by Peter Cates James Buchanan After the very sad four White House years of Franklin Pierce, that of former 15th President James Buchanan (1791-1868), with the help of his niece/hostess Harriet Lane (1830-1903), began with an inaugural ball described as follows by Christine Sadler in her 1963 America’s First Ladies: “Five thousand revelers danced the […]
by Peter Cates The Penguins I own a ten inch 78 (Dootone 348) containing two songs performed by the doo wop vocal group, the Penguins – Hey Senorita and Earth Angel. It was released in late 1954 and, in early 1955 in an ironic twist of commercial fate, side one’s Senorita, even though pleasant enough, […]
by Peter Cates Franklin Pierce The 14th President Franklin Pierce came from New Hampshire, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth having a father who was a big wig in state politics, started practicing law at 22, won a seat in the State House at 24, and became its Speaker of the House […]
by Peter Cates Al Martino Al Martino (1927-2009) became Capitol records answer to Columbia’s Jerry Vale and RCA’s Sergio Franchi, not to mention the ascendancy during the early ‘30s of Russ Columbo and the ‘40s with Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. I would include here the nowadays very underrated Tony Martin. Martino scored a major […]
by Peter Cates Millard Fillmore The 13th President Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) was born into grueling poverty, in the Finger Lakes region of Western New York State, to Nathaniel (1771-1863) and Phoebe Millard Fillmore. Fillmore was truly a self-made man in his endeavors to improve himself. He studied law and clerked for a judge who just […]
by Peter Cates Memory Memory is a 2022 film starring Liam Neeson as a very skilled contract killer who is encountering ominous moments of forgetfulness and has an older brother already incapacitated by Alzheimer’s. He is assigned two hits, one being a corrupt accountant and the other an underage teenage girl from Mexico. He disposes […]
by Peter Cates Zachary Taylor For all the fascination of the first 11 characters to occupy the White House, they did not grab my interest to quite the same degree as #12, Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), affectionately known as “Old Rough-and-Ready”. The unsigned essayist in Volume 4 of the American Heritage Book of the Presidents and […]
by Peter Cates Charles Munch Not too long before his death in 1962, Boston Globe music critic Cyrus W. Durgin wrote the fascinating liner notes on the RCA Victor LP recording session for the Schumann Spring Symphony and Manfred Overture featuring Charles Munch(1891-1968) conducting the Boston Symphony. Mr. Durgin is describing the chaotic details of […]
by Peter Cates Pierre Monteux Beethoven’s 4th Symphony has exerted charm for me for more than 50 years since I obtained a powerful recording by Pierre Monteux (1875-1964) and the London Symphony, from when he was 86 years old, had just been appointed the Orchestra’s music director with a 25-year contract and still worked with […]
by Peter Cates James K. Polk A Jacksonian Democrat, the 11th President James Knox Polk (1795-1849) promised to be a one-term leader and to do what needed to be done in that self-allotted time span. His style was secretive, in working quietly behind the scenes. But he accomplished what he set out to do. Among […]