On this day in 1469, the great Niccolo Machiavelli was born. The Hundred and One Dalmatians author Dodie Smith was born in 1896. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir was born in 1898. Bing Crosby, who for some reason I just hate, was born in 1903. Femme fatale from The Maltese Falcon, Mary Astor was born in 1906. And magician Doug Henning was born in 1947.
Pete Seeger is 94 today! Physicist Steven Weinberg is 80. Singer Frankie Valli is 79. TV pitchman Ron Popeil is 78. The younger of the evil Koch duo, David Koch is 73. And comedy writer Ben Elton is 54.
But the day belongs to The Godfather of Soul, James Brown, who was born on this day back in 1933. I don’t know that much about him, but his music has been profoundly important to me. Let’s just listen to him with Bobby Byrd doing several songs on Italian TV in 1971:
Happy birthday James Brown!
Just watched a documentary narrated by Steve Martin, "Give Me The Banjo", that includes Pete Seeger. It was well done.
https://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Give%20Me%20the%20Banjo/70243158?trkid=438403
@Andrea – Thanks. I’ll look into it.