[...] In August 1957, American Bandstand, a new television show was being broadcast that featured teenagers dancing to the new rock ‘n roll music. The show had just “gone national” on the ABC television network… It soon became a place where new talent could be seen, as host Dick Clark allotted featured spots for new acts to perform their songs….In 1957, some 200 guests appeared….Story includes listing of dates & artists [...]

[...] They began singing on Philadelphia street corners in the mid-1950s…They were just teenagers, 14 and 15 years old…. They had cut a record locally, and in December 1957 caught a big break, when Dick Clark at ‘American Bandstand’ asked them to fill-in for a last-minute cancellation… Their recording, “At The Hop,” shot to No.1 on the charts and their lives were forever changed [...]

[...] There are only three people in all of baseball history who have done it: win three “triple crowns” in pitching. Sandy Koufax is one of them. He garnered this distinction during his magical years on the pitching mound with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1963, 1965 and 1966 – a memorable time for baseball…But Sandy Koufax almost missed these years, as he tossed his glove and spikes into the trash at one point, believing he was through with baseball [...]

[...] “Harlem Nocturne” is a saxophone-saturated song that has had a long shelf life. It first found fame in the late 1930s’ jazz and big band era…More than 20 years later, and again nearly 50 years after its first release, “Harlem Nocturne” found popular appeal – first in a sultry1959-1960 version by The Viscounts from New Jersey, and again in the 1980s’ as the signature crime show theme song for “The Mike Hammer” TV series… This story includes the full song and covers its history [...]

[...] A guitar tune written in 1958 has the distinction of being the only instrumental song ever banned for radio play in the U.S. The song’s name was “Rumble,” performed by a guitarist named Link Wray and his band, the Rayman… Link Wray became an influential guitar rocker, credited with the invention of the power chord and other guitar innovations… His songs were used in films such as “Pulp Fiction”, “Blow”, and “Desperado” [...]

[...] Frank Gifford, a famous professional football player with the New York Giants in the 1950s and 1960s, is shown in early 1960s’ magazine ads for the Lucky Strike cigarette brand…. Gifford’s football achievements are also covered, as well as some of his second career as a sports broadcaster on Monday Night Football and as husband of Kathie Lee Gifford [...]

[...] In mid-April 1953, a young baseball player named Micky Mantle of the New York Yankees hit one of the longest home runs ever in a game against the Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C…This article includes some of the historic press coverage of that home run, some of the controversy that followed it, and a look at the power of Mickey Mantle is some of his other famous home runs… Several interesting photos and magazine covers are also included [...]

[...] John Wayne, the popular Hollywood film star of the 1950s, became one of a number of celebrities, sports stars, and other famous individuals to participate in cigarette and tobacco-product advertising in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s… This short article examines two of Wayne’s print ads, some of his film history during that period, and his personal battles with cancer [...]

[...] In the 1950s and 1960s, Timex, a brand-named wristwatch, became some- thing of an iconic American product through a long-running advertising campaign that used sports newscaster John Cameron Swayze as well as sports celebrities such as Mickey Mantle, Rocky Marciano, Ben Hogan, Babe Didrikson and others to pitch the product…. Swayze hosted 20-years of TV ads featuring various “torture tests” of Timex watches [...]

[...] In April 2009, a European entertainment company named Imagem Music, shelled out an estimated $250-to-$300 million to acquire the rights to the Broadway legacy of music legends Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein — plus their New York organization covering some 12,000 songs, 900 concert works, 100 musicals, and 200 writers [...]

…In the summer of 1959, a vocal group from Chicago named The Flamingos recorded an old standard from the 1930s — “I Only Have Eyes For You” — that rose to the top of the R & B and pop music charts… Their recording of the song gave it a whole new dimension, set in the “doo-wop” style — a version that continues to resonate with many listeners today… Some history of the group & their song is covered in this article…

Ava Gardner at about age 23, shown here in a publicity photo for ‘The Killers’, a 1946 film that also debuted Burt Lancaster.     When 18 year-old Ava Gardner hit the streets of New York on a visit to see her sister Beatrice in the summer of 1940, she was still very much a country girl – [...]

Dinah Shore, in prime time, on her ‘Chevy Show’ television studio set, probably sometime in the 1950s.     For more than a decade, Dinah Shore was one of the first television celebrities whose name became synon- ymous with a product – and not just any product.  For Dinah Shore was perhaps the one person in the [...]

Close-up of Ralph Kramden-Jackie Gleason statue at the August 2000 ‘TV Land’ unveiling in New York city.      Ralph Kramden is the name of a fictional New York City bus driver who starred in the popular 1950s television comedy The Honeymooners.  Actor Jackie Gleason played the role of Ralph, who was a memorable, one-of-a-kind character.  [...]

     It was December 1937 in Chicago.  The Washington Redskins professional football team had come to town to play the fearsome Chicago Bears in the National Football League championship game at Wrigley Field.  It was a bitterly cold day with frozen turf.  Washington, although a good team, wasn’t given much of a chance against “the [...]

The top song in America during late 1955 and early 1956 was a tune about coal mining — a song about the hard life and poverty of being a coal miner. Its title was “Sixteen Tons” and it was made popular by a singer named Tennessee Ernie Ford. The song had actually been written in the 1940s, its verse grown piecemeal from oft-heard phrases….

1952 Vice Presidential candidate Richard Nixon with family dog, ‘Checkers,’ among campaign gifts which Nixon sought to explain in his famous, nationally-televised September 1952 speech.     In September 1952, the Republicans had just set their national ticket for the fall elections.  It was Dwight David Eisenhower for President of the United State and Richard M. Nixon [...]

[...] In later years Mickey Mantle would joke half heartedly about his hobbled, late-career performance: “Hitting the ball was easy,” he would say. “Running around the bases was the hard part.” Those who played with Mantle, however, knew it wasn’t funny. In the above photo, you can almost see him wincing as he ran the bases [...]

Bobby Darin & wife Sandra Dee in the 1960s.      In 1958, with the unlikely song lyric, “splish, splash, I was taking a bath,” a 22 year-old singer from New York named Bobby Darin, launched a singing career and a  No.1 hit record.  That career lasted a short 15 years, ending in Darin’s premature death at [...]

Among the first television shows to bring celebrities into the homes of millions of Americans was “Person to Person,” a 1950s show produced by CBS. “Person to Person” was created by the legendary newsman, Edward R. Murrow, a celebrity himself who first gained notoriety on radio [...]

In May 1950, a little-known U.S. Senator named Estes Kefauver, a 47 year-old Democrat from Tennessee, began a series of investigative hearings on organized crime [...] An estimated 30 million Americans watched the ‘Kefauver hearings’ in 1950-51, some in movie theaters [...]

[...] “Profiles in Courage” became a best-seller and was ground-breaking in its day, becoming one of the first books used to advance a political career aimed at the White House [...] The book gave Kennedy a certain political gravitas and national recognition he did not have before, lifting him from the ranks of unknown senators [...]

Elvis Presley in the mid-1950s, before he became a fully-known national rock ’n roll star, was constantly on the road. During 1955 and 1956, he performed widely throughout the country, making numerous personal appearances, from high schools to county fairs, especially in the south [...]