On this day in 1892, the great film producer Dwain Esper was born. He produced Reefer Madness. The story is interesting. A church group had produced a film called Tell Your Children about the evils of cannabis that they wanted to show to parents to alert them of the threat to their children that was that the demon weed. Well, Dwain Esper saw the film and bought it. He added some more sex to it and hit the road. He was a character like William Castle, effectively creating his own market. Castle was much better, but Esper was actually the pioneer of the practice. He produced and directed a number of other drug and sex movies. I’m sure the man was a character. He lived into the 1980s.
The great Iranian singer Fereydoun Farrokhzad was born in 1938. In the video below, you will hear him sing a song that is used in Fiddler on the Roof. That goes along with what I’ve long known about the Middle East: if you take the people out of the area, they love each other because they are the same people. Of course Farrokhzad was not especially Muslim. In fact, he was jailed at the start of the Iranian revolution and once released, he fled to Germany. He’s a fascinating guy. Although he is known as one of the greatest entertainers Iran has ever produced, he had a PhD in Political Science. Sadly, he was murdered (stabbed 40 times) at the age of 53. But I always think of people like him when some conservative tells me that “those people” just hate us. Yeah, those people are all alike.
American traitor Oliver North is 70 today. He is one of the great villains of this country. But he was the leading edge of something that currently has the government shut down and headed toward default. When he testified before Congress he broke all norms of respect for elected leaders. And he did it while wearing a Marine Corps uniform. It was, of course, applauded by conservatives—the same conservatives who freaked out when Natalie Maines said, “We’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.” But instead of being in jail or dead, he is said to have a net worth of $5 million. Are you not proud?
Other birthdays: Elizabethan playwright John Marston (1576); Romantic composer Felix Draeseke (1835); Nation of Islam’s Elijah Muhammad (1897); and the great Archbishop Desmond Tutu (82).
The day, however, belongs to the great cellist Yo-Yo Ma who is 58 today. I don’t know much about him, but he really does play beautifully. It would please me if he were more varied in his repertoire. But here he is with most of the first movement of the Dvorak Cello Concerto:
Happy birthday Yo-Yo Ma!