August 11 Dateline

Birthdays

1862 - Carrie Jacobs-Bond, American Romantic and Parlour song composer, singer, pianist and songwriter famous for "I Love You Truly" (here, sung by D. Giannini)  and "A Perfect Day". She composed some 175 pieces of popular music from the 1890s through the early 1940s, best remembered for writing the parlor song "I Love You Truly", becoming the first woman to sell one million copies of a song. The song first appeared in her 1901 collection Seven Songs as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose, along with "Just Awearyin' for You", which was widely recorded. Jacobs-Bond's song with the highest number of sales immediately after release was "A Perfect Day" in 1910.  (YouTube. Uploaded by Musical Treasures. Accessed August 11, 2021.) Jacobs-Bond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.  (Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1933) Film Short. Uploaded by Peter Mintun. Accessed August 11, 2017.) 

1897 - Enid Blyton, English children's writer, considered the most famous children's writer in history, with creations such as The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Magic Faraway Tree, and Noddy stories. She wrote around 800 books.

1925 - Arlene Carol Dahl,  American actress who achieved stardom during the 1950s. She has three children, the eldest of whom is actor Lorenzo Lamas. She is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood at this point in time, 11th August 2019.

1927 - Alexander Yurlov, Soviet conductor of Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, also music and public figure and teacher. Honored Artist of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1969) and People's Artist of the RSFSR (1970).

1950 - Steve Wozniak, (born Stephen Gary Wozniak, also known by his nickname "Woz"), American PC inventor, co-founder (with Steve Jobs) of Apple, Inc.. He's an electronics engineer, programmer, philanthropist, and technology entrepreneur. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Inc., which later became the world's largest information technology company by revenue and the largest company in the world by market capitalization. Through their work at Apple, he and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs are widely recognized as two prominent pioneers of the personal computer revolution.


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More birthdays and historical events today, 11 August - On This Day.

 

 

A Perfect Day 
Words & Music by Carrie Jacobs-Bond

(Video uploaded by Mustel1887. Accessed Aug 11, 2019.) 

When you come to the end of a perfect day,
And you sit alone with your thought,
While the chimes ring out with a carol gay,
For the joy that the day had brought,
Do you think what the end of a perfect day
Can mean to a tired heart,
When the sun goes down with a flaming ray,
And the dear friend have to part?

Well, this is the end of a perfect day,
Near the end of a journey, too;
But it leaves a thought that is big and strong,
With a wish that is kind and true.
For mem’ry has painted this perfect day
With colors that never fade,
And we find, at the end of a perfect day,
The soul of a friend we’ve made.

an all-time favourite parlaour song, "I Love You Truly (!901)."  YouTube, uploaded by Sheet Music Singer. Accessed August 11, 2023.  (Also, here's Bing Crosby singing "I love you truly". Uploaded by 'A Trip Down MEmory Lane', accessed August 11, 2023.)

Historical Events

1934 - The famous prison Alcatraz opens in San Francisco Bay.

1966 - John Lennon apologises at a press conference in Chicago for saying The Beatles were more popular than Jesus.

August 10 Dateline

Birthdays

1865 - Alexander Glazunov, Russian composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Russian Romantic period. He served as director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 and 1928 and was instrumental in the reorganization of the institute into the Petrograd Conservatory (then the Leningrad Conservatory), following the Bolshevik Revolution. He continued heading the Conservatory until 1930, though he had left the Soviet Union in 1928 and did not return. Glazunov successfully reconciled nationalism and cosmopolitanism in Russian music. While he was the direct successor to Balakirev's nationalism, he tended more towards Borodin's epic grandeur while absorbing a number of other influences. These included Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral virtuosity, Tchaikovsky's lyricism and Taneyev's contrapuntal skill.

1874 - Herbert C. Hoover, 31st U.S. President. He was an engineer, businessman, and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he held office during the onset of the Great Depression. Before serving as president, Hoover led the Commission for Relief in Belgium, served as the director of the U.S. Food Administration, and served as the 3rd U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

1889 - Charles Brace Darrow, American inventor, best known for his modification of the design of the Monopoly board game, which was based on Lizzie Magie's original invention The Landlord's Game. He became the first millionaire game designer in history, and although Magie patented her invention she received only $500.

1893 - Douglas Stuart  Moore, American composer, educator, and author. He wrote music for the theater, film, ballet and orchestra, but his greatest fame is associated with his operas The Devil and Daniel Webster and The Ballad of Baby Doe. Moore also composed several popular songs whilst at Yale together with poet and Hotchkiss School mate Archibald MacLeish and later in collaboration with John Jacob Niles. He wrote the Yale fight song Goodnight, Harvard, later published under the collective title "Songs my Mother never taught Me".

1909 - Brian Easdale, English composer of operatic, orchestral, choral and film music. His opera works include the operas Rapunzel, The Corn King, and The Sleeping Children. His orchestral works include Five pieces for orchestra, Six Poems, and Tone Poem. For choir, Easdale wrote the Missa Coventrensis. Easdale also composed sseveral film and theatre music. His film scores included several for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, including Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, The Small Back Room, The Elusive Pimpernel, The Battle of the River Plate, Miracle in Soho, The Queen's Guards and Powell's Peeping Tom. He was the first British composer to win an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score, for his music for The Red Shoes.

1959 - Rosanna Lisa Arquette, American actress, film director, and film Producer. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the TV film The Executioner's Song, and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the film Desperately Seeking Susan. Her other film roles include After Hours, The Big Blue, Pulp Fiction, and Crash. She also directed the documentary Searching for Debra Winger, and starred in the ABC sitcom What About Brian?

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More birthdays and historical events today, 10 August - On This Day.

Featuring:

 

Alexander Glazunov's The Seasons, Op. 67, performed by Minnesota Orchestra, with Edo de Waart, conducting.  This music is used for an allegorical ballet in one act, four scenes, by the choreographer Marius Petipa. The work was composed in 1899, and was first performed by the Imperial Ballet in 1900 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Historical Events

1519 - Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese explorer, leaves Seville, Spain, on his way to becoming the first person to circumnavigate the globe.

1675 - Charles II lays the foundation stone for the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, London. Later, it becomes the zero point for longitude, beginning the world's 24 noon time zones.