by Peter Cates Samuel French Morse Poet Samuel French Morse (1916-1985) taught English at Northeastern University and summered in Hancock. His A Poem About the Red Paint People is a rumination on a long lost Native-American tribe and can be read in its entirety in the anthology Maine Speaks. Several lines evoke the sense of […]
by Peter Cates Lee Grant On the basis of three different roles, I currently find Lee Grant, still alive and very sharp in her late 90s, my favorite character actress. The emotional nuance, strength, vulnerability, anger, calm before the storm, joy, love, maturity, chaos, decorum-every ounce of one’s humanity – is channeled from her very […]
by Peter Cates Gerald Ford The 38th President Gerald Ford (1913-2006) always struck me as the most personally likable of our 46 chief executives. His geniality helped immensely in generating good will on both sides of the aisle during his 25 years in the House of Representatives before President Richard Nixon appointed him as vice […]
by Peter Cates Mad Men The seven seasons of Mad Men, which ran on AMC from 2007 to 2015,was an interesting viewing experience throughout the last three to four months via Amazon Prime but, now that all 97 episodes have been watched, I feel tremendous relief that it’s over. It depicts the world of Madison […]
by Peter Cates Richard Nixon The 37th President Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994) would often take long walks along the beach at his San Clemente vacation house on the Pacific Coast. I vividly remember seeing photos of him taken from a distance by the journalists whom he despised and whose favor he rarely, if ever, sought. […]
by Peter Cates Roy Rogers Bob Nolan Roy Rogers (1911-1998) and Bob Nolan (1908-1980) were the two most recognizable founding members of the Sons of the Pioneers, a vocal group that would have immense success through radio, TV, film, records and live appearances. They cut their first disc for the newly-formed Decca label on August […]
by Peter Cates Lily Pons Soprano Lily Pons (1898-1976) sang at the Metropolitan Opera at least 300 times between 1931 and 1960 and had a knack for using mass media to advance her career. My first exposure to her was via a Columbia 45 rpm extended play album that Mother played at home and which […]
by Peter Cates Lyndon B. Johnson The 36th President Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) was, for good and bad, one formidable leader during his five years at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. During October/November 1960, I vividly remember the two individuals and their running mates in the battle for the White House – Republicans Richard Nixon (1913-1994) and […]
by Peter Cates Carl Stevens Carl Stevens was the professional name of trumpeter Charles H. Sagle (1927-2015). A 1959 Mercury LP, Muted Memories, featured him with a group of four outstanding session players performing a dozen pop classics. They include Cole Porter’s I Concentrate on You, Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer’s Jeeper Creepers, Cy Coleman’s […]
by Peter Cates James Thurber James Thurber (1894-1961) achieved a much deserved hilarious notoriety for his writings and cartoons via the New Yorker. With respect to his cartoons, Maine’s own E.B. White, while still working at the magazine’s Manhattan office as an assistant editor, found some of Thurber’s sketches in the wastebasket and published them, […]