball: Boston Red Sox [World Series: 1946, all-star: 1946], Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals)
1920 - William Conrad (Cann) (actor: Cannon, Jake and the Fatman, Sorry, Wrong Number, Killers, Naked Jungle; TV narrator: The Bullwinkle Show; radio: Marshall Dillon in Gunsmoke; died Feb 11, 1994)
1920 - Jayne Meadows (Cotter) (actress: City Slickers, Murder by Numbers, Lady in the Lake, The Steve Allen Comedy Hour, Medical Center; panelist: I’ve Got a Secret; wife of Steve Allen; sister of Audrey Meadows)
1922 - Arthur Penn (director: Bonnie and Clyde, Alice’s Restaurant, The Miracle Worker, Little Big Man, Night Moves)
1925 - Kathleen Maguire (actress: Edge of the City, The Chadwick Family, One Life to Live, The Concorde: Airport ’79; died Aug 9, 1989)
1929 - Sada Thompson (Emmy Award-winning actress: Family [1977-78]; Tony Award-winning actress: Twigs [1972]; Our Town, Desperate Characters)
1933 - Greg Morris (actor: Mission: Impossible, The Doomsday Flight, Vega$; died Aug 27, 1996)
1933 - Kathleen Nolan (actress: The Real McCoys, Jamie, Broadside; Screen Actor’s Guild president)
1934 - Wilford Brimley (actor: Cocoon, The Natural, Tender Mercies, The Firm, Absence of Malice, The China Syndrome, The Electric Horseman, Our House)
1934 - Claude Jarman Jr. (actor: Hangman’s Knot, Rio Grande, The Sun Comes Up, Intruder in the Dust, The Yearling)
1939 - Delores Taylor (actress, writer, producer: The Trial of Billy Jack, Billy Jack)
1939 - Kathy Whitworth (golf champion: Nabisco Dinah Shore [1977], LPGA [1967, 1971, 1975])
1941 - Labron Harris Jr. (golf: Oklahoma State Univ.; U.S. Amateur title: 1962)
1941 - Don Nix (musician: baritone sax: group: The Mar-Keys, Booker T and the M.G.’s, Memphis Horns; composer: Goin’ Down)
1943 - Randy Bachman (musician: guitar, singer: groups: Bachman-Turner Overdrive: Let It Ride, Takin’ Care of Business, You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet, Roll on Down the Highway, The Guess Who: Shakin’ All Over, These Eyes, Laughing, No Time, American Woman, No Sugar Tonight)
1944 - Gary (Lynn) Sutherland (baseball: Philadelphia Phillies, Montreal Expos, Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, SD Padres, SL Cardinals)
1947 - Meat Loaf (Michael Lee Aday) (musician, singer: Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad, Paradise by the Dashboard Light; actor: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Americathon, Roadie)
1949 - Mike (Michael Jack) Schmidt (Baseball Hall of Famer: Philadelphia Phillies Golden Glove, all-star third baseman: [all-star: 1974, 1976, 1979-1984, 1986, 1987, 1989/World Series: 1980, 1983/Baseball Writers’ Award: 1980, 1981, 1986])
1949 - Robb Weller (TV host: Win, Lose or Draw, Entertainment Tonight)
1953 - Greg Ham (musician: saxophone, flute, keyboards: group: Men at Work: Who Can It Be Now, Down Under)
1958 - Shaun Cassidy (singer: Da Doo Ron Ron, That’s Rock ’n’ Roll, Hey Deanie, Do You Believe in Magic; actor: The Hardy Boys Mysteries, Breaking Away, General Hospital, Blood Brothers; son of Jack Cassidy & Shirley Jones; half-brother of David Cassidy)
1969 - Patrick Muldoon (actor: Days of Our Lives, Melrose Place, Starship Troopers, The Second Arrival)
Chart Toppers - September 27
1945
If I Loved You - Perry Como
On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe - Johnny Mercer
Till the End of Time - Perry Como
You Two Timed Me One Time Too Often - Tex Ritter
1953
No Other Love - Perry Como
Vaya Con Dios - Les Paul & Mary Ford
Crying in the Chapel - June Valli
A Dear John Letter - Jean Shepard & Ferlin Husky
1961
Take Good Care of My Baby - Bobby Vee
The Mountain’s High - Dick & DeeDee
Crying - Roy Orbison
Walk on By - Leroy Van Dyke
1969
Sugar, Sugar - The Archies
Green River - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Easy to Be Hard - Three Dog Night
Tall Dark Stranger - Buck Owens
1977
Best of My Love - Emotions
Don’t Stop - Fleetwood Mac
Keep It Comin’ Love - KC & The Sunshine Band
I’ve Already Loved You in My Mind - Conway Twitty
1985
Money for Nothing - Dire Straits
Cherish - Kool & The Gang
Freedom - Wham!
I Fell in Love Again Last Night - The Forester Sisters
