The very first music video aired on MTV was the appropriately-named “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. The second was “You Better Run” by Pat Benatar, followed by “She Won’t Dance With Me” by Rod Stewart.
Star Trek’s 1965 first pilot “The Cage” was the first science fiction TV episode to show a woman, Number One (played by the show’s creator Gene Roddenberry’s future wife Majel Barrett), among the senior officers of a spacecraft.
Majel Barrett-Roddenberry played a number of different roles in the Star Trek TV series and movies, including Number One in the series’ original pilot, Nurse (later Doctor) Christine Chapel in the original Star Trek series and its spin-off movies, and Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Barrett-Roddenberry also provided the voices for several female characters, as well as Christine Chapel, for Star Trek: The Animated Series, and served as the voice of the ship’s computer in every Star Trek series and movie up until her death in 2008.
That’s what I get for not fact-checking my sources.
In play:
Carel Struycken, the actor who portrayed Lwaxana Troi’s manservant Mr. Hom, is one of a handful of actors over seven feet tall. (Peter Mayhew - Chewbacca, and Richard Kiel - Jaws, are others.)
Carel Struycken did an audio version of my short story, “Patron.” When I was told about it, I was thrilled that I recognized the name from Star Trek and Twin Peaks; then I realized I had never heard him speak.
Twins Pauline and Esther Friedman became the advice columnists Dear Abby and Ann Landers.
The Dear Abby column is now authored by Jeanne Phillips, the daughter of the founder, Pauline Friedman Phillips.
The Ann Landers column ceased a few weeks after the death of Esther Friedman Lederer.
Cool!
In play:
Rev. Jeanne Leinbach is the first female rector (chief priest) of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the largest parish in the Diocese of Ohio. She was appointed in 2015.
The term ‘Rock and Roll’ was first dubbed in the city of Cleveland. Alan Freed was a local disc jockey in 1954 and he coined the term on his show, the Moondog Rock and Roll Radio Hour.
A historical marker there describes it.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is on the Lake Erie waterfront in Cleveland, Ohio, although induction ceremonies for it are almost always held in New York City.
The fourth studio album by British rock band Led Zeppelin does not have a traditional title; in place of the title on the record label, the band placed four symbols, one representing each of the band’s members. Fans refer to the album by several names, including Led Zeppelin IV, Runes (referring to the symbols), and ZoSo (which Jimmy Page’s symbol appears to spell).
The album contains several of the band’s best-known songs, including “Stairway to Heaven,” “Rock and Roll,” “Black Dog,” and “Going to California.”
The four symbols are shown below; in order, they symbolize guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist John Paul Jones, drummer John Bonham, and vocalist Robert Plant.
The Bluetooth logo merges the runes analogous to the modern Latin alphabet letters h and b; ᚼ (Hagall) and ᛒ (Berkanan) together, forming a bind rune. The two letters form the initials ‘H B’, alluding to the Danish king and viking raider Harald “Bluetooth” Blåtand, for whom Bluetooth was named.
The first workable Bluetooth technology was made available in 1997, in Sweden, and the first Bluetooth device was revealed in 1999. It was a hands-free mobile headset that earned the “Best of show Technology Award” at COMDEX. The first Bluetooth mobile phone was the Ericsson T36.
Ericsson T36:
The Swedish-American engineer and inventor John Ericsson designed the ironclad USS Monitor during the Civil War. The innovative warship kept the much larger and better-armed Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia from breaking the US Navy blockade at Hampton Roads, Va. in March 1862. An oft-overlooked monument to Ericsson stands near the Lincoln Memorial.
There are 79 species of the monitor lizard, and they are native to Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The smallest species measure less than 7 inches, while the largest, the Komodo dragon, can reach over 10 feet in length. Monitor lizards are now considered an invasive species in the Americas.
The Komodo Dragon, the world’s largest lizard, is one species of monitor lizard. It has been observed eating 5½ pounds of meat in one minute. The Komodo Dragon has been clocked running at up to 12mph. Usain Bolt has been clocked running at up to 27mph.
The Komodo Dragon. It’s a badass
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song was written, directed, and starred Melvin Van Peebles. Released in 1971, it kicked off the blaxploitation genre. It received an X rating, which Peebles marketed as “Rated X by white critics” to generate publicity. Bill Cosby loaned $50,000 to complete the film after other sources dried up (it had no backing from major studios nor Union approval for actors and crew), and after repaying the loan Peebles wound up with controlling ownership of the film. At last count, it has garnered $15.2 million at the box office, from a $150,000 budget.
Bill Clinton said, in a short biographical video aired at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, that he forgot his own name when he was first introduced to Hillary Rodham in the Yale Law School library.
The song “Bill” was originally written for the Broadway show Oh Lady! Lady!!, with lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse and music by Jerome Kern. It was pulled from that show, but eventually used in Showboat. Oscar Hammerstein II revised the lyrics but didn’t take credit for them.
Singer and trumpeter Jack Sheldon was a member of the house band on The Merv Griffin Show, and often served as Griffin’s sidekick on the show.
In the 1970s, Sheldon sang on several Schoolhouse Rock cartoons, including “I’m Just a Bill,” “Conjunction Junction,” and “Rufus Xavier Sarsparilla.” In the 1980s, Sheldon provided the voice of Louie the Lightning Bug, for a series of animated public-service announcements on energy conservation.